New details released in East TX campsite murders

It was supposed to be a place of happiness and promise, but the East Texas property where six members of two families were murdered is now a notorious crime scene.

FOX 4 learned more on Friday about the plans that those victims had for the property that one of them had recently purchased.

Tom Hanson remembers doing business with the couple who recently purchased the 16-acre tract of land in Anderson County, only to be, according to investigators, murdered there with their 6-year-old boy and three other relatives.

Hanson cleared brush away so that Thomas Kamp, Hannah Johnson and her son, Cade, could enjoy more of their new property.

“But you know, I had a little surprise trail for ‘em that they didn’t know I was gonna cut, so we went down that and he goes, ‘Where does this go?’” said Hanson. “I said ‘It goes to your creek,’ ‘cause they didn’t know they had a creek that ran through the place.”

District Attorney Allyson Mitchell talked about the upgraded capital murder charges against 33-year-old William Hudson in what's being called the most horrific crime in Anderson County modern history.

“I was there,” said Mitchell. “I saw the horrific and senseless nature of this criminal act. There are no words to adequately describe this atrocious act.”

More revelations include that all of the victims were shot except for Hannah Johnson -- she was bludgeoned to death. Her father, Carl Johnson, was shot and bludgeoned.

Thomas Kamp, his two adult sons, Nathan and Austin, and 6-year-old Cade were all shot while with the suspect in the woods, looking for firewood.

The D.A. wouldn't discuss motive in the case, but details from some of the suspect’s relatives suggest he may have been unhappy about the sale of the property, which had been owned by members of his family.

A memorial service is scheduled for the Kamp and Johnson families on Saturday in Midlothian at First United Methodist Church at 1 p.m.