murder – Page 4 – Homeschoolers Anonymous

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Erin Caffey

March 4, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team3 Comments

Series note: “When Homeschoolers Turn Violent” is a joint research project by Homeschoolers Anonymous and Homeschooling’s Invisible Children. Please see the Introduction for detailed information about the purpose and scope of the project.

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Erin Caffey

Erin Caffey was 16 years old when she made plans for her boyfriend and two of his friends to kill her family.

Erin came from a conservative and protective family. Her family began homeschooling her when she was 13 after her family moved from Alba, Texas, to Celeste, Texas, to be closer to Miracle Faith, a conservative Baptist church where her parents worked as ministers. Erin initially started the eighth grade at public school, but her parents were horrified when a girl at school tried to kiss Erin. The Caffeys reacted by “abruptly pulled their children out of school a month into the academic year, and Penny began teaching them a Bible-based curriculum at home.”

Bisexuality was a serious threat in the minds of the Caffeys. Erin’s father Terry said his family was “shocked by a culture of bisexuality,” blaming that bisexual culture for confusing his daughter “before she finally veered off into the premarital relationship that turned deadly.”

For Erin, homeschooling resulted in “an isolated existence for an otherwise social girl whose life was largely circumscribed to Miracle Faith and her parents’ house, six miles from town.” Erin reportedly “didn’t have many friends.” This isolation apparently took its toll. When Erin turned 16, in July 2007, she was allowed to work at the local Sonic. One of her co-workers observed that, “She was so sheltered. It was like she was seeing the world for the first time.”

Erin met her soon-to-be-boyfriend (and later murder partner) Charlie at Sonic. A high school senior, Charlie was known as hotheaded, but he had never been arrested previously and had no serious discipline problems at school. Erin’s parents, however, did not approve of Charlie. After Erin and Charlie dated for a few months, Charlie presented Erin with his grandmother’s engagement ring. It was not a formal proposal, but he was nonetheless making clear his desire.

The semi-proposal infuriated Terry and Penny. From then on, the Caffeys limited Erin’s time with Charlie to “once a week, in their home, under their watch.” Erin became furious and planned to run away. In February, after Penny grounded Erin for talking to Charlie without permission and took away Erin’s keys and phone, Erin decided — and told Charlie — that “killing her parents…was their best option.”

And so they tried to.

On March 1, 2008, Erin, Charlie, and two of Charlie’s friends drove to Erin’s family’s house. Erin waited in the car with one friend while her boyfriend and the other friend went on a shooting and stabbing spree, following which they set fire to the house. During the attack, “Penny Caffey, 37, and her sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, died.” Terry Caffey, 41, however, “was shot five times but escaped.” Terry survived.

In January of 2009, Erin was charged with “capital murder for her role in the deaths of her mother and two young brothers.” In 2012, Erin’s father told “Nightline” that he has “learned to accept the death of his family, and has even reconnected with his daughter, Erin, who orchestrated the massacre.” Erin will not be eligible for parole until she is 59, but her father visits her every few months in prison.

New York Times bestseller Keith Elliot Greenberg wrote a book in 2011 about the murder titled Love Hurts: The True Story of a Teen Romance, a Vicious Plot, and a Family Murdered.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Hannah Bonser

March 4, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team3 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Hannah Bonser

On February 14, 2012, 26-year-old Hannah Bonser stabbed a 13-year-old girl to death in an unprovoked attack in Elmfield Park, Doncaster, in the United Kingdom. The victim, Casey Kearney, was a complete stranger to Hannah.

Hannah had been in and out of mental care services for 10 years since the age of 16. She had a history of mental health problems, substance abuse, and a childhood plagued by sexual abuse and neglect. These problems went back to her childhood, where she was homeschooled in a Mormon family. She was raised by “Mormon parents who were allowed to home school her despite warnings of neglect. When social workers visited her home at one point they found rooms ‘full of dead cats and excreta.’” At the age of 10, she was placed in public school; at the age of 13, she was removed from her family and placed in foster care; at age 16, she became homeless.

