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Sanford man gets life sentence for killing wife, stepdaughter

A Sanford man avoided the death penalty Thursday by pleading guilty to killing his wife and stepdaughter two years ago.

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Billy Jo McLean, Sanford double homicide
SANFORD, N.C. — A Sanford man avoided the death penalty Thursday by pleading guilty to killing his wife and stepdaughter two years ago.

Billy Jo McLean, 56, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Sanford firefighters found the bodies of Calandra McLean, 42, and Tashonna Cameron, 13, inside the family's 916 Clark Circle home on July 13, 2015.

Autopsies determined both women had been strangled before the house was set ablaze, and Calandra McLean had been bound and gagged with duct tape.

A nationwide search ensued for McLean's husband, who was arrested four days later at a motel in the Texas Panhandle, where he had fled with his stepson.

Seventeen-year-old Tobias McLean, who had walked to a nearby diner while Billy Jo McLean slept, learned from Facebook about the deaths of his mother and sister and the manhunt for his stepfather and asked diner employees to call 911.

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