Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin holds up a sheet on the porch while investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation gather evidence at the Depot Road home of MaryAnn McGuire, who was shot and killed in the county’s second homicide of the year. (Salem News photo by Deanne Johnson)

SALINEVILLE — Two people are in custody for their alleged connection in the Friday shooting homicide of MaryAnn McGuire on the porch of her Depot Road home in Hanover Township.

Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin confirmed McGuire’s stepdaughter, Alyssa McGuire, and her boyfriend, Justin Givens, were both arrested early Saturday in a place near the railroad tracks known as white culvert outside of Salineville.

Murder charges reportedly are pending against Givens, who was arrested on an unrelated weapons under disability charge. Alyssa McGuire and the couple’s two children were with him at the time of the arrest. She was taken into custody and is currently charged with child endangering.

MaryAnn McGuire, a 67-year-old nurse, was reportedly shot Friday morning from a distance in the area of her porch on the side of the house near the garage. Alyssa McGuire and the children also were reportedly there when the shooting occurred. The children have now been placed by Children Services with other family members.

While some investigators processed the murder scene, others began the search for the couple. At one point, the sheriff’s office alerted other law enforcement that they could be armed and dangerous.

“That was one of our biggest concerns,” McLaughlin said of the Friday and Saturday’s search for the couple with the two small children with them. “To know they had those kids with them and under the circumstances where there had been a shooting.”

Authorities found the vehicle, a Dodge Ram pickup truck the couple were driving abandoned in the area of Foundry Hill Road late Friday night. Their arrest came at around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, in an area not far from that location.

McLaughlin said after questioning the couple, he expects murder charges will be filed against Givens as soon as on Monday, however the case still remains under investigation at this time. McLaughlin said investigators have learned there had been ongoing problems in the relationships between Givens and members of McGuire’s family in the time leading up to the shooting.

Both McGuire, 28, and Givens, 27, who listed their address in court as U.S. Route 30, Kensington, also appeared in County Municipal Court in December, after they were reportedly together during a Dec. 26 traffic stop in the area of state Route 7 in Columbiana. At that time, they were each charged with improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle and obstructing official business for allegedly switching seats before the police officer approached the vehicle and denying it. Court records indicate there were two loaded firearms found in the vehicle during that traffic stop — a loaded revolver and a rife.

A week later, Givens and McGuire were bound over to the grand jury on the charges. The Columbiana County Common Pleas grand jury in February indicted them on those charges, with an additional charge of endangering children due to their children reportedly being in the vehicle with them at that time. They appeared for arraignments on March 3.