They took a homeless man in. Then he stabbed the mother and child to death, police say

In late 2015, Tracey Wilkinson took in a young man named Aaron Barley who had fallen on hard times and was living in the streets, according to The Independent.

A little over a year later, Wilkinson and her 13-year-old son, Pierce, are dead, and her husband, Peter Wilkinson, is in stable condition in the hospital, while Barley has been arrested and accused of brutally stabbing three members of the family that once helped him, per the Birmingham Mail.

The alleged attack was discovered at 8 a.m. Thursday in Stourbridge, England, at the family’s home. Tracey was declared dead at the scene, while Pierce later died from cardiac arrest, according to the Telegraph.

According to neighbors, the Wilkinsons first took Barley into their home around Christmas 2015. He was begging on the streets when Tracey, who reportedly overcame alcohol problems of her own, invited him to sleep in their house, per The Independent.

“They were a very charitable couple, they were Good Samaritans and Tracey had a heart of gold,” a local told the Telegraph.

“It doesn't surprise me at all that they would open up their home to somebody in need and provide them with a roof over their head. It was just in their nature. They were just so kind.”

After that, the couple set Barley up in an apartment, and Peter, a businessman, gave him a job, per The Independent. However, locals said he relapsed into a drug addiction and repeatedly asked the family for money.

The couple’s daughter, 18-year-old Lydia Wilkinson, released a statement seeming to confirm that Barley “had been assisted by the family in the past 12 months.” However, Wilkinson, who was away at college at the time of the attack, also said Barley never lived with the family, as some have suggested, per ITV News.

Still, police believe the Wilkinsons allowed Barley into their home on Thursday. They also said there were no signs of a robbery inside the house, though Barley did steal Peter Wilkinson’s car, which he later crashed and was captured in, according to the Birmingham Mail.

As of Saturday, Peter Wilkinson is in critical but stable condition in the hospital, according to multiple media reports.

When Barley appeared in court on Saturday, he said he had no fixed address.

This story was originally published April 2, 2017 at 12:05 PM with the headline "They took a homeless man in. Then he stabbed the mother and child to death, police say."