UPDATE: Children found safe, suspects arrested

9 p.m. UPDATE: St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that the suspects have been arrested today in Union County, Georgia. No other information is available at this time. 

ORIGINAL STORY: The St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department was notified the children who were thought to be with a couple being sought in connection with the shooting and stabbing of a Leadwood man on Tuesday morning have been found.

Sheriff Dan Bullock said the children were picked up in Georgia by the grandfather and are being taken back to Florida. He added they are advising the police department there to contact the children’s division.

At this time it is unclear how the children were located and found to be in the grandfather’s custody. The Daily Journal will bring more details as they become available.

The assault took part at the home at 221 Fifth St. where the victim, Silas Laycock, 43, and suspects Angela Laycock, 43 and Timothy Perkins, 37 all lived together, along with the Silas’s and Angela’s four children.

The sheriff’s department took over the case Tuesday night at the request of the Leadwood Police Department.

Silas was assaulted by the couple, which included stabbed with a knife, being struck multiple times with an ax and being shot with a shotgun. It’s believed that the victim, the two suspects and the four children were all at the home at the time of the assault.

Laycock was transported by ambulance to a St. Louis hospital Tuesday afternoon after he drove himself to a Leadwood convenience store seeking help. He was rushed into surgery and is expected to survive his injuries.

According to Bullock, Leadwood Police Chief Will Dickey responded about 1:30 p.m. to a call from an individual at the Leadwood BP gas station and convenience store reporting that someone there had been shot and stabbed.

Upon his arrival, Dickey reportedly found Silas laid over in the seat of a pickup truck and was told by the victim that his wife and her boyfriend had stabbed him and shot him.

On Thursday, the suspects, were spotted in Jefferson City by a law enforcement officer and a pursuit began, but was ended due to bad weather before the pickup was stopped. Formal charges were also filed against the couple.

Both Angela and Perkins are being charged with one Class A felony of first-degree assault, three counts of armed criminal action, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of felony restraint.

On Friday, the state police in Arkansas were notified to be on the lookout for the couple and the white 2006 Chevrolet pickup truck, possibly with Montana plates, although the plates may have been removed. The license plate number on the vehicle is unknown.

This Leadwood house was the scene of an early Tuesday morning assault on Silas Laycock, 43, who received multiple stab wounds, lacerations caused by an ax and a shotgun wound. The suspects are believed to be the victim’s wife and her boyfriend who left the scene in a white Chevrolet pickup truck, along with the couple’s four children.

Perkins 

Laycock

Renee Bronaugh is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-518-3617 or rbronaugh@dailyjournalonline.com