Family Massacre Left Mom and 2 Children Dead, as Escaped Survivor Called 911. The Killer Just Learned His Fate

Traci Louise Belcher McNeely and her children, Carson Pipkin and Kailee Warren, were found dead in their Tennessee home in October 2021

NEED TO KNOW

• Traci Louise Belcher McNeely, 44, Carson Pipkin, 20, and Kailee Warren, 11, were killed by Nathanial Pipkin, a jury has ruled
• Nathanial also tried to kill his stepfather Jesse McNeely, who escaped the rampage by climbing out of the window
• Nathanial was found hours after the shooting, and told police he’d killed the victims in self-defense

A Tennessee man has been convicted and sentenced to death nearly five years after murdering his mother, brother and half-sister in their home.

Traci Louise Belcher McNeely, 44, and her children, 20-year-old Carson Pipkin and 11-year-old Kailee Warren, were massacred in their Columbia, Tenn., home on October 2021, according to District Attorney Brent Cooper of Tennessee’s 22nd Judicial District.

The victims were not named in Cooper’s statement but have previously been identified by family and in local media reports.

McNeely’s son, Nathanial Pipkin was convicted over the weekend of their murders, Cooper announced.

The investigation began in the early morning hours of Oct. 1, 2021 when officers responded to a 911 caller saying there had been a shooting inside his residence, the Maury County sheriff said at the time, according to WKRN.

The caller, who police had told WKRN was Nathanial’s stepfather, Jesse McNeely, told dispatchers he had escaped the shooting by climbing out a window. He was calling in the report from a neighbor’s home, police said.

Officers responding to the scene found Traci, Carson and Kailee deceased.

Within hours, police found Nathanial and arrested him. Nathanial, then 22, told WKRN that he had shot them in “self-defense.”

He was also accused of trying to kill Jesse.

The massacre left the community reeling from the losses and the gruesome nature of the victims’ deaths.

“[She] had the heart of gold, really, and just loved people. Super sweet, just had a smile when she walked in the classroom, you knew she was there,” Kailee’s former teacher Sarah Seiber told WKRN at a memorial set up soon after the killings.

In her online obituary, loved ones said Kailee enjoyed the outdoors and loved animals.

Carson was a “jokester” and also had a love for animals, read his obituary, which said that “if he ever had a show on his own it would’ve been called ‘Carson’s Critters.’” The online tribute added that he had a passion for restoring old cars.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Nathanial was found guilty on Saturday, Aug. 1, of three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and employing a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony, the DA’s office said.

He was sentenced to death, and the jury foreperson read aloud the sentence five times, the DA’s office said in an update on Tuesday, adding that Nathanial had “instructed his lawyers not to fight against the death penalty.”