PAIR NABBED IN SERIES OF 4 SLAYINGS

A man and his 17-year-old girlfriend were arrested in a series of four slayings that started with an argument over a gerbil.

Mark Newton Spotz, 23, was arrested Friday in a motel room outside Harrisburg, ending a manhunt that started Tuesday after the killing of Spotz's older brother, Dustin.The search intensified as the bodies of three women were discovered in central Pennsylvania.

"We rushed . . . to make sure we didn't have additional victims," State Police Capt. Ralph Periandi said.

Police arrested Spotz's girl-friend, Christine Dianne Noland, in the murder of one woman in Schuylkill County, about 135 miles east of Harrisburg.

Police said Noland was with Spotz when his brother was shot and accompanied him across the middle of the state.

The pair split up south of Harrisburg, and Noland took the bus to Altoona, where she lives. She contacted police and provided information that helped authorities find Spotz, who was on parole at the time he was arrested, state police said. Authorities said Spotz had served time in state prison for robbery.

The four-day spree started with Mark Spotz yelling at the young son of his brother's fiancee for placing a gerbil near his face while he was sleeping, police said.

As the argument escalated, Dustin Spotz, 25, stabbed his brother, and Mark Spotz retaliated by shooting him twice in the chest, police said. Mark Spotz wasn't seriously injured.