“He’s a dangerous man, let’s put it like that,” Ward said. “(Whisenant) is a dangerous man, he really is. He was messed up with drugs. His daddy and his stepmom are two of the greatest people in the world. They didn’t deserve this.”

Angie Pritchard-Ward, owner of the house that was broken into, said she was glad that situation was over.

“I was glad that I was not home and my kids were not home,” Pritchard-Ward said. “That could’ve been a terrible situation if I or my children would’ve been there.”

Pritchard-Ward, who is the daughter of Ward, said her father and the victims were as close as family.

“I hate this had to go down the way it did,” Pritchard-Ward said. “I hate he did what he did, but I guess I know I can bring my babies back home and that my children will be safe.”

Around 120 to 150 officers from the BCSO, McDowell, Avery and Caldwell County sheriff’s offices, as well as the FBI, SBI, Beech Mountain Police, Morganton Department of Public Safety, State Highway Patrol and U.S. Forest Service assisted in the manhunt.