Sandra Bunn, 58, and Lamar Bunn, whose age was not immediately known by the authorities, were charged with obstruction. The authorities did not say if the Bunns were related.

Mr. Bunn worked at the Milner Police Department, Sheriff Dix said, adding that he was a police officer and that his fate would be up to the police chief. Department officials could not be immediately reached on Sunday.

All five suspects are white, the sheriff added.

“It has been an emotional roller coaster for everybody that was involved,” he said. “This morning started the lifting of a burden.”

Heather Coggins, the victim’s niece, was one of several family members who attended the news conference. She said that Mr. Coggins’s mother and stepfather — her grandparents — had died in the last two years, but that even on her deathbed, his mother “still said Tim’s name.”

“She knew this day would one day come,” Ms. Coggins said. “The worst is over.”

In a telephone interview late Saturday, Ms. Coggins, 40, said her family was grateful to the authorities for pursuing the case. She said law enforcement officials had been “extremely tight-lipped” about it, even to them.