11-year-old survives after father, twin brother die in suspected murder-suicide

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Police say an 11-year-old girl was the only survivor after a father and son both died in a suspected murder-suicide Saturday.

We first reported on a fire at the Gaston County home, but questions still remain about what exactly happened inside the house.

The 11-year-old who survived, Piper Blakney, is expected to come home from the Burn Center soon. Channel 9′s Ken Lemon learned she got out of that burning building when members of the SWAT Team moved in and rescued her.

Family members have since launched a GoFundMe for Blakney.

Ron Kimble has been fighting domestic violence years and says cases like this are not uncommon for the children to endure violence.

“Sometimes they are just used as pawns or used as tools or used as a mechanism to gain the control back,” Kimble said.

Family members have since launched a GoFundMe for Blakney.

“I worry about the little girl,” neighbor Robert Haney told Lemon.

As they talked, Haney couldn’t stop wringing his hands.

“It’s going to be hard for her to get over this,” he said.

Police said early Saturday morning, Piper’s father, Russell Blakney, shot her twin bother at their home on Brentwood Lane, which isn’t far from Stanley. Investigators said Russell Blakney then set the house on fire and died by suicide.

Piper’s grandfather told Lemon that a SWAT Team shattered a bedroom window to pull Piper out. Now, she’s recovering from smoke inhalation.

Haney remembers the twins happy at home, and said he wishes he could wash away his memory of that night.

“Those kids up there, I could hear them every day,” he said. “I could hear them when they hit the swimming pool. They would have a ball.”

Firefighters returned to the home on Monday to put out hot spots.

Lemon found an order of protection from Russell Blakney’s wife that was filed the day before. In it, she says she and her husband had argued.

The wife says Blakney had “…held me down around my neck, and threatened my life with a loaded gun held to my head and to my throat.” She said he kept the gun on her for more than 10 minutes and that he kept a gun next to them in bed.

After getting that order of protection, the wife didn’t go home. And just 12 hours later, tragedy struck.

“I’m trying to block it out of my mind,” Haney said.

The order said Russell Blakney should have no contact with his children. The order, which would have protected the mother and children until this coming Friday, was approved by a judge last Friday afternoon. But deputies never get the opportunity to serve it.

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