Andy Adams/The Lufkin News
Deputies capture Center man following double-murder
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Authorities late Thursday caught the man suspected in the early morning stabbing deaths of a Lufkin brother and sister.
Law enforcement officers spent 20 hours searching for 31-year-old Terrance Barnes of Lufkin, accused in the stabbing deaths of Rosa and Pepe Pina. They found him inside a hunting club off Deer Creek Road.
Around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter found a hot spot using thermal imaging, according to Angelina County Sheriff Kent Henson. Scent tracking bloodhounds from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice went to the area to investigate. According to Henson, upon being found by the dogs, Barnes came out from beneath a fallen log with his hands up, saying, “Here I am. I’m looking for y’all.”
Earlier Thursday morning, officials thought Barnes had fled to Center because he has family there. After receiving more information, they spent the day searching a heavily wooded area off state Highway 103 east between Tom Holland Road and FM 1669. Almost every law enforcement agency within 30 miles of Lufkin was involved in the search.
Around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a home at 575 John Kolb Road on a report of a disturbance in progress. A deputy on another call two blocks away arrived to find Barnes’ 27-year-old girlfriend Rosa Pina dying in the driveway with multiple stab wounds. Her throat had also been cut, according to ACSO Capt. Allen Hill. Her 28-year-old brother was already dead inside the laundry room, ACSO investigator Seth Stover said.
Barnes, currently on probation for a drug charge out of Shelby County, lived at the home as he and Rosa Pina had been dating off and on for several years, Stover said.
The victims’ sister, who witnessed the incident, told Hill that Barnes and her sister had gotten into an argument earlier in the night. Rosa Pina was reportedly holding her sister’s 3-month-old baby when things turned violent. Her sister told Hill she tried to stop Barnes, but he pushed her to the ground. That’s when Pepe Pina tried to intervene and was also attacked, Stover said.
Four other children, ages 3 to 10, were taken from the home to the sheriff’s office by Child Protective Services and picked up by family members. According to a family friend, the four children belonged to Rosa Pina.
A neighbor said he heard a commotion at the home just before seeing deputies arrive on the scene.
“I heard fussing and fighting, but I didn’t think anything of it because that’s the usual over there,” W.D. Foreman said. “I came outside when I saw the red and blue lights. Her body was lying right there in the driveway.”
From outside the home, blood was seen splashed across the bottom of the front door, with a trail of drops leading to a puddle near the end of the driveway where Rosa Pina died.
Henson said late Thursday the sheriff’s office intends to file a capital murder charge against Barnes.