Just a month before the murder, Hannah said that “she had been hearing voices since she was seven years old but that they were now ‘worse than ever.’” In spite of that, Hannah was discharged from specialist mental health treatment a mere two weeks later. She was discharged despite signs that her mental health was worsening. In fact, Hannah had “repeatedly told doctors and nurses she was hearing voices and feared she was going to harm someone in the weeks before she murdered Casey Kearney.”

An independent review of care Hannah received throughout her life noted major mistakes and failures on the part of multiple individuals and organizations. Hannah was nonetheless found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Patrick Armstrong

March 3, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team3 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Patrick Armstrong

Patrick Armstrong and Marlee Johnston were friends growing up in a neighborhood called Lovejoy Pond in Readfield, Maine. But in 2005, the 14-year-old Patrick murdered Marlee (also 14). Marlee’s brother Alec found his sister’s body in the shallow water of the neighborhood pond.

Patrick, who lived with his parents and an older sister, was homeschooled for most of his life. Marlee was attending a public school. After the murder, police looked into a personal website of Patrick’s, where the homeschooled teen expressed sentiments like, “I hate this society and I hate most people within it,” and listed “serial killers and Columbine” as his interests. Indeed, in Patrick’s list of heroes, Eric Harris — one of the Columbine gunmen — is mentioned.

Faith Soria, a neighbor of the Armstrongs, seemed shocked that Patrick would have done such a thing. She told media that “he was always polite and did not cause problems in the neighborhood.” Concerning the Armstrong family, she said, “They are wonderful neighbors and friends to us.”

When the news of Patrick murdering Marlee broke in December of 2005, it shook up the homeschooling community, to the point that Alex Harris wrote a blog post about it for The Rebelution, a Christian ministry directed at youth. Alex said it was “the second time in less than a month a homeschool teen has been arrested for murder.” This led Alex to consider how “homeschooling, by itself, is not enough to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” calling the tragedy “a wake-up call to the homeschool community.”

Patrick pleaded guilty to manslaughter in December 2006 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Claude Alexander Allen III

March 3, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team2 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Claude Alexander Allen III

20-year-old Claude Alexander Allen III — known by those around him as Alex — murdered a man with a hatchet in May 2013 in his parents’ garage in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

On the day of the attack, Alex called 911 around midnight and said he had killed an intruder. It was determined, however, that the so-called intruder was 25-year-old Michael Philip Harvey, a friend of Alex’s and a father of four young children. Alex and Michael were, according to one person, “good friends.” After killing Michael with a hatchet, Alex had allegedly dragged his body to the nearby woods, stuffing it “in a large trash can.”

The altercation and, ultimately, murder resulted from a dispute between the friends over “controlled dangerous substances sales.”

Alex’s father is Claude A. Allen, a former top White House adviser on domestic policy for former President George W. Bush who was arrested in 2006 for theft. The Allen family attended and “were active at” the C.J. Mahaney-founded Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which was pastored at the time by Joshua Harris, who is still its pastor today.

Mr. Allen, Alex’s father, was known as “an advocate of home-schooling and abstinence education” and his wife homeschooled their children, including Alex. A neighbor of the Allens said the former homeschool student was a star soccer and rugby player and had just returned home from University of Richmond. Alex’s actions “stunned friends and neighbors.” HSLDA’s Michael Farris himself commented on Alex’s arrest, saying, “It’s one of the saddest shocks I’ve heard.”

In November of 2013, Alex was “indicted on a charge of first-degree murder,” but was “being evaluated to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.”

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Couty Alexander

March 3, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team4 Comments

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Couty Alexander

In 2008, Couty Alexander, a 23-year-old emergency medical technician, murdered his pregnant 24-year-old wife, Christa. They had been married for 4 months and Christa was 12 weeks pregnant.

