Suspect in slayings complained about cheating wife

Associated Press - November 19, 2009 1:15 PM ET

FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A sheriff's deputy has testified that a man charged with fatally stabbing and beating six people in Tennessee and Alabama told him his wife had been unfaithful.

Bob Jones of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing in Fayetteville for 28-year-old Jacob Shaffer. Shaffer was ordered held for grand jury action after a one-hour hearing.

Shaffer's estranged wife, Tracie, her teenage son, her father and brother and a 16-year-old neighbor were found killed in two homes in rural Fayetteville on July 18. A man who was described as an acquaintance of Shaffer's was found beaten to death at a Huntsville, Ala., business, about 30 miles south.