It started as a police chase after a teenager allegedly ignored a traffic stop by a Maryland state trooper.
By the time it ended, the 16-year-old suspect was dead in a shootout with officers. During an investigation into the teen’s background, police found three bodies at a Kentucky address linked to him.
Authorities in both states are trying to put together a timeline of events that ended with the shootout Saturday.
How did the teen, identified as Jason C. Hendrix of Corbin, Kentucky, get from his hometown to Baltimore County?
Did he kill his mother, father and sister?
If he did so, why? And when?
Could a dispute over computer use have something to do with it, as a newspaper reported?
And why did the teen head to Maryland?
Two states, many questions
It started as a mundane traffic stop on Valentine’s Day.
Hendrix, who was driving a Honda Pilot, failed to stop when a state trooper tried to pull him over on Interstate 95, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.
A car chase ensued, and police cornered him after he struck another vehicle at an intersection in Woodlawn, forcing him to stop.
“As officers approached the Honda Pilot, gunfire came from the vehicle, striking an officer,” authorities said. “Officers then returned fire on the vehicle.”
Hendrix, who was alone in the car, was shot to death. The officer injured in the shootout was treated at a local hospital and released.
“His ballistic vest stopped the round that struck him,” police said.
Authorities found a “handgun and other weapons” during a search of the suspect’s car.
Report: Parents, sister shot in the head
About 500 miles away from the shootout, a grisly scene awaited.
Baltimore County detectives traced the suspect’s car registration to an address in Corbin. They reached out to their counterparts there, who went to the address and found the bodies of Kevin Hendrix and Sarah Hendrix and their daughter.
Police are looking at Jason Hendrix as the main suspect in the deaths of his parents and sister, according to the Times Tribune newspaper, citing a Corbin city police detective.
All signs point to him as the suspect, Maj. Rob Jones told CNN affiliate WLEX, but he added, “we still have to finish our investigation to definitely say if this is the guy,”
Corbin Police Chief David Campbell told the Lexington Herald-Leader the teen “was mad at his parents over the usage of his computer. They had taken his computer rights away.”
The Corbin Police Department declined to comment when reached by CNN on Monday, saying it only had limited information.
Campbell told the Lexington newspaper that all three victims had been shot in the head at least twice.
“A pillow was used to try to muffle the gunshot used on all three individuals,” he said. “The pillows were still on their faces.”
The coroner’s office is still trying to determine when the killings happened, Jones told WLEX. Based on their investigation at the crime scene, Jones said, “officers are thinking it was sometime around Wednesday,” several days before the suspect was killed in the Baltimore County shootout.
At Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky, where Sarah Hendrix was an associate professor of social work, officials said in a Facebook post that the community was heartbroken.
“We have lost a member of our family, ” the post said, “a wonderful educator, colleague, and friend.”