That afternoon, Jack Romines came home to find a horrific sight. His wife and daughter lay in the master bedroom dead and gruesomely mutilated. He called police in a panic. Autopsy of the two females found extensive mutilating knife injuries which forensic pathologist Dr. Cleland Blake described as "torture type cuts." Sheila was raped and then stabbed in the abdomen 17 times including three cuts to the heart. The abdominal wounds were probably inflicted before the fatal heart ones; some of them penetrated the liver and mesentery; the abdominal cavity had a good deal of blood in it, so clearly they were administered prior to the cessation of circulation. The 15 year old had other injuries to the left forearm and thumb. Dr. Blake believed the wounds, especially the ones to the liver, would have been "incredibly painful."

Wanda was also stabbed numerous times, one knife thrust collapsed her right lung and there were other wounds to the colon, gall bladder, and liver, the fatal blow being a thrust that severed the right common iliac artery, causing massive bleeding into the abdominal cavity. The evidence seemed to suggest two persons had done all this, not merely one.

The phone cable to the house had also been cut, Jack Romines's .38 pistol was missing, and $200 in cash. The gun was found in a storm drain in Norris, about 15 miles away. A friend of Martin's testified that Martin had visited his house and borrowed a butcher knife from him.