Blood-soaked toddler found cuddling up to parents shot dead by neighbour

A two-year-old boy was discovered covered in blood and cuddled up to his parents, who had been shot dead in their family home.

The firefighter and his wife, Justin and Amber Hicks, were killed by their neighbor, Matthew Scott Lanz, while the child, fortunately spared, was upstairs sleeping.

Lanz was arrested on several charges, including murder, and was found guilty on all counts in a bench trial last week, according to court documents.

Authorities said in the warrant that Lanz entered the couple’s home in Acworth, Georgia, through the rear door and fatally shot them on November 17, 2021.

The couple’s child was unharmed and Lanz was unaware that he was asleep upstairs, Atlanta News First reported.

During the trial, Justin’s father said he went to the couple’s house to check on them after Amber missed work, and neither of them had responded to text messages.

When officers responded to the scene, they found the toddler cuddling with his parents and trying to play with them to get their attention, according to police bodycam footage.

He was covered in blood and was in unchanged nappies, left to wander around the house for 12 hours, not understanding that his parents were dead.

A few days after the killing, police arrested Lanz after he allegedly broke into a Sandy Springs residence, where he reportedly stabbed an officer several times in the neck before he was shot by another cop, the Mirror US reported.

Lanz’s case was delayed several times over questions surrounding his competency to stand trial, with a court hearing in October that he suffered from schizophrenia.

During the trial, no motive for the murders was established, but prosecutors claimed Lanz previously told police that he had seen ‘demonic lights’ in the couple’s homes.

He also allegedly said that his brother, who died by suicide months before the Hicks’ murders, was bothered by the previous homeowners of the couple’s property.

Lanz was found guilty of two counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of child cruelty, and one count of tampering with evidence, among other offenses.

He was given three life sentences, two without parole, and 32 years to serve in confinement, all to be served consecutively.

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