Beren
Moderator Emeritus
(PA) Police say parent's confrontation with teen over relationship with their daughter sparked their killings
WARWICK, Pa. -- Police believe Michael Borden's last hour was every father's nightmare.
First came the haunting suspicion that his 14-year-old daughter was involved sexually with an 18-year-old man named David Ludwig. Then came the fear that the girl, Kara, had been with Mr. Ludwig on Saturday night, not with girlfriends as she had claimed.
Kara arrived home about 6 a.m. Sunday. Within an hour, Mr. Borden decided to act. He called Mr. Ludwig and told him they had to talk.
"I think he did what any father would do," Warwick Police Chief Richard F. Garipoli said in an interview yesterday.
Once Mr. Ludwig arrived at the Bordens' home, conversation turned to confrontation. Gunshots echoed through the rich farm country of Warwick. Police found both of Kara Borden's parents dead before 8 a.m.
The Bordens were the first homicide victims in this fast-growing Lancaster County town of 17,000 since January 1997. Detectives say that Mr. Ludwig killed the father first, as he was being escorted to the door. Another of Mr. Borden's daughters, Katelyn, 13, told detectives she witnessed that shooting before running into a bathroom to hide.
Then she heard another shot, apparently the one that killed her mother, Cathryn Lee Borden.
The Lancaster County coroner said the Bordens died of wounds from a .40-caliber pistol.
Both victims were 50 years old. They graduated from high school together in Hannibal, Mo., in 1973, married and had three sons and two daughters.
Chief Garipoli's detectives think they died trying to protect one of their girls.
Mr. Ludwig and Kara were caught Monday about 20 miles west of Indianapolis after a high-speed police pursuit.
He waived an extradition hearing and was flown back yesterday to Lancaster County, where he was arraigned on two counts of homicide and one count each of kidnapping and reckless endangerment. He is being held without bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 23.
Chief Garipoli said yesterday that he regarded Kara as a victim, not a suspect or collaborator in the killings.
"She is the victim in this case until I hear otherwise," he said.
He said his priority was to see her returned to her siblings and an extended family of aunts and uncles. Even with the onslaught of media attention that has hit Warwick this week, Chief Garipoli said, one aspect of the story may have been overlooked.
"Kara is a 14-year-old child. We tend to forget that," he said.
But the Bordens' worst suspicions about their daughter may have been well-founded.
A friend of Mr. Ludwig's, Samuel P. Lohr, 19, of Lititz in Lancaster County, told police that Kara and Mr. Ludwig were in a relationship of "a sexual nature."
Mr. Lohr's claim is contained in a police search warrant that was filed in a district court. Detectives seized Mr. Ludwig's computers while he was a fugitive. In the process, they discovered that he had loaned his laptop to Mr. Lohr.
When interviewed by police, Mr. Lohr said he knew Kara and Mr. Ludwig were carrying on an affair that had been kept secret from adults, or so they thought.
Mr. Lohr said Kara and Mr. Ludwig often sent flirtatious messages to one another through their computers or cell phones. They also exchanged what police termed "inappropriate images of one another."
Both were in home-schooling programs, but during the last six months they saw each other regularly enough for the Bordens to grow worried. They may have been convinced that their 14-year-old was involved with someone four years older, leading to Mr. Borden's request to see Mr. Ludwig on Sunday.
Police said Mr. Ludwig arrived with weapons, including a knife and a handgun, in his car. He took the handgun into the Bordens' home, apparently concealing it in his pants.
District Attorney Donald Totaro told The Associated Press that because Mr. Ludwig was armed when he entered the home, the killings were premeditated.
Police said they had not interviewed Kara Borden about whether Mr. Ludwig forced her to accompany him on the 600-mile trip across Pennsylvania and Ohio into Indiana. Chief Garipoli said Kara cannot be questioned unless a guardian or attorney is with her.
Still, the four detectives he sent to Indiana found no shortage of evidence. Indiana troopers apprehended Mr. Ludwig after a five-mile chase that reached speeds of 95 mph. They found a handgun in Mr. Ludwig's red Jetta Volkswagen after he hit a tree and finally stopped.
Chief Garipoli characterized Kara as "devastated" when police found her. The trauma of losing her parents and the horror of the chase left her an emotional wreck, he said. She screamed and cried when troopers reached her.
No funeral arrangements have been made for the Bordens.
Warwick and nearby Lititz, a town famous for its pretzel and chocolate factories, have been flooded with reporters from New York, Philadelphia and other parts of the East. Warwick is uncomfortable in the glow of television lights. Many in town complained yesterday that too much had been said about the suspect and not enough about the victims.
Chief Garipoli tried to rectify that. Despite heavy demands on his time, he agreed to a dozen or so one-on-one interviews in the hope of restoring attention on the parents.
