The autopsies have been conducted on the four people who were murdered over the weekend, but the question still stands could have it been prevented?
These four people were reported missing days before their bodies were ever found, but West Virginia State Troopers say they did all they could to find them all alive.
Stephen Hendrix, his girlfriend Amber Martin, and Hendrix's two children Dakota, 6, and Kaylee, 4, were found dead in Nicholas County on Saturday, May 26th. All four were officially reported missing on Tuesday, May 22nd just five days before the bodies were found.
Sergeant D.A.Evans handled the initial report and he said he did everything to locate all three, "The key thing was being put in the national computer that way any law enforcement nationwide could get in direct contact with me. So we can continue the investigation."
Sergeant Evans said it did take sometime to investigate and make sure it was a missing case. Family reported all four people missing on Monday, May 21st.
The children weren't able to be put on an Amber Alert because according to Sergeant Evans it didn't fit the criteria, but Stephen Hendrix has custody of his children.
Sergeant Evans had advice for parents to prepare for the known situations such as this, "you don't want to say prepare for this, but when something like this happens you want to be prepared for it. Your local law enforcement has different things for the children finger prints clips of their hair anything we can get DNA samples of in case something happens."
Also Sergeant Evans suggests having an up to date photo of your child at all times so law enforcement can better assist if necessary.
Police arrested James Belknap of Nicholas County on Monday and charged him with all four of the murders.
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