Friend: Slain woman, accused husband had split up

[July 20, 2009]  FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A family friend said he'd seen fights between a slain southern Tennessee woman and the estranged husband accused of killing her and five other people.

Jason Shaffer, 30, is charged with six counts of homicide in the deaths of his 38-year-old wife, Traci Shaffer, her father, brother, teenage son and a neighbor in rural Fayetteville. He also is charged with a killing in Huntsville, Ala., some 30 miles south.

"As far as seeing him do something like this, you just can't see it," family friend James Wilson told The Associated Press Sunday. He said the Shaffers had "gotten into it" before as far as fighting, but he never expected such violence.

Wilson said he's the boyfriend of Traci Shaffer's sister, Jennifer, who is devastated by the loss of her family.

"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, her son, Devin Brooks, and neighbor, Robert Berber, both 16, were found dead Saturday in her home in rural Fayetteville, 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 sixth victim was found at Hall Cultured Marble Granite in Huntsville. Wilson said Hall's family owns the business. Police named the victim as Sidney Wade Dempsey, 50, a worker and acquaintance of Shaffer's who was living at the business, the Elk Valley Times in Fayetteville reported. A Huntsville police dispatcher told The Associated Press on Monday she could not release any information.

The Shaffers were no longer sharing a home but had not filed for separation, said the 29-year-old Wilson, who was gathering belongings from Traci's house in Lincoln County.

The couple had a 4-year-old daughter, and Wilson said police told him the girl was home during the killings but wasn't hurt. 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."

Helm said Jason Shaffer's motive was domestic, but authorities have not released a chronology of the killings or many details, including how the six died.

Traci's slain son and a 9-year-old daughter, who wasn't home during the killings, were from a previous relationship, Wilson said. Her sister was trying to figure out how to pay for her family's funeral, he said.

Jacob Shaffer of Fayetteville was being held without bond at the Lincoln County Jail and no lawyer for him was listed.

Lincoln County Sheriff Murray Blackwelder said Saturday that his department was investigating three crime scenes and would not confirm the causes of death in what he called "horrendous" killings. Autopsies were performed Sunday but no results were released. Wilson said police wouldn't tell him how the family was killed.

Helm said 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. They have not released the name of the sixth victim.

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

[Associated Press; By KRISTIN M. HALL]

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