PARIS – The sister of one of four people murdered over Labor Day weekend in 2006 has filed suit against the estate of the Newry innkeeper who rented a room to the killer.

Dianna Taylor, sister of James Whitehurst, filed the complaint against the estate of Julie Bullard in Oxford County Superior Court.

Whitehurst and Bullard were shot to death by Christian Nielsen, who was 31 at the time.

Taylor charges in her suit that Bullard contributed to Whitehurst’s death by negligently or recklessly failing to oversee or supervise Nielsen, who was staying at Bullard’s Black Bear Bed and Breakfast in Newry at the time of the murders.

Whitehurst, 50, of Batesville, Ark., was a guest at the inn when Nielsen invited him on a fishing trip on Sept. 1, 2006, according to court records. Nielsen drove to a remote area of C-Surplus Township near Upton, where he shot and killed Whitehurst.

Nielsen later led investigators to Whitehurst’s body, which had been burned, dismembered and buried near the site of the slaying.

Nielsen shot and killed 65-year-old Bullard on Sept. 3. He later told investigators that he thought Bullard would grow suspicious about Whitehurst’s disappearance.

Nielsen also shot and killed Bullard’s daughter Selby, 30, and her friend Cindy Beatson, 43, when they came to check on Julie Bullard the next day. The bodies of the three women were dismembered.

Nielsen pleaded guilty to the murders in October 2007 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Adrienne McNally, Bullard’s daughter and the representative of her estate, said Taylor was not the first to try to sue the estate for negligence. McNally said Beatson’s husband also tried to sue the estate, but the matter never went to court.