Immediately after reports of the slaying spread, blockades were set up several miles northeast and southwest on Highway 67 East. Sheriff Davis called in officers from the entire area to help in the investigation, including two agents from the FBI, Captain Gonzaullas and other Texas Rangers, Sheriff Presley and his deputies, Sheriff Jim Sanderson from Little River County, Arkansas State Police, local police, and many others. In the house, investigators found a trail of blood with scattered teeth. On the dining room table were Mrs. Starks' supplies for making a dress. Gonzaullas, after seeing the "virtual river of blood", stated, "it is beyond me why she did not bleed to death." There were only two bullet holes in the window, leading Sheriff Davis to believe an automatic rifle was used. Investigators declared that after the killer shot Virgil, he waited patiently outside the window to shoot Virgil's wife.