The men were killed in rural areas of Ohio

Timothy Kern, 47, was answering an ad for a farmhand, CBS reports. He died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Police say the same ad led to the shooting death of a Norfolk, Va. man. David Pauley, 51, was killed in a rural area 5o miles south of Akron. A South Carolina man also answered the ad but escaped after being shot. 

Another body was discovered in a shallow grave in Noble County in southeastern Ohio just a few hours after Kern's body was discovered, the Akron Beacon Journal said. 

Noble County Sheriff Steve Hannum is under a gag order and cannot discuss the case but referred to the victim as the "second body" in an email Friday, suggesting it may be linked to the Cragislist case.

If the body found in Noble County is linked to the other killings, it would bring the death toll for the Craiglist scheme to 3.

According to the Seattle Times:

The FBI on Tuesday had said, without elaboration, that Timothy Kern's disappearance might be linked to a farm-job robbery scheme.

Two people from the Akron area are in custody: a high-school student who has been charged with attempted murder, and Richard Beasley, 52, who was jailed on unrelated charges. Beasley's mother has said he has "a very caring heart" and she prays newspaper reports he is a suspect are wrong.Another man who responded to the farm-job ad has said he met Beasley at a food court at a different mall in the Akron area Oct. 10.

Beasley told Ron Sanson he was looking for an older, single or divorced person to watch over a 688-acre farm in southeast Ohio, the kind of man, Sanson said, whose disappearance might not be quickly noticed.

The farm advertised on Craigslist does not exist. 

View the story "Follow reaction to the killings:" on Storify]