DETROIT (WXYZ) — A suspect has been taken into custody in connection with three bodies that were found in the basement of a home in Southwest Detroit on Wednesday, according to a source.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report:
The suspect's identity has not yet been released.
According to an update from police on Thursday, all three victims were killed by blunt force trauma. Police also said some of the victims had cuts on their bodies.
The three men have been identified and were 72 years old, 66 years old, and 65 years old. One of the three was the owner of the home, police said. They are not releasing the victims' names at this time, only their ages.
Detroit Police First Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald said the man who owned the home was known to open his home up to a lot of people.
"It was a brutal scene inside — just awful," Fitzgerald said, adding that he did not want to go into much detail at this time about the crime scene. "The minute you open the door, you could see blood, you could see just a horrific scene."
Hear more from Assistant Chief Fitzgerald in the video below
On Wednesday afternoon, police were called to the home on Edsel Street, just off of Fort Street near Outer Drive in Southwest Detroit.
Officers were in the area talking to people about a missing person when a man ran up to them and said he had been assaulted inside the home on Edsel the day before. Fitzgerald said the man told police he had been hit with a hammer on the head twice.
Watch below: Coverage from Wednesday after 3 bodies found in Detroit basement
Police confirmed that the missing person they were investigating was also among the three people who were killed. It's believed that the three men were killed sometime on Tuesday.
Fitzgerald said that they do have a person of interest in the case who they are looking for. That person of interest is described as a lighter-skinned Black male with dreadlocks, believed to be in his early 30s and 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7.
Investigators remained at the scene throughout the night and into the next day.
"We are combing that entire area," Fitzgerald said. "We were out there all night looking for any kind of evidence we could find, video assets, any kind of technology we could discover to help move this case along."
Anyone with information is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
