Suspect found dead in Pennsylvania manhunt

The FBI joined forces with federal, state, and local law enforcement across multiple southeastern Pennsylvania counties on Tuesday for an Iraq war veteran, suspected of murdering his former wife and five members of her family on Monday. Bradley William Stone's whereabouts were unknown before his body was discovered in the forest.

According to police, the 35-year-old suspect, a former marine, was involved in an acrimonious custody dispute with his ex-wife, Nicole Hill, over their two children. Stone was accused of killing four generations of Hill's family in three different towns outside of Philadelphia.

Media outlets reported that Stone suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

Stone allegedly shot Hill's sister first, then her husband and their daughter. Hill's 17-year old nephew Anthony was shot but survived, and is in "serious but stable condition," District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said on Tuesday.

Before murdering Hill in front of their daughters, Stone is thought to have killed her mother and grandmother in another house. He then dropped his daughters off at neighbor's before fleeing in army fatigues. Police have declined to comment on how the murders were committed.

Attempted carjacking

A man out walking his dog reported that a man matching Stone's description tried to take his car keys from him at knife point in a town about 40 kilometers (24 miles) away from Stone's hometown of Pennsburg. The suspect ran when the dog walker brandished his gun.

Residents of Montgomery County, where the killings took place, were advised to remain in their homes with their doors locked and schools were closed for the day. The FBI plans to put Stone's face up on billboards across the state, with older image of him with a beard and mustache and another digitally altered to show him clean-shaven, as it is suspected he may have cut his facial hair directly before or after committing the crimes.

Hill was engaged to another man and Stone remarried last year and has a baby with his new wife. Both his wife and infant son are safe, as are his two daughters with Hill.

This was not the first run-in with the law for Stone, who was a reservist in the US Marine Corps from 2002 to 2011 and served in Iraq in 2008. He was brought up on drunk driving charges three times since 2001.

es/ksb (AP, AFP)