As investigators work the case, loved ones are remembering a mother, a teenage daughter and a 12-year-old boy whose deaths stunned their community.
WILMER, Ala. — Grief spread across Wilmer on Monday and Tuesday as relatives and friends remembered a mother and her two children found slain inside their home, speaking through tears about lives they said were warm, hopeful and cut short without reason.
The victims were identified as Lisa Fields, 46, her 17-year-old daughter Keziah Luker, and 12-year-old son Thomas Cordelle Jr. Investigators say the three were found dead inside their house on Auble Moody Road, while an 18-month-old child inside the home was left unharmed. As deputies searched for suspects, those closest to the family tried to tell the public who the victims were beyond the crime scene details: a mother known for lifting people up, a teen starting to shape her future, and a quiet boy remembered as sweet and kind.
Luker’s father spoke in raw terms after learning his daughter, her mother and her brother had been killed. He said the family was not doing well and called the attack senseless. In his telling, Luker had a bright personality that could change the mood in a room. He said she made people smile, had empathy for others and cared deeply for her family. He also said she had recently earned her GED, a milestone that mattered because she was trying to move forward with purpose. The loss carried another painful layer: he said Luker was about eight months pregnant. Her death, he suggested, was not just the loss of one young life but of a future she was trying to build.
Friends painted a similar picture of the household. Mandi Evans, a close friend of Fields, said their friendship grew quickly after their children became friends. She remembered Fields as the kind of person who would not let others stay down for long. Evans shared one of her favorite memories, a light story about trying to start a grass-cutting business together with Fields and Fields’ sister before the Alabama heat got the best of them. The story was simple, but that was the point. It showed a family made up not only of headlines and police briefings, but of jokes, plans and ordinary days. Evans said Thomas, known as TJ, was much like his mother: loving, gentle and mostly to himself.
Evans also remembered Luker as a strong young mother. She said she had seen Luker step into that role with confidence and care, and she said the teenager was excited to welcome another baby girl. Those memories now sit against the hard facts laid out by investigators. Sheriff Paul Burch said all three victims were found in separate rooms with their hands bound behind their backs. He said Fields was stabbed and had her throat cut, Luker was shot, and Thomas also suffered a fatal cut to the throat. Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry and that the home looked as if someone had gone through it searching for something. Even with those details public, the people who knew the victims seemed fixed on a different question: not only who did this, but why this family.
The answers have not yet come. Burch said investigators do not believe the killings appear to be domestic or family-related, and he said there were positive leads, but no suspect had been announced by Tuesday. District Attorney Keith Blackwood said future charges could depend on several facts still being sorted out, including the ages of the victims, whether the crime involved burglary and how the law applies to the unborn child. For loved ones, that legal process is still somewhere ahead. Right now, the first task is living through the shock. Their public comments sounded less like statements meant for television than attempts to hold on to the people they loved while the investigation moved around them.
In that way, the story in Wilmer has become two stories at once. One belongs to law enforcement: a planned attack, a home in disarray, and a search for the people responsible. The other belongs to a family and circle of friends who keep returning to the same thought, that the victims were ordinary people with plans, children, humor and hope. That second story does not answer the case. But it explains the depth of what was taken when three people in one home did not survive the night.
By Tuesday, April 21, the public case remained open, with investigators still working leads and loved ones continuing to speak about the victims in the present tense of memory and loss.
Author note: Last updated April 21, 2026.