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Kidnapped girl freed, murder suspect surrenders
BETHEL, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A man who police said abducted his teenage niece after killing her parents was taken into custody Sunday afternoon without a fight, the FBI said Sunday. Robert Lee Hixson, 42, was arraigned Sunday night by a magistrate in Pocono Summit on two counts of criminal homicide, which could leave him eligible for the death penalty, said Pocono Mountain Detective Harry Lewis. Hixson surrendered around 3:40 p.m., ending a four-hour standoff in a rural parking lot on Route 419, about a mile off Interstate 78 in Bethel Township, near Reading. "Mr. Hixson has surrendered to the Pennsylvania State Police and other local authorities that were negotiating with him," FBI Special Agent Linda Vizi told CNN. "This was a peaceful resolution, exactly what we wanted to happen." Hixson, 42, an unemployed former Navy SEAL from Danville, will face charges of double homicide in the deaths of his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, she said. The incident began around 9 p.m. Saturday, when Hixson broke into his brother-in-law's house in Pocono Lake, 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Vizi said. Using a shotgun, he shot his wife's brother, Myron Bilger, 40, and Bilger's wife, Ellen, 37, and then fled with their daughter, 13-year-old Hadley, police said. But the suspect did not harm the girl's 5-year-old sister, who went to a relative's nearby house and told her what had happened, Vizi said. The relative then called police, who arrived at the house and found the mother dead. The father identified Hixson as the shooter and was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, where he was pronounced dead on arrival of a gunshot wound to the abdomen, said Pocono Mountain Detective Harry Lewis. Armed with the identity of the suspect, police issued an Amber Alert that identified Hixson's red 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck. At 10:45 a.m. Sunday, state troopers spotted Hixson's pickup headed south on Route 61 and attempted to stop him, but he sped off -- still carrying Hadley, Vizi said. After a chase, the pickup drove over "stop sticks" and came to a halt around 11:30 a.m. in a parking lot outside a catering company, she said. "At that point, the girl was let go," she said. But Hixson, armed with a shotgun, held police at bay, first from inside the truck, and later standing outside the truck in the parking lot, where SWAT team members had joined more than a dozen state police. Journalist Tom Kelly, crouched behind a building less than 500 feet from the suspect, overheard the negotiations. Using a bullhorn, police asked, "Why do you want to die? Your wife doesn't want you to die. Your daughter doesn't want you to die. Why would you want to die?" Kelly told CNN. Detective Lewis said Hixson would be arraigned Sunday night by a magistrate in Pocono Summit on two counts of criminal homicide, which could leave him eligible for the death penalty. Sunday night, he and the girl were both at the police station -- he in a cell and she in a room with family members, Lewis said. Lewis said police were trying to trace the whereabouts of the two during the time she was abducted and trying to figure out the suspect's motive. A spokeswoman for the Pocono Mountain Regional Police said they would have a news conference to update the media at 10 a.m. Monday.
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