Kaufman Cty DA Mike McLelland & Wife Found Slain in Home(SOLVED)

[MuffyBee]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20130330-breaking-news-kaufman-county-district-attorney-mike-mclelland-wife-reportedly-found-dead-in-home.ece
Breaking news: Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, wife reportedly found dead in home
March 30, 2013

Kaufman County’s district attorney and his wife were found slain Saturday, raising fears their deaths may be part of a plot that included the slaying of an assistant district attorney in January.
Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh and other officials confirmed the reports that Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, had been shot at their home near Forney. Their deaths follow the Jan. 31 slaying of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.
“It is a shock,” Aulbaugh said late Saturday. “It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise.”
He said the Texas Rangers were helping with the investigation at the McLellands’ home in an unincorporated part of the county, but that the sheriff’s department will be leading the investigation.
“Because have to treat it as related [to the Hasse investigation], we'll be working side by side again,” Aulbaugh said.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/03/30/kaufman-county-da-mike-mclelland-and-wife-found-dead/
Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland And Wife Found Dead
March 30, 2013

KAUFMAN, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were found dead inside their home.

Lt. Justin Lewis with the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Dept conformed to 1080 KRLD that both DA McLelland and his wife Cynthia were murdered.

Because of the location of the home, in an unincorporated area of Kaufman County,  the crime falls under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s office.

Sources tell CBS 11 news that the DA was shot multiple times with what is believed to be an assault rifle while his wife was only shot once . Sources also way that there were no signs of forced entry.

Kaufman Police Department Chief Chris Aulbaugh said law enforcement officials will be looking at the latest shooting to see if it is related to the murder of Kaufman County assistant district attorney Mark Hasse.

The FBI in Dallas and Denver have been comparing the Hasse shooting to that of Tom Clements, executive director of Colorado Prisons Bureau. Clements was shot and killed as he answered the front door of his home on March 19.

 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Kaufman-County-District-Attorney-Wife-Found-Dead-in-Home-200752591.html
Kaufman County District Attorney, Wife, Found Dead in Home
March 30, 2013

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found dead inside their Forney home at about 9 p.m. Saturday, police say.

Investigators with the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department confirmed the deaths to NBC 5 Saturday evening, but had little else to say in the early stages of the investigation.

Police have not said what brought them to the McLelland's home Saturday night or if they have any leads in the case, though they did say the deaths were being investigated as homicides.

Sources told NBC 5 that the McLelland's front door was kicked in and that gunshots had been fired, though police have not independently confirmed that information.

Officials are contacting all Kaufman County officials to ensure their safety as the McLelland deaths come nearly two months to the day from the slaying of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was gunned down while walking to work on Jan. 31.

When speaking to the media after Hasse's murder, McLelland said Hasse was a really, really good man and that he was an excellent friend and spectacular prosecutor who wouldn't be easily replaced.  He added that Hasse was a man who was well aware of the dangers associated with being a prosecutor.
 ::snipping2::
To date, no arrests have been made in connection with Hasse's murder.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, have five children including two daughters and three sons.  One of their sons is a police officer with the Dallas Police Department.

(Photos and videos at links in article)

[Green Eyes]

Thank You Muffy 

How sad and scary. They haven't come out and  said it is related to DA Assistant District Attorneys death yet. But all signs point to the jail gang 211.  May  Mr. & Mrs. McLelland rest in peace. Prayers for their family.

[MuffyBee]

Thank You Muffy 

How sad and scary. They haven't come out and  said it is related to DA Assistant District Attorneys death yet. But all signs point to the jail gang 211.  May  Mr. & Mrs. McLelland rest in peace. Prayers for their family.

