Family Relieved To Get Answers In 2007 Christmas Murder Case

There’s been a big break in a double murder that's been cold for more than a decade.

Sources told News on 6 a multi-county grand jury indicted Justin Walker in connection with the murders of Jack and Elaine Denney. 

03/08/2018 Related Story: Sources: Multi-County Grand Jury Indicts Man For 2007 Denney Murders

The couple was killed in their home near Locust Grove in 2007. 

News on 6 spoke with family members who found the couple's bodies on Christmas Day. 

Jack and Elaine Denney's daughter and her husband said they are so relieved to finally have some answers after more than 10 years of waiting. 

But they also know they still have a long way to go from here.

"It didn't take long to figure out something bad happened," said daughter Sarah Keener. 

Keener recalls the tragic Christmas morning back in 2007 when she and her husband Ladney and their three kids went over to her parent's house to exchange gifts. 
 
"I remember just seeing dark on the floor and what I thought was my dad … I was pretty confident just by what I had seen that my parents were dead," said Keener.  

Now more than 10 years later, they can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel now that sources say a grand jury has indicted Justin Walker with their murders. 

Walker is already behind bars on unrelated charges.

"Now that we know who. I want to hear why. What was the point? Why did they have to die? What was the purpose of that," Keener said.  

Jack and Elaine Denney were well known to the community. Whether it was from the handmade blankets Elaine made or the helping hand Jack gave, it was hard for family and friends to believe something like this could happen to them. 

“I'd never heard of him. They had no connection to him. I have no idea. No idea why,” Keener said.  

And after multiple different leads and various agencies investigating the case, the family has always had them to thank for never letting this case go. 

"They may not get a lot to go on but they're going to find something," said Sarah’s husband Ladney.  
 
"It was not ever really in my mind a cold case because they were always working," Keener said.  
                
The Happy memories they have with them are stronger and will always be stronger than that tragic Christmas Day. 

"They aren't defined by how they died. I had 40 years with them so 40 years of good stuff," said Keener. 

The DA and sheriff's office will hold a news conference at the Cherokee County courthouse Friday morning. 

The family will also be there. 

Stay with News On 6 for the latest developments.