Police in Pennsylvania are searching for an 18-year-old man and his girlfriend after her parents were found shot dead in their home.
The girlfriend’s sister told authorities she saw the youth kill her father.
Police said David Ludwig killed 14-year-old Kara Beth Borden’s parents, Michael and Cathryn Lee Borden, after they and their daughter argued about her curfew.
The girl was last seen after the shootings yesterday morning at the family’s home about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
“We don’t know whether she has been abducted or is willingly a part of this,” said Police Chief William Seace.
Until they can determine otherwise, police are operating on the assumption that she has been kidnapped.
Kara Beth’s 13-year-old sister, Katelyn, told investigators her father and mother were shot after they argued with Ludwig for about an hour, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
“As they got near the front door, Katelyn Borden saw David Ludwig with a handgun pointed toward her father and Katelyn saw David Ludwig pull the trigger, heard a gunshot, and then she ran into the bathroom,” the affidavit said.
She heard a second shot – presumably the one that killed her mother – while hiding in the bathroom, it said. Ludwig then ran through the house calling for Kara, she told investigators.
The couple’s nine-year-old son ran to the home of neighbours, who called the police.
Police issued an arrest warrant last night for Ludwig on two counts of criminal homicide, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of kidnapping.
He was last seen driving his parents’ car.
“We think they’re boyfriend and girlfriend,” said Seace. “The young girl was out during the night, came home, and her parents confronted her.”
Lancaster County Coroner Gary Kirchner said today that the victims, who were both 50, apparently died of single gunshot wounds to the head. Autopsies were being conducted.
“It’s completely insane, completely insane,” Kirchner said. “This isn’t a Romeo-and-Juliet deal; this is far worse than that.”
It was the second violent incident in a week in normally quiet Lititz, a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, village known for quaint shops, local artists and Sturgis Pretzel House, which bills itself as America’s first pretzel bakery.
On Tuesday, police shot and killed 23-year-old Daniel Faust hours after he allegedly shot one of three officers who had gone to his home with a traffic warrant.
The officer, Jevon Miller, was critically wounded.
The Borden family had lived in their home for several years, said neighbour Tod Sherman, 47. Mike Borden worked for a printing company, and the children were home-schooled, he said.
Sherman said the family knew the 18-year-old suspect through a home-schooling network.
Stephanie Mannon, 16, said Ludwig and Kara Borden had been seeing each other secretly.
“Their parents didn’t approve of them being together” because of the age difference, she said. “It wasn’t because he was a shady character, because he wasn’t.”
Both Ludwig and Kara Borden maintain websites. Hers refers to interests in football, art and her Christian faith; his says he enjoys “having soft air gun wars” and claims expertise in “getting in trouble".
Here are their MySpace pages...
http://www.myspace.com/haydren
http://www.myspace.com/meantxtoxlive