I agree Green Eyes, it's sad and scary.     I hope there will be answers soon. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/30/justice/texas-da-killed/index.html
Texas DA, wife killed -- 2 months after his deputy is gunned down
March 31, 2013

CNN) -- Two months ago, a Texas district attorney vowed to put away the "scum" who had killed one of his top deputies.
Now, the district attorney and his wife are dead. And authorities aren't sure whether their killings are part of a broader scheme targeting criminal justice officials.
The bodies of Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found Saturday in their home in Kaufman County, east of Dallas.
"I don't know of anyone who would want to cause him harm," Kaufman city Mayor William Fortner said. "As far as I could tell, he was doing a really good job as a district attorney."
Fortner said police are taking "extra precautions" to try to ensure no one else is targeted.
"We lost some important people, and we hope the killers are caught before any more people are lost," he said.
A law enforcement official told The Dallas Morning News that a door was apparently kicked in, and "there are shell casings everywhere."
Authorities have not identified a suspect. Nor are they sure whether the deaths are related to the killing of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was killed on his way to work in January.
The county sheriff's office brought in the FBI and the Texas Rangers to help with the investigation.
 ::snipping2::
The McLellands were killed almost exactly two months after Hasse was shot to death in broad daylight outside the county courthouse on January 31.
Hasse had feared for his life and carried a gun to work, said a Dallas attorney who described herself as his longtime friend.
Colleen A. Dunbar said she spoke with Hasse on January 24. She said the prosecutor told her he began carrying a gun in and out of the county courthouse daily.
"He told me he would use a different exit every day because he was fearful for his life," Dunbar told CNN.
She said that Hasse gave no specifics on why he felt threatened -- only that he did.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/general/deputy-texas-district-attorney-wife-found-dead/nW77b/
Mayor: Deaths of Texas DA, wife 'not a random act'
March 31, 2013

KAUFMAN, Texas — Two months after one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down, a north Texas district attorney and his wife were found killed in their home, authorities said.
The bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found in their home Saturday, Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis said. Authorities would not comment on a motive.
 ::snipping2::
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office on Jan. 31. No arrests have been made in his death
 ::snipping2::
Sam Rosander, who lives in the same unincorporated area of Kaufman County as the McLellands, told the AP on Saturday that sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway for about a month after Hasse was killed.
Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was checking to see if Hasse's killing could be related to the March 19 killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements, who was gunned down after answering the doorbell at his home.
Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.
Hasse was chief of the organized crime unit when he was an assistant prosecutor in Dallas County in the 1980s, and he handled similar cases in Kaufman County.
"Anything anybody can think of, we're looking through," McLelland said after Hasse's death.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/north-texas-prosecutor-wife-found-dead-home-article-1.1303863
Double murder of North Texas prosecutor and wife was ‘targeted attack’: official
March 31, 2013

The bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found Saturday night in their home. Sources said the couple had been fatally shot. Their deaths come about two months after an assistant district attorney was killed

 ::snipping2::
Kaufman County sheriff’s Lt. Justin Lewis declined to say how the couple died or whether authorities believe their deaths are linked to Hasse’s. Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and deputies are all part of the investigation.

A police officer and friend of the couple had checked on them Saturday night and found the door open, reported ABC affiliate WFAA-TV.
The body of Cynthia McLelland, 65, was found in the front of the house, while her husband was found in the hallway, possibly trying to flee, sources told WFAA-TV.

They said the weapon may have been a .223-caliber assault rifle with about 14 rounds fired.

Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told The Dallas Morning News that the McLellands had been shot in their home, and although investigators didn’t know if their deaths were related to Hasse’s killing, they couldn’t discount it.
 ::snipping2::
Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was checking to see if Hasse’s killing could be related to the March 19 killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements, who was gunned down after answering the doorbell at his home.

Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.

Hasse was chief of the organized crime unit when he was an assistant prosecutor in Dallas County in the 1980s, and he handled similar cases in Kaufman County.

