The lone survivor of an attack that left a former Maine resident and five others dead at an East Texas campsite told authorities that the suspect had drinks with the victims before pulling a gun and firing on them, according to an arrest warrant released Wednesday.

William Hudson, 33, of Tennessee Colony, Texas, was drinking with the group Saturday when he accompanied four of them — including a 6-year-old boy — into the surrounding woods, the warrant provided by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said.

Cynthia Johnson told sheriff’s deputies that she heard gunshots before Hudson returned alone to the campsite and chased her husband, Carl Johnson, and daughter, Hannah Johnson, into a travel camper. She said she fled and hid in the woods but saw her husband fall on the steps of the camper, where Hudson shot him.

Cynthia Johnson waited until it appeared safe and made her way to a road and eventually called 911, the document said.

On Monday, Hudson was arrested and charged with one count of murder after officers found two bodies in the trailer on land abutting his property and four more in a pond behind his house.

Authorities have said Hudson went to his mother’s home on an adjacent property after the shootings, and the warrant says deputies saw him through a door wearing bloodstained clothes. He barricaded himself inside before eventually surrendering.

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The motive behind the slayings, at least according to the ex-wife of one of the victims, may well be that Hudson thought the land that Thomas Kamp bought from Hudson’s father really belonged to him.

“Mine and my family’s theory is that Mr. Hudson got mad that my husband bought the land and this (the murders) was something he planned on doing,” Carina Kamp told the Palestine Herald Press.

In a tragic story with so many victims, it takes a bit of explaining to sort out who’s who.

Carina Kamp is the ex-wife of Thomas Kamp, a 45-year-old man who owned the reportedly disputed land in a rural area of Texas about 100 miles southeast of Dallas. According to Carina, Thomas recently purchased the land from suspect Hudson’s father, who died shortly after the transaction.

Hudson was reportedly angry about the sale and about Thomas Kamp’s decision to fence off the property. Indeed, Carina said her ex-husband found out over the weekend that Hudson had cut the lock and reclaimed the property.

If such tension was brewing beneath the surface, it was not apparent when Hudson, as has been reported, drove a tractor over to the campsite and helped Thomas Kamp and his visitors dislodge a vehicle from mud the day before he allegedly killed them. Investigators also found blood on the tractor, according to the arrest warrant.

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With Thomas were 23-year-old Nathan Kamp and 21-year-old Austin Kamp, his sons with Carina Kamp; his girlfriend Hannah Johnson and her 6-year-old son Kade, with whom he lived in Midlothian, a Dallas suburb; and 77-year-old Carl Johnson and Cynthia Johnson, Hannah Johnson’s father and mother.

Carl and Cynthia Johnson had previously lived in Farmington, Maine, and both retired from the University of Maine at Farmington in 1999.

A relative of Cynthia Johnson who asked not to be identified said Wednesday that the Johnsons retired to Texas and their daughter Hannah moved down later to be closer to them.

The two families, brought together at their new campsite for the first time, had intended to enjoy it together.

“We had a nice celebration here on Friday night for (Nathan Kamp’s) birthday,” Steven Woodruff, Thomas Kamp’s uncle, told CBS19. “Some of the family and friends were all here. They had a great time. And obviously they were going camping Saturday afternoon.”

All save Cynthia — who fled from the scene after Hudson attacked, hid in the woods and lived to tell the tale — would soon be dead.

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“Apparently (the killer) did not see her run away,” said Sheriff Greg Taylor. “She was able to hide, thank God.”

Surviving family members were left numb by the carnage, which Taylor likened to “a war movie.”

“Nothing can describe the pain and suffering the remaining family members feel,” Woodruff said.

Carina Kamp, meanwhile, described ex-husband Thomas as “a loving father and wonderful man.”

“We have been close our whole lives,” she said. “I love him more than anything.”

Hudson remains in jail with a $2.5 million bond. Sheriff Taylor noted that he had recently been arrested on an assault charge.

“We handled him for assault within the last few weeks,” Taylor said. “He was violent, but it wasn’t of this nature.”

Morning Sentinel staff and Justin Wm. Moyer of the Washington Post contributed to this report.


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