Arrest made in slaying of Alabama motel owners

IRONDALE, Ala. (AP) – Authorities have arrested an Alabama man wanted in the disappearance of two motel owners who are feared dead.

Police say 27-year-old Steven Richard Mulkey was working as a maintenance man at the Siesta Motel in Irondale before relatives of the owners became worried about the married couple.

News outlets report officers went to the motel on Friday and couldn’t find 77-year-old Ching Kao or his wife, 75-year-old Siumei Kao. But they did discover blood, and both the motel safe and Mulkey were gone.

Al.com reports that Mulkey was arrested Monday at a motel in Staunton, Virginia. He’s from the northeast Alabama town of Fort Payne.

Irondale Police Chief Ken Atkinson says surveillance video shows the couple being beaten, and police are treating their disappearance as a homicide.

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