OXFORD - A father and son are dead and another person was recovering Monday after someone shot them in their home in rural Lafayette County.

Frank Taylor Clark II, 44, and his son, Charles Taylor Clark, 20, were found dead at their residence on County Road 494 after deputies responded to a 911 call at 11:39 p.m. Saturday.

Another person, whom Sheriff F. D. "Buddy" East declined to identify, had also been wounded by gunfire.

Officials would not speculate about a motive for the killings, but the elder Clark did mechanic work on his property, and Joyce Mooneyham, who lives nearby on Belle River Road, said the incident could have started as a burglary.

"We've had trouble with people stealing out of our shop," she said. "I don't know what it was about, but he did steal the car."

A suspect reportedly fled the scene in a vehicle belonging to one of the victims. One neighbor said the suspect originally fled downhill from the Clark home but turned around after he found the steep, narrow, twisting road to be a dead end.

Sheriff's officers and K-9 units scoured the area for hours after the shooting in hopes of finding the perpetrator.

"It was a yardful of police cars," neighbor Glenn Smith said. "They were all over the place."

The vehicle was recovered by Lafayette County officers and was still being processed Monday for possible evidence.

Bobby Cobb, who lives nearby, said he heard four or five gunshots Saturday night. Gunfire is not unusual in the heavily wooded area off Belle River Road, he said, but he did notice the sound came from an unusual direction.

Cobb said the road, lined largely with mobile homes, a few shops and one deer processing business, has rarely seen any kind of trouble.

"It kind of shakes up the neighborhood to have something like this happen," he said. "Used to, you didn't hear about things like this too much."

The deaths actually constituted Lafayette County's third and fourth homicides of the year. A grand jury declined to indict Brenda Crommie, 70, for the April 5 shooting death of James Lee Jones, 47.

Jones was driving the car that appeared to be about to run over Crommie's 81-year-old husband as the older man tried to keep the couple's son from leaving their home with Jones.

James Harwell, 45, however, was indicted for murder in the April 13 shooting death of his wife, Chris Ann Harwell, in their home.

Contact Errol Castens at (662) 281-1069 or errol.castens@djournal.com.