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Charges Planned In Killing Of Mother, Daughter

CANON CITY, Colo. (AP) — Prosecutors plan to file charges Thursday against a sex offender accused of killing a woman and two of her children in southern Colorado.

Suspect Jaacob Vanwinkle was expected to appear in court later in the day.

Last week, a judge granted a request by prosecutors to delay the filing of charges until Thursday so they could review more evidence in the case, including preliminary autopsy results.

Authorities also have accused Vanwinkle of sexually assaulting the woman's teenage daughter. She escaped the home and survived.

Vanwinkle and the mother had dated and he was living with the family, authorities said.

The Associated Press isn't naming the mother or the children to protect the identity of the daughter.

Vanwinkle was convicted in Indiana of child molestation and other sex crimes involving girls as young as 5 and 7 in 2004. He failed to register as a sex offender after moving to Canon City and authorities were trying to find him before he was arrested in the March 9 killings.

After moving from Indiana to Colorado, he was required to register four times a year. He was supposed to report to the sheriff's office in Fremont County, where Canon City is located, on March 4 but never showed up, Capt. Don Pinover said.

Pinover said the law gives sex offenders a five-day grace period, so a judge would not have signed a warrant until the day after the slayings. Vanwinkle was also wanted in another Colorado county on suspicion of violating a protection order, Pinover said.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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