On Saturday morning, Milton resident Elbert Merrick III drove his red Jeep Cherokee to 179 Peoria Boulevard in Crestview.
According to State Attorney Bill Eddins, he was there to pick up some items belonging to his girlfriend, who was previously engaged to Jacob Langston, who lived at the address with his mother and stepfather.
At some point, law enforcement authorities say Langston shot Merrick to death in the driveway and later killed his mother, Shanna McGrath, and stepfather, Kevin McGrath, inside the home.
When police arrived on scene, the Jeep’s motor was still running, and the driver’s door was open.
Langston was arraigned Monday in Pensacola, charged with three counts of first-degree murder in a case that has shocked the Hub City.
Elbert Merrick III
At 22, Merrick was already an Army veteran. A 2012 graduate of Milton High School, he’d enlisted in the Army in June 2011 under the Delayed Entry Program in pursuit of his dream of a military career.
“I am one of those people you need to get to know before you draw personal conclusion(s),” Merrick wrote on his Facebook page.
“I guess the most interesting thing About me is that i write a lot of short stories and poems ussaly (sic) for someone or about them,” he wrote.
Merrick wrote about his pride in being a member of the Navy Junior ROTC at Milton High School, where retired Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Dyer remembered him as an outstanding cadet.
“Of all the cadets I’ve taught, he stands out in my memory for his integrity,” Dyer said on Tuesday. “He was always there when we had a community service project, and always did his best. His best was very good.”
Dyer said the school’s administrators often asked for Merrick by name when looking for cadets to help with special ceremonies like graduation.
“He was well liked and respected by his fellow cadets,” Dyer said. “He enlisted in the Army and went to boot camp, but he had some sort of medical issue and had to leave.”
Dyer said Merrick was always polite and courteous.
“It was always ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’,” he said. “He was one of our best.”
Kevin McGrath
According to some of her friends, Shanna and Kevin McGrath got married not long after she retired from the Air Force in September 2013.
The pair had both grown up in Paulding, Ohio, a small community of about 3,000 people. According to the Paulding Progress, the community’s newspaper, both attended Paulding High School, with Shanna graduating in 1991 or ’92, and Kevin graduating in 1986 or ’87.
“I didn’t really get to know him, because they got married after she retired,” Shanna’s former co-worker Sheila Zajdel recalled. “But I know they knew each other a long time.”
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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Remembering the victims of Crestview's triple homicide