2 Siblings Slain in Knife Attack

WARSAW, Ky. —  A young brother and sister died Friday of knife wounds in an attack that injured a sibling and left their mother in critical condition.

Police arrested an acquaintance of the mother hours later in a West Virginia town 270 miles away.

Police offered no immediate motive for the early morning attack that killed Cody Sharon, 6, and Chelbi Sharon, 7. Authorities charged Marco Chapman, 30, of Warsaw, with murder, assault and burglary.

The mother, Carolyn Marksberry, was in critical but stable condition after surgery at University of Cincinnati Hospital. Ten-year-old Courtney Sharon was in fair condition at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital.

Chapman was arrested in Shrewsbury, W.Va., about six hours after police found the victims, said Sheriff David Tucker of Kanawha County, W.Va. He was arraigned in a West Virginia courtroom Friday on a fugitive charge.

He was to be held in Charleston pending an extradition hearing, prosecutor Michael Clifford said.

Sgt. John Bradley of the Kentucky State Police said Chapman was an acquaintance of Marksberry’s but would not elaborate.

Marksberry had been appointed city clerk this month in Warsaw, an Ohio River town of 1,800 about 45 miles southwest of Cincinnati.

Her husband, Charles, had been in Spain training for his job at a stainless steel production plant. A company spokeswoman said he was on his way home Friday.