A couple who "defriended" a woman on Facebook were murdered in their home in an attack a US sheriff described as "the worst I've ever seen".

Police in Tennessee have arrested the jilted woman's father and another man and charged them with murder.

Billy Clay Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth were killed last month after they deleted Jenelle Potter, the daughter of one of the suspects, from their "friends" list.

Both were shot in the head and Mr Payne's throat was cut.

The couple's eight-month-old baby was found in the mother's arms, unharmed, when the bodies were discovered.

"It's the worst thing I've ever seen," said Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece, who has worked in local law enforcement for 27 years.

"We've had murders, but nothing like this. This is just senseless."

Marvin Enoch "Buddy" Potter Jr, 60, and Jamie Lynn Curd, 38, were arrested this week and charged with the murders.

The case is not the first involving violence linked to Facebook. Last year in Iowa, a woman was arrested on accusations of setting fire to a friend's garage after she was defriended on the social network site, local media reported.

In Texas, a man was accused of hitting his wife after she failed to "like" a Facebook post he wrote about the anniversary of his mother's death, according to media reports.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)