Posted on 11/26/2012 9:37:12 AM PST by Uncle Chip
On the outskirts of Little Falls, Minn., Crystal Shaeffel walked down the long driveway on Sunday, past the "keep out" sign, to see the house where her teenage brother and her cousin were shot to death on Thanksgiving Day.
She was met in the driveway by the brother of Byron David Smith, the man who is in the Morrison County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder after telling deputies he shot the pair when they broke into his house, where he lived alone. He is to make his first court appearance on Monday.
The bodies of Nicholas Brady, 17, and his cousin Haile Kifer, 18, both of Little Falls, were discovered on Friday when authorities began investigating a missing-persons report and after a car parked down the road from Smith's home prompted a neighbor to report suspicions that something was wrong.
.....
A series of break-ins had made Byron Smith, a 64-year-old retired U.S. State Department worker, frustrated and fearful, his brother said Sunday.
In the rear of the house, which sits on the bank of the Mississippi River, surrounded by tall pines and birches, is a shattered bedroom window, now boarded over. It was where, Bruce Smith said, the teens used a lead pipe to break the glass, crawl in, walk down a hallway and go downstairs, surprising Byron Smith as he tinkered in his basement workshop over the lunch hour.
Byron Smith never called 911 but let the bodies lay in his home for just more than 24 hours while the teens' families tried to find them. Bruce Smith said his brother was distraught and didn't know what to do.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
I am all for defending one’s life and property, and the lives and property of third parties,for that matter. But waiting a day to notify the authorities raises a red flag. If this part of the story is accurate, something is very wrong here.
keep reading, it gets worse.
http://www.startribune.com/180853761.html?refer=y&refer=y
“The Sheriff’s Office said it has received only one previous report of a break-in at the home”
” Brady started coming down the stairs, and Smith shot him with a rifle by the time he saw the intruder’s hips.
Brady fell down the stairs and was looking up at Smith when the homeowner shot him in the face.
“I want him dead,” Smith explained to the investigator for the additional shot.
Smith put Brady’s body on a tarp and dragged him to an office workshop.
A few minutes later, Smith heard footsteps above him. As in Brady’s case, Kifer too started down the stairs and was shot by Smith by the time he saw her hips, sending her tumbling down the stairs.
Smith attempted to shoot her again, but his rifle jammed, prompting Kifer to laugh.
Upset, Smith, pulled out a revolver he had on him and shot her “more times than I needed to” in the chest, he said.
Smith dragged Kifer next to Brady as she gasped for her life. He pressed the revolver’s barrel under her chin and pulled the trigger in what he described as a “good, clean finishing shot” that was meant to end her suffering.”
"Sheriff Michel Wetzel told reporters Monday afternoon that Smith explained to authorities that he didn't call immediately after killing the two because "it was Thanksgiving. He didn't want to trouble us on a holiday."
No that wasn't the reason:
"Sheriff Michel Wetzel told reporters Monday afternoon that Smith explained to authorities that he didn't call immediately after killing the two because "it was Thanksgiving. He didn't want to trouble us on a holiday."
This guy is either crazy or stupid, or maybe both. His own words will put him away for a ling time. He took a legal use of deadly force and turned it into murder.
My comments get posted a good ten minutes or so after I submit them, so I did not read that part.
That puts a whole new spin on this.
Sadly, he did moire than just defend his property, he executed them both.
this man has some demons that have been bugging him awhile, and I think her just attempted to exorcize them.
I’m wondering if the guy is even telling the truth about the girl (Kifer) laughing at him after already getting shot. If so - sounds like all sorts of crazy going on.
Well, he was a government employee, so he probably figured rules didn’t apply to him.
Or just somebody who was just really, really fed up over his house being broken into for the eighth time.
Except that the law says that there was only one break in, and that has nothing to do with being a Psycho killer.
A psycho killer does what this guy did, murder people, and make sure that they are finished off, and then spends 24 hours trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation after moving the bodies.
It seems unlikely that the girl laughed after seeing her boyfriend killed, finished off, and placed onto a tarp, and herself being wounded and lying in the killer’s basement.
It isn’t unlikely that he perceived her sneering at him, or even laughing at him though.
I’m kind of curious about the whole basement thing, and the separate appearances of the girl heading for the basement after the multiple shootings of her boyfriend and in effect creating another execution set up, I wonder how they really ended up in the basement.
This has happened before, of a couple of criminal types running into a psycho killer type who is crazy as a loon.
I remember that -- two kids named Hansel and Gretel going in to rob some old witch.
“This guy is either crazy or stupid, or maybe both”
“...a 64-year-old retired U.S. State Department worker...” sounds like someone they could have used in Benghazi.
I can’t say as I blame him. There was a time when, if you borke into someone’s house, your life was forfeit and the criminals knew it.
Good point. Unless she takes her cues from the cheesy horror flicks. Her cousin (not boyfriend) shot, loud noises falling down the stairs and screaming, another shot, and then the loud footsteps of the old pyscho dragging him off.
The door opens with the hot-pants clad young girl calling down “Johnny - are you okay!?”
Sorry to make light of this story - especially if these two kids did nothing wrong. Of course he was justified in shooting them if they broke in. Executing them - not so much.
“Except that the law says that there was only one break in, and that has nothing to do with being a Psycho killer.”
Did you ever wonder when they say crime has gone down that maybe (besides the cops faking the stats) people just quit reporting crimes since it does no good?
I’ve had a number of things (3 lawnmowers and some statuary) stolen from my yard and I never once called the cops.
You should call the police and report that you were attacked in your home and that you had to defend yourself. Please send a slow-rolling ambulance or two.
Well, there was one rule he kept:
Don't trouble a government employee on Thanksgiving or other holiday. Wait til the next day.
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