Investigators had been looking into the possibility that violent white supremacist gang the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas was involved in the killing.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Kaufman-Co-District-Attorney-wife-shot-to-death-in-their-home-200752961.html
Kaufman County DA, wife slain; link to Hasse murder probed
Posted March 30, 2013, Updated March 31, 2013



FORNEY — Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found shot dead inside their Forney home on Saturday night, a chilling crime that put law enforcement agencies across Texas on high alert and shook prosecutors, defense attorneys and others in legal circles around North Texas.
Late Saturday night, sources said a .223-caliber rifle was used in the murders, with approximately 14 rounds being fired.
The McLellands might have been murdered up to 24 hours before their bodies were discovered, sources said. A police officer friend came to the house to check on them and discovered the front door opened Saturday night — then found their bodies inside.
The district attorney's body was found in a hallway where he appeared to have tried to get away, sources said. McLelland's wife, Cynthia, was found dead in a front room in their house.
Their bodies were not removed from the house until 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
The FBI and the Texas Rangers are taking the lead role in the investigation.
After an initial investigation, nothing appeared to be missing from the home, sources added.
Investigators now believe the double murder of the DA and his wife is likely related to the Mark Hasse murder investigation.
More...

Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/DAs-murder-raises-fears-of-wider-plot-200782531.html
DA's murder raises fears of wider plot
March 31, 2013

FORNEY — The murders of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife are especially frightening as their deaths follow the murder of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse just two months ago.
It raises fears that their deaths could be part of a wider plot to target law enforcement officials.
We are expecting questions at a 10 a.m. news conference to focus on whether investigators have developed any links between the cases.
Hasse was shot and killed on January 31 as he walked from his car to the Kaufman County Courthouse on the town square in Kaufman. The case remains unsolved.
Investigators — including Mike McLelland — were poring over Hasse's old cases and looking into whether or not efforts to prosecute members of the Ayran Brotherhood white supremacist gang were connected.
To this date, nothing has materialized — at least no information has been released to the public.
 ::snipping2::
Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Investigators-go-door-to-door-talking-to-North-Texas-neighbors-of-killed-DA-200810961.html
Investigators go door to door talking to North Texas neighbors of killed DA
March 31, 2013

 ::snipping2::
Investigators from the FBI and other local agencies began a widespread door-to-door questioning of residents Sunday afternoon, searching for any clues as to who is behind the brutal double murder of Kaufman County District attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, in the 9300 block of Blarney Stone Way.
"They were asking if I saw anything suspicious," said Mike Griffith.

Specifically, he said FBI agents asked about cell phone numbers. Another neighbor confirmed the same thing, saying agents were going to review local calls from the weekend to see if any seemed out of the ordinary.
Griffith said he heard gunshots early Saturday morning. His yard backs up to the crime scene.

"It was five or six shots, one right after the other," Griffith said, adding he didn't call 911, because it's not uncommon to hear gunfire in the more rural area of unincorporated Kaufman County.
More...

Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/01/kaufman-county-district-attorney-shooting-alert-texas/2042011/
Texas county 'on alert' over deaths of prosecutor, wife
April 1, 2013

Investigators probe possible link to white supremacists, but so far have found no evidence.

The district attorney's office in Kaufman, Texas, was closed Monday morning and the courthouse was under tight security following the weekend shooting deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife in their home.

The shootings on Saturday came two months after McLelland's assistant district attorney, Mark Hasse, was fatally shot in a parking lot a block from the courthouse on Jan. 31.
 ::snipping2::
The district attorney's office in Kaufman, Texas, was closed Monday morning and the courthouse was under tight security following the weekend shooting deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife in their home.

The shootings on Saturday came two months after McLelland's assistant district attorney, Mark Hasse, was fatally shot in a parking lot a block from the courthouse on Jan. 31.
 ::snipping2::
McLelland himself, in an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

McLelland, elected district attorney in 2010, said his office had prosecuted several cases against racist gangs, who have a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.

Kaufman prosecutors were among scores in Texas who were strongly pursuing cases against the prison gangs.

However, there has been no evidence so far of a link to the white supremacist gangs in either of the Kaufman shootings, except for that fact that they appear to be a professional "hit."

Judge Wood has also said that Kaufman County investigators have found no link between the Clements shooting and the killing of Hasse.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/31/4740624/kaufman-sheriff-declines-to-link.html
Interim DA appointed in Kaufman County after slayings
March 31, 2013


KAUFMAN -- An interim prosecutor has been chosen to fill in after the slaying of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland.

