Kelsey Spann pulled up to the single-story, yellow stucco house on Third Street in a hurry. It had been days since she had heard from her friend Joanie Harper. The two had known each other for 15 years and it wasn't like Joanie to ignore her calls.

The central Bakersfield home looked normal from the outside. The doors were locked. No windows were broken. So Spann slid her key into an east side door. It worked but the door wouldn't budge. There was a metal security bar holding it closed. She went over to west side of the backyard and pulled on a sliding door. It was unlocked and glided open.

The call came in to the 9-1-1 center just before 7 am. The caller on the line identified herself as Kelsey Spann. Spann was hysterical and reporting she found multiple members of her family slaughtered.

Spann had stumbled on a grisly scene. Several members of the Harper family had been fatally shot. Joanie Harper was shot at close range and stabbed. Portions of the home appeared ransacked. The contents of drawers had been dumped out in the middle of the room. A TV had been tipped off its stand.

Police arrived in minutes. There was a sense of urgency in the air. Spann had seen at least two bodies. But she knew Joanie Harper had a 6-week old son, Marshall. At this point, he was still considered missing. The officers fanned through the home. As they entered the hallway just west of the living room, they encountered the first body: a woman lying on her back. It was Earnestine Harper, Joanie's mother. She wore a dress and a pair of pantyhose that had been partially pulled down. The elder Harper had a bullet wound to the head, stippled with what appeared to be gunpowder. She had been shot at close range. A trail of blood spurted from her head into the room beyond. Two bullet casings lay on the carpet next to her body. Not far from that, an old-style pistol.

Officers found more bodies in a bedroom. Joanie Harper lay face down on a large bed. She was wearing only underwear. Detectives say she appeared to have multiple stab wounds to her back and bullet wounds to her head and chest. Detectives would later discover a carving knife missing from the block in the kitchen. Two-year-old Lyndsey Harper lay at the foot of the bed. She wore a blue dress. She lay on her left side, dead from a bullet to her back.

Also on the bed was the body of 4-year-old Marques Harper. A bloody sheet partially covered his body. His eyes were open and he had a single gunshot wound to the right side of his head. Detectives noticed several wounds on his right hand. Prosecutors would later theorize he had awakened before the murders. They say Marques was so frightened, he bit his hand to the bone. After a search, officers would find their fifth and final victim, 6-week old Marshall under a pillow, next to his mother. He had been shot in the back.

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