FOUR men armed with aluminium baseball bats and dressed in black with scarfs draped over their faces, burst into a Florida house and beat six people to death.
Their motive -- revenge over a missing XBox video game player and a bundle of clothes.
One 22-year-old woman was singled out for an attack so vicious even dental records were useless in identifying her.
The Microsoft XBox, which costs about $US150, belonged to Troy Victorino, who police said was bent on retaliating against the woman he blamed for its disappearance.
Even friends feared Victorino, a hulking 27-year-old with a long, violent criminal history.
"This was a senseless crime for a senseless reason," Sheriff Ben Johnson said yesterday.
Three of the 18-year-old suspects confessed to the killings, which took place at 1am on Friday.
When deputies arrived at the house later that morning, blood was everywhere and all six there were dead.
Four were couples who lived there and worked together. Two others were friends who happened to stay the night.
Investigators picked up Victorino on Saturday on an unrelated warrant and arrested him hours later on six counts of first-degree murder, after a suspect implicated him in the killings.
That suspect, Jerone Hunter, of Deltona, Florida, gave police Victorino's name and the names of Robert Cannon, of Orange City, Florida, and Michael Salas of Deltona.
Police said Victorino rallied the others to kill after one of the victims, Erin Belanger, 22, removed his belongings from her grandparents' house, where Victorino had been staying.
He was living there without the grandparents' permission, while they spent the summer up north. Victorino and a group of friends turned the quaint ranch house into a round-the-clock party spot until Ms Belanger discovered them and called the police.
After deputies sent the partygoers away, she cleaned the place and boxed Victorino's XBox and clothes.
He was in jail at the time on a felony assault charge, so Ms Belanger took the items to the house she rented with friends. Police said when Victorino entered Ms Belanger's home on Friday, he wasn't looking for his XBox, he was looking for revenge.
That's why he made Ms Belanger suffer the most savage death.
Investigators said the irony was that Ms Belanger had packed up the items to give them back to Victorino.
Steve Nathan, whose daughter Michelle was one of the victims, said the four suspects should get the death penalty.
"They took six lives," Mr Nathan said. "Those four lives need to go."