Brandi Fernandez will lead the district attorney's office for the next 21 days. She had been the first assistant DA under McLelland.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found dead in their home near Forney on Saturday night.

State law requires that the DA's first assistant will conduct the affairs of the office until Gov. Rick Perry appoints a permanent successor.

Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood said earlier that he would ask Perry to appoint an interim district attorney.

Wood said investigators haven't found any physical evidence linking McLelland's death with the Jan. 31 fatal shooting of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was gunned down walking to work.

Still, Wood said he believes that the two shootings have to be related.

"There has to be a connection, in my way of thinking," Wood said.

After Hasse's death, McLelland vowed to find the killer, and if he feared for his own safety, he didn't talk about it.

"Not to me," Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said Sunday when asked if McLelland indicated that he might be a target after Hasse was shot in a parking lot near the courthouse.

Security has been heightened at the Kaufman County Courthouse and the district attorney's office is closed, officials said.
 ::snipping2::

At a news conference Sunday, Byrnes said additional officers from various local law enforcement agencies would be on hand Monday to provide extra security at the courthouse.

Byrnes declined to speculate on a motive for the killings or to connect them to Hasse's killing.

"We have nothing indicating that for sure," Byrnes said. "We are not going into any details because it's an ongoing investigation."

The sheriff said he wouldn't discuss security measures and declined to say whether a deputy had been assigned to protect McLelland after Hasse was killed. Hasse's killer is still at large.

Byrnes said authorities have considered that other Kaufman County officials might be targeted.

"Certainly, we're considering that, obviously," he said.

Byrnes said investigators are conducting a crime-scene investigation at the McLellands' house in the Shamrock addition near Forney.
 ::snipping2::

Investigators told reporters the front door was open and the couple was found shot with what is believed to be an assault rifle.

The sheriff did not say whether the McLellands had security cameras at their home.

The Kaufman County Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation with assistance from the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

"Law enforcement officials are working to ensure the continued safety of the public as well as to ensure the safety of our county and judicial employees," Byrnes said.

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies arrived in Kaufman late Saturday to assist in the investigation.

The agencies include Kaufman County constable offices, police departments from Forney, Terrell and Kaufman, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Marshals Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
 ::snipping2::

The U.S. Honor Flag organization will coordinate the McLellands' funerals to allow law enforcement agencies to focus on the investigation. Funeral arrangements are pending.

The group is a nonprofit organization dedicated to memorializing people who made the ultimate sacrifice for their family, community and country.

Officials have established a tip line at 877-847-7522 for anyone with information about the killings. Callers may remain anonymous. People can also provide tips online at www.kaufmancountycrimestoppers.org.
 ::snipping2::

[MuffyBee]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/1/fbi-texas-rangers-helm-probe-da-killings/
FBI, Texas Rangers helm probe of DA killings
April 1, 2013

The FBI and the Texas Rangers have taken the lead in the investigation of the shooting deaths of Kaufman County, Texas, District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, whose bodies were found Saturday night inside their rural Forney, Texas, home.

The couple was discovered by a police officer friend who had stopped by to check on them and found the front door kicked open. Investigators said Mr. and Mrs. McLelland could have been dead for more than 24 hours before their bodies were discovered in a hallway and the front room. The murder weapon is suspected to be a .223-caliber assault rifle, similar to an AR-15. At least 14 shots had been fired.

The killings have put law enforcement agencies across Texas on high alert. Two months ago, Mr. McLelland’s top assistant, Deputy District Attorney Mark Hasse, was assassinated in broad daylight just a few steps from the county courthouse. He was killed on Jan. 31 as he walked to his office from a parking lot.

Investigators are trying to determine if the McLelland and Hasse shootings are linked, but no suspects have been publicly identified.

Kauffman County deputies had been guarding the McLelland home but were removed last week because Mr. McLelland did not think he needed it and did not want to waste taxpayer dollars.

