Rampage that killed 6 began in Ala.

FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. – The man accused in a rampage that killed six people first beat an acquaintance to death at an Alabama business before moving north into Tennessee to kill his wife, her family and a neighbor, an investigator said Monday.

Jacob Shaffer’s first victim was Sidney Wade Dempsey, Sgt. Mark Roberts of the Huntsville, Ala., police department told The Associated Press. Dempsey, 50, was apparently killed by blunt-force trauma at Hall Cultured Marble Granite, where he worked and was allowed to live, Roberts said.

Roberts said Shaffer, 30, confessed to killing all six victims, including his wife, Traci Shaffer, 38. A friend of the victims said her family owned the Alabama granite business.

Investigators have said Shaffer’s motive was “domestic,” though it was unclear why Dempsey was attacked.

“I think the guy (Dempsey) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the guy (Shaffer) just decided to start there,” Roberts said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said autopsies on the Tennessee victims have been completed and information on how they were killed would be released later Monday. Officials have not yet released a full chronology of the killings.

Shaffer was arraigned on homicide charges Monday in Fayetteville, Tenn. He faces five counts there and another in Alabama.

Shaffer appeared by video link between the Lincoln County Jail and a courtroom.

Visible on a video screen, Shaffer wore an orange prison jumpsuit and was handcuffed, answering the judge’s questions by saying only “yes” and shaking his head in response.

General Sessions Judge Andy Myrick appointed two assistant public defenders to represent Shaffer.

Family friend James Wilson said he had seen fights between Jacob and Traci Shaffer. He said police told him Shaffer spared the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, who was home at the time, but investigators haven’t yet confirmed that.

“As far as seeing him do something like this, you just can’t see it,” Wilson told The Associated Press. He said he is dating Traci Shaffer’s sister, Jennifer.

“She’s not handling it and I can’t blame her,” he said. “What can you say to someone who has lost everybody?”

Traci Shaffer was found dead Saturday in her home in rural Fayetteville along with her son, Devin Brooks, and neighbor Robert Berber, both 16, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm. The bodies of Traci Shaffer’s brother, Chris Hall, 34, and father Billy Hall, 57, were found in a home across the road.

The Shaffers were no longer sharing a home but had not filed for separation, said Wilson, who was gathering belongings from Traci’s house in Lincoln County. Wilson said he met Jacob Shaffer when they were installing drywall, but they had stopped being friends about a year and a half ago.

Shaffer was still installing drywall around Huntsville, and Billy Hall had been driving him back and forth to work before the couple split, Wilson said.

“Her dad done everything he could for Jacob,” Wilson said. “I have no idea why he walked across the street to her daddy and her brother. Her daddy never done anything wrong.”

Traci Shaffer’s slain son and a 9-year-old daughter who wasn’t home at the time were from a previous relationship, Wilson said.

Helm said that the family died Friday night or early Saturday, and that Jacob Shaffer was sitting on the porch of one of the houses when authorities first arrived. Huntsville police said information from him led them to the body at the granite business.

Fayetteville is a town of 7,000 people about 90 miles south of Nashville near the Tennessee-Alabama line.

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