It was the afternoon of June 28, 2008. Couty and Christa were alone in their home in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Couty was allegedly taking his 9 mm pistol to work “because he was looking for a buyer.” As he prepared to leave, Couty said the gun “brushed against her head” and he was “aware of pulling the trigger.” Christa had simply been “attempting to gather some clothing from her closet.”

Couty had been homeschooled as a child. He had enjoyed mission trips and conducting Vacation Bible Schools. He and Christa had a strict courtship — they avoided all physical contact and were always supervised. Upon marrying, Christa became pregnant almost immediately because they did not believe in birth control. Couty allegedly had a “good reputation in the community, in his church, and among co-workers.” He also “owned many guns” and “fired guns often.”

Both before and after his marriage to Christa, Couty had a relationship with another woman, his co-worker Allison Sharp. Couty and Allison’s relationship involved “kissing and holding hands” and they had “once spent the night together.” It has been alleged that Christa had found out about the affair and was — at the time of the murder — “packing to leave him.”

Couty was charged in 2009 with second-degree murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and first-degree feticide for the baby his wife was carrying at the time. He is serving a 55-year prison sentence.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Isaac Aguigui

March 3, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial TeamLeave a comment

Trigger warning: If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic.

*****

Isaac Aguigui

On December 6, 2011, 20-year-old Isaac Aguigui, a Private in the United States Army, murdered 17-year-old Tiffany York and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Michael Roark.

Isaac served with Michael at the Fort Stewart Army base in Hinesville, Georgia. Isaac and his friends lured Tiffany and Michael, who were dating, to a secluded patch of woods near the military base and then shot them to death. Isaac was afraid they would not keep secret Isaac’s plans for a secret militia. Those plans were to bomb major dams, poison Washington State’s apple crop, infiltrate the drug trade, and — ultimately — “assassinate President Barack Obama and seize control of the U.S. government.”

Isaac and his co-conspirators and murder partners, Private Christopher Salmon, Private Michael Burnett, and Sergeant Anthony Peden, called themselves FEAR: Forever Enduring, Always Ready. Prior to the murder, they had been aggressively stockpiling weapons and ammunition, accumulating $87,000 worth in a matter of months. Isaac funded all of this with money from $500,000 in insurance benefits he received from his wife’s death. Though Isaac was not charged in her death at the time, a judge called the death “highly suspicious.” His wife was 6 months pregnant at the time of her death.

Isaac’s mother Annette homeschooled him and his five siblings for most of their lives while his father served in the Army as a combat engineer. They were homeschooled because, according to his father Edward, “there was some curriculum we didn’t agree with, like evolution versus creation. We wanted to teach them in our way.” Annette’s grandmother was surprised by her grandson’s violent streak, saying that, “When they were little kids, they weren’t even allowed to have guns. Isaac never got into trouble, and was always helping out. I have no idea what happened.”

In 2008, Isaac was a page at the Republican National Convention. According Heather Salmon, the wife of one of Isaac’s co-conspirators, Isaac envisioned FEAR not as an anarchistic militia but rather a patriotic one: “Isaac agreed with the Founding Fathers,” she said, “that there should be a revolution every 10 years.” The end purpose was to “give the government back to the people.”

During interrogation after his arrest, Isaac fell apart:

“You ever think how Dr. Frankenstein thought when Frankenstein ripped his first person in half?” Aguigui asked the agent. “‘Dear Jesus, what have I created?’ And all he wants to do is go back to that moment before he brought it to life.”
The agent asked, “What’s the monster?”
Aguigui sobbed. “I think it’s me.”

On July 19, 2013, Isaac pleaded guilty to the murder of Tiffany York and Michael Roark. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Just weeks prior, he was also charged by the Army for the murder of his pregnant wife. His words during his interrogation — “I’m just going to end up in a jail cell alone for the rest of my life.” — were ultimately prophetic.

View the case index here.