More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Kaufman-County-workers-return-to-work-after-DAs-shooting-death-200865361.html
Search warrant: Kaufman County DA, wife shot multiple times
April 1, 2013

 ::snipping2::
A search warrant obtained Monday afternoon revealed that family friends found the McLellands' bodies at 6:45 p.m. Saturday.
The document says shell casings were observed nearby. Both Mr. and Mrs. McLelland had been shot multiple times. The search warrant says the last time anyone spoke with the district attorney or his wife was at 7:30 p.m. on March 29, a day before they were found.
An FBI detective was also granted a court order forcing AT&T to hand over the phone records of both Mr. and Mrs. McLelland, the document shows.
 ::snipping2::
Speaking from Austin, Gov. Rick Perry said the process to replace McLelland had begun. Josh Havens, a spokesman for the governor, said the appointment would happen "as soon as possible." Assistant District Attorney Brandi Fernandez will serve as the county's top law enforcement official in the interim.
Fernandez prosecuted in the 86th District Court and is expected to fill the role for 21 days until Perry's appointment.
 ::snipping2::
Neighbor David Crone said Cynthia McLelland had expressed concern that more violence was imminent. However, he said she told him she did not feel that she or her husband were in danger.
"She made the statement to me that she didn’t think that was going to be all the killings, The guy that killed over there, " Crone said, referring to the murder of Assistant District Attorney Hasse. "And I said, ‘What about Mike? You think he’s safe?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I’m not worried about about Mike,’ In the long run that didn’t prove to be true.”
 ::snipping2::
Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/04/01/4742255/affidavit-kaufman-da-wife-shot.html
Affidavit: Kaufman DA, wife shot multiple times
April 1, 2013

KAUFMAN - Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife both were shot multiple times at their home near Forney, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by the Texas Rangers and released Monday.

"Family friends located Mike and Cynthia McLelland deceased inside their residence" at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the affidavit.
 ::snipping2::
Investigators are also seeking access to the McLellands' cell phone records as well as a "tower dump" of all cell traffic near their home in the 9300 block of Blarney Stone Drive, according to the affidavit, written by Texas Ranger Eric Kasper. The couple's last known communication was a phone conversation with family members about 7:30 p.m. Friday, the document says.

Kaufman County deputies "observed cartridge casings inside the residence near the two bodies during a protective sweep of the residence," Kasper wrote. "Kaufman County Sheriff's Office personnel also observed multiple gunshot wounds on both victims."
More...


Search Warrant: http://media.star-telegram.com/smedia/2013/04/01/17/12/vNBk9.So.58.pdf

[MuffyBee]

This may be considered bizarre by some, but I wonder if the McLleand's were murdered by someone with an LE or military background? Could it be a rogue cop/s?  We are getting so little information because this is an open investigation and etc., but I was just wondering.  Were there security cameras?  Alarms?  Mike had a firearm to protect himself and was aware of danger.  One of the articles says he dismissed the squad car & protection that was out front the previous week.  Obviously, someone's been keeping tabs of things.  There's no mention of whether the family had dogs, which could have helped.  I just don't know.  Sometimes I think there are folks that are just so bad and so evil that if they are out to get you, they'll find a way.   

[MuffyBee]

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/crime/texas-das-killing-puts-other-prosecutors-on-alert/nW8NK/
Suspicion in DA death shifts to white supremacists
April 1, 2013

