Alaska Suspect Got Out of Jail Hours Before Murders

The suspect in a horrific double murder in Alaska walked out of jail less than 12 hours before he allegedly murdered an elderly couple and sexually assaulted their 2-year-old great-granddaughter, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Jerry Active, 24, had been serving time for a probation violation, the latest in a series of violations that caused him to be in prison for all but 18 days since his first release on probation in October 2011. He was released at 8:09am Saturday and arrested that night following an attack that Alaska police are calling the worst they've ever seen.

A registered sex offender, Active has been in and out of jail since 2007, a spokeswoman for Alaska's Department of Corrections says. He was arrested in 2009 for a crime with disturbing similarities to the one that has shocked Alaska: He broke into a home, attempted to sexually assault an 11-year-old girl, and then attacked three family members. "He messed up quickly and repeatedly" every time he got out of jail and was often re-arrested on the same day, the corrections spokeswoman says. (More Jerry Active stories.)