When Homeschoolers Turn Violent: Introduction

March 3, 2014May 12, 2020HA Editorial Team1 Comment

*****

Writing and Research: R.L. Stollar, Homeschoolers Anonymous

Research and Editing: Rachel Coleman, Homeschooling’s Invisible Children

*****

Since the devastating Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012 left 20 young children and 6 adults dead, at least 44 more school shootings have occurred. An aura of shocking and seemingly senseless violence continues to haunt the landscape of the United States.

The problem of violence plagues almost every corner of our society: public schools, malls, college campuses, movie theaters, and — sadly — even homeschools. Parallel to cases of public school students gone awry are cases of homeschooled students. These cases are just as heartbreaking and can be just as violent. Unfortunately, the knee-jerk reaction of homeschooling communities is often to respond defensively after these situations, to focus on how the cases are portrayed in the media rather than to consider what lessons may be learned from them.

This defensive reaction is not only unfortunate, it is misplaced. (So too is using violence as a marketing tool, as Howard Richman from PA Homeschoolers did after the public school massacre in Littleton, Colorado, when he declared that, “with the increase in school violence we have a new bumper sticker, ‘Homeschool: The Safe Alternative.'”) Knee-jerk defensiveness hinders homeschooling communities (and larger communities) from providing an honest self-assessment of what can be done to prevent further situations of similar personal, communal, and institutional breakdown.

In the aftermath of public school shootings, public school teachers and administrators ought not respond by saying, “Do not call this a ‘school shooting.’ The fact that it happened in a school is irrelevant. ” Rather, teachers and administrators must accept that something went wrong and ask: “Were there warning signs? How did we miss them? How can we prevent this in the future? What steps can we take to increase security, or educate our students, parents, and faculty better about mental health, violent games, and bullying?”

These questions need to be asked just as diligently and earnestly by homeschooling communities, co-op teachers, and parents. We need strong, brave individuals to stand up and speak out about the importance of mental health care, about the impact dehumanizing and stifling ideologies and discipline practices have on children, and the real psychological results isolation can have on a person’s developing psyche.

These are not questions we can continue to avoid. The number of homeschooled children that have grown up to become violent criminals, mass murderers, even serial killers, is growing. In many cases, these are not simply small-time killers. We have one of the most notorious white supremacists on our hands, along with the leader of a conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate the President and the most famous serial killer of the last decade.

We must take these cases seriously as a community. Innocent lives have been lost. Families have been torn apart. The time has come for honest assessment and serious discussion.

Archive disclaimer

We include as “homeschooled” any individual who was home educated when the event in question happened, was home educated for a substantial amount of time, or was home educated in a way that significantly impacted the individual in a documented, explicit manner.

We have created this archive to document and describe. We are not making any statistical claims. We will not seek to make interpretations or arguments within any given entry. Readers are free to draw their own conclusions or recognize patterns for themselves.

This is not a complete archive. The cases we have collected do disprove Brian Ray’s claim that “the general-population teen [in the 14-17 year old age group] is 2,500 times more likely to commit homicide than a home-educated teen.” However, they do not actually tell us just how likely (or unlikely) homeschooled teens are to commit homicide.

In creating this archive, we do not claim that homeschool students and graduates are any more or less violent than individuals otherwise educated. Making such a determination would require a much larger research study than we are capable of conducting with current resources.

We do not think that whether homeschooled students or graduates are more or less likely to become violent is relevant to our contention that homeschooling communities need to be aware of the risk factors that may lead to such violence in their own communities and take steps to address them.

Our purpose here is to archive, to remember, and to mourn — and ultimately, to present a case for action.

Publishing schedule and trigger warning

We will release 3-4 cases each weekday for the following two weeks. Cases will be released in alphabetical order according to each individual’s last name. At the conclusion of the two weeks, we will release one large document that includes this introduction, all the cases, our concluding thoughts, and a timeline.

Please know that the details in many of the cases are disturbing and graphic. If you experience triggers from descriptions of physical and sexual violence, you may want to avoid reading these cases.

View the case index here.