 ::snipping2::
Four top leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas were indicted in October for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking. Two months later, authorities issued the bulletin warning that the gang might try to retaliate against law enforcement for the investigation that led to the arrests of 34 of its members on federal charges.
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were found dead Saturday in their East Texas home. The killings were especially jarring because they happened just a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was killed in a parking lot near his courthouse office.
McLelland was part of a multi-agency task force that took part in the investigation of the Aryan Brotherhood. The task force also included the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as police departments in Houston and Fort Worth.
Investigators have declined to say if the group is the focus of their efforts, but the state Department of Public Safety bulletin warned that the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is "involved in issuing orders to inflict 'mass casualties or death' to law enforcement officials involved in the recent case."
Terry Pelz, a former Texas prison warden and expert on the Aryan Brotherhood said killing law enforcement representatives would be uncharacteristic of the group.
"They don't go around killing officials," he said. "They don't draw heat upon themselves."
But Pelz, who worked in the Texas prison system for 21 years, added that the gang has a history of threatening officials and of killing its own member or rivals. He suggested if the Aryan Brotherhood was behind the slayings in Kaufman County, some sort of disruption in the gang's operations might have prompted their retaliation.
That disruption might have come last year, when federal prosecutors in Houston in November announced indictments against 34 alleged members of the gang, including four of its top leaders in Texas. At the time, prosecutors called the indictment "a devastating blow to the leadership" of the gang.
 ::snipping2::
The killings also came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by an ex-convict.
Law enforcement agencies throughout Texas were on high alert, and steps were being taken to better protect other DAs and their staffs.
In Harris County, which includes Houston, District Attorney Mike Anderson said he accepted the sheriff's offer of 24-hour security for him and his family. Anderson said he also would take precautions at his office, the largest of its kind in Texas, with more than 270 prosecutors.
"I think district attorneys across Texas are still in a state of shock," Anderson said Sunday.
McLelland, 63, was the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.
Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes would not give details Sunday of how the killings unfolded and said there was nothing to indicate for certain whether the DA's slaying was connected to Hasse's.
El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said investigators had so far found no evidence connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."
Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.
In an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, McLelland himself raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.
 ::snipping2::
No arrests have been made in Hasse's Jan. 31 slaying. After that attack, McLelland said, he carried a gun everywhere around town, even when walking his dog. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

[MuffyBee]

This may be considered bizarre by some, but I wonder if the McLleand's were murdered by someone with an LE or military background? Could it be a rogue cop/s?  We are getting so little information because this is an open investigation and etc., but I was just wondering.  Were there security cameras?  Alarms?  Mike had a firearm to protect himself and was aware of danger.  One of the articles says he dismissed the squad car & protection that was out front the previous week.  Obviously, someone's been keeping tabs of things.  There's no mention of whether the family had dogs, which could have helped.  I just don't know.  Sometimes I think there are folks that are just so bad and so evil that if they are out to get you, they'll find a way.   

Bolded by me.

I see in the article below there is mention the McLelland family had a dog. 

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/crime/texas-das-killing-puts-other-prosecutors-on-alert/nW8NK/

No arrests have been made in Hasse's Jan. 31 slaying. After that attack, McLelland said, he carried a gun everywhere around town, even when walking his dog. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

From some of the articles I've been reading, some seem to feel the murders could be the work of a white supremacist gang.  I've also read in various articles some feel it's the Mexican Gang MS 13.  Or possibly one is cooperating with the other.  Scary stuff any way you look at it. 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Former-FBI-agent-has-theories-on-DAs-murder-200978971.html
Former FBI agent has theories on DA's murder
April 1, 2013

 ::snipping2::
Law enforcement sources told News 8 that investigators are starting from scratch, with no leads in the McLelland murders.
Immediately after Hasse was killed, McLelland had around-the-clock security, but the patrol car was pulled last month. Sources told News 8 it was only supposed to be a temporary assignment.
News 8 also learned the McLellands had surveillance cameras in their home — but only the kind which could be monitored online rather than the type that constantly records.
Everything in this case is likely being looked at — from county employees to organized crime.
"The most likely is organized [crime]," said Buck Revell, former special agent-in-charge of the Dallas FBI office. "But it could be an individual hiring professional hit men."
Revell said both Mark Hasse and the McLelland murders appear to have been carefully planned, with surveillance likely done on both targets, and an execution-style killing of Kaufman County's two top prosecutors. The motives remain a mystery.
"There's always the revenge factor," Revell said, "but the most likely [scenario] is it's an ongoing investigation or an ongoing prosecution that may have triggered this."
Brandi Hunt Fernandez is the county's new interim district attorney. Gov. Rick Perry appointed her on Monday — a position she will hold for 21 days until a permanent replacement is selected.
 ::snipping2::
Solving the Hasse and McLelland murders might take years, experts warned. It's likely to be a criminal investigation that's organized and methodical — just as the killings appear to have been.
Though the DA's office was closed on Monday, every employee showed up to work, County Judge Wood noted.