"She said she thought it was spooky," said her grandmother Myrtle Robertson.

Blake, 20, who was born and raised in Cedar City, told Robertson she did not know the murder suspect, Nicholas T. Sheley, but that he was married to a relative of her fiancé, Brock Branson.

Two months ago, Blake and her 2-year-old son, Dayan Blake, moved with Branson to his hometown of Rock Falls, Ill. On Monday, their bodies were found in their apartment, along with the body of roommate, Kenneth Ulve Jr., 25. All had been severely beaten and the apartment was covered in blood, police said.

"They had to shave [Dayan's] head to examine his wounds," Robertson said.

Investigators said the four likely died late Saturday or early Sunday. Police say Sheley, a suspect in four other deaths in Illinois and Missouri, is their killer.

Sheley, 28, of Sterling, Ill., was arrested Tuesday night without incident in Granite City, an Illinois community about 10 miles north of St. Louis.

While Illinois police say they have put an end to a killing spree, Blake's family members are only beginning to deal with their grief.

The family gathered Wednesday at Robertson's Cedar City home to remember the slain woman and her son and make arrangements for the funeral, set for Monday at the Mountain View LDS Ward in this southern Utah city.

"She was fun, outgoing and loved music," said Blake's sister, Gleniecia Lewis, who lives in Santaquin. "I was informed of her death on Tuesday while driving down the road and couldn't believe it. It affected me even more when I heard Dayan was included."

Lewis said she was the last family member to talk to Blake, who called her Saturday afternoon to ask for a recipe for chicken enchilada casserole.

"We talked to each other at least every other day," said Lewis.

She said her sister met Branson last year when he was working as a long-haul trucker and she was making sandwiches in a Subway store at Love's truck stop in Cedar City.

"He traveled back and forth a lot, stopped there and they hit it off," said Lewis.

Blake moved to Illinois with Branson in 2007, but after a few months the couple came back to Cedar City where they lived with Robertson.

Two months ago, the couple and Blake's son moved back to Illinois, so Branson could be near his 10-year-old child.

Jodi Fitzgerald, Branson's sister, said her brother and Blake knew Sheley's wife but not Sheley himself.

"As far as I know, they do not have any connection with Mr. Sheley," Fitzgerald said.

Branson, Blake and Dayan were last seen Saturday evening when they had dinner with Branson's parents, Fitzgerald said. Branson was supposed to fix his parents' roof on Monday, but never arrived.

Dallas and Connie Branson knew something was wrong when their son, Brock, didn't call them.

"They were really happy," Dallas Branson, 63, said Wednesday. "They invited us over for dinner Saturday night, and Ki [a nickname for Kilynna] made an enchilada casserole and garlic bread."

After dinner, the family watched a movie, and the elder Bransons were home by 8:30 p.m. They don't live far from their only son.

"Always on Sunday, he calls us," Branson said. "The next morning, he didn't call. All day long, nothing. I had an eerie feeling."

By the time Connie Branson got off work at 3 p.m. on Monday, she had had all the wondering she could take, he said. "She went over to the apartment, but she couldn't get the door open," he said.

It got worse when Dallas Branson went back to his son's apartment and tried the door, while his wife waited outside.

"I pushed against it, and it opened a little bit, but I felt something against the door," he said. "It was open about 6 inches, and I peeked in. I saw Ki with her arms over her head, covered in blood. That petrified me.

"Then I saw my son, lying face down. Then I saw the little guy's legs. I panicked. I slammed the door and ran. I said, 'They're dead! They're all dead! They've killed our son.' "

Connie Branson refused to believe her husband.

"She said, 'They're not dead!' and I told her again that they were," he said. "She wanted to go back up there, but I wouldn't let her."

On Wednesday, Dayan's father Daniel Jones said he was not pleased with investigators in Illinois.

"They told me they couldn't release any information on the murders, when I talked to them," said Jones.

He said he met Blake at Canyon View High School in Cedar City and at one time talked about getting married.

He said the death of his son, "has left me in a daze."

Sandra Seeley, Blake's mother, was still trying to come to grips with the killing of her daughter.

"It's not the first time I had to bury one," she said.

Lewis, Blake's sister, said that in 1993, their brother, Kurtis, 9, was killed when a gas tank exploded at their house.

Sheley has so far been charged with the murders of two people, although he is suspected in the other deaths. Law enforcement agencies have declined to speculate on a motive for the slayings.

Sheley is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and vehicular hijacking in the death of Ronald Randall, 65, whose body was found Monday behind a grocery store in Galesburg, Ill., police said. He is also charged with murder in the death of 93-year-old Russell Reed in Sterling, Ill., according to the Whiteside County Attorney's Office.

Authorities said the killings began with the beating death of Reed, whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car Thursday. Sheley has not been charged in the slayings of Jill and Tom Estes, of Sherwood, Ark., whose bodies were found behind a gas station in Festus, Mo.

Public records show Sheley has multiple convictions for robbery, drugs and weapons charges and has spent three years in prison.

mhavnes@sltrib.com

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

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* ROBERT GEHRKE, THE QUAD-CITY TIMES and AP contributed to this story.