The last moments of their lives were both sad and terrifying. They probably never thought a daughter would need protection in Warwick, a place of spacious farms and sprawling new condo developments,
Domestic blowups leading to double murder are rare in any town. Chief Garipoli, who had not had a homicide in four years in office, now has two to investigate.
"I sit here and think, 'My God, how could this happen?' " he said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05320/607051.stm
WARWICK, Pa. -- Police believe Michael Borden's last hour was every father's nightmare.
First came the haunting suspicion that his 14-year-old daughter was involved sexually with an 18-year-old man named David Ludwig. Then came the fear that the girl, Kara, had been with Mr. Ludwig on Saturday night, not with girlfriends as she had claimed.
Kara arrived home about 6 a.m. Sunday. Within an hour, Mr. Borden decided to act. He called Mr. Ludwig and told him they had to talk.
"I think he did what any father would do," Warwick Police Chief Richard F. Garipoli said in an interview yesterday.
Once Mr. Ludwig arrived at the Bordens' home, conversation turned to confrontation. Gunshots echoed through the rich farm country of Warwick. Police found both of Kara Borden's parents dead before 8 a.m.
The Bordens were the first homicide victims in this fast-growing Lancaster County town of 17,000 since January 1997. Detectives say that Mr. Ludwig killed the father first, as he was being escorted to the door. Another of Mr. Borden's daughters, Katelyn, 13, told detectives she witnessed that shooting before running into a bathroom to hide.
Then she heard another shot, apparently the one that killed her mother, Cathryn Lee Borden.
The Lancaster County coroner said the Bordens died of wounds from a .40-caliber pistol.
Both victims were 50 years old. They graduated from high school together in Hannibal, Mo., in 1973, married and had three sons and two daughters.
Chief Garipoli's detectives think they died trying to protect one of their girls.
Mr. Ludwig and Kara were caught Monday about 20 miles west of Indianapolis after a high-speed police pursuit.
He waived an extradition hearing and was flown back yesterday to Lancaster County, where he was arraigned on two counts of homicide and one count each of kidnapping and reckless endangerment. He is being held without bail. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 23.
Chief Garipoli said yesterday that he regarded Kara as a victim, not a suspect or collaborator in the killings.
"She is the victim in this case until I hear otherwise," he said.
He said his priority was to see her returned to her siblings and an extended family of aunts and uncles. Even with the onslaught of media attention that has hit Warwick this week, Chief Garipoli said, one aspect of the story may have been overlooked.
"Kara is a 14-year-old child. We tend to forget that," he said.
But the Bordens' worst suspicions about their daughter may have been well-founded.
A friend of Mr. Ludwig's, Samuel P. Lohr, 19, of Lititz in Lancaster County, told police that Kara and Mr. Ludwig were in a relationship of "a sexual nature."
Mr. Lohr's claim is contained in a police search warrant that was filed in a district court. Detectives seized Mr. Ludwig's computers while he was a fugitive. In the process, they discovered that he had loaned his laptop to Mr. Lohr.
When interviewed by police, Mr. Lohr said he knew Kara and Mr. Ludwig were carrying on an affair that had been kept secret from adults, or so they thought.
Mr. Lohr said Kara and Mr. Ludwig often sent flirtatious messages to one another through their computers or cell phones. They also exchanged what police termed "inappropriate images of one another."
Both were in home-schooling programs, but during the last six months they saw each other regularly enough for the Bordens to grow worried. They may have been convinced that their 14-year-old was involved with someone four years older, leading to Mr. Borden's request to see Mr. Ludwig on Sunday.
Police said Mr. Ludwig arrived with weapons, including a knife and a handgun, in his car. He took the handgun into the Bordens' home, apparently concealing it in his pants.
District Attorney Donald Totaro told The Associated Press that because Mr. Ludwig was armed when he entered the home, the killings were premeditated.
Police said they had not interviewed Kara Borden about whether Mr. Ludwig forced her to accompany him on the 600-mile trip across Pennsylvania and Ohio into Indiana. Chief Garipoli said Kara cannot be questioned unless a guardian or attorney is with her.
Still, the four detectives he sent to Indiana found no shortage of evidence. Indiana troopers apprehended Mr. Ludwig after a five-mile chase that reached speeds of 95 mph. They found a handgun in Mr. Ludwig's red Jetta Volkswagen after he hit a tree and finally stopped.
Chief Garipoli characterized Kara as "devastated" when police found her. The trauma of losing her parents and the horror of the chase left her an emotional wreck, he said. She screamed and cried when troopers reached her.
No funeral arrangements have been made for the Bordens.
Warwick and nearby Lititz, a town famous for its pretzel and chocolate factories, have been flooded with reporters from New York, Philadelphia and other parts of the East. Warwick is uncomfortable in the glow of television lights. Many in town complained yesterday that too much had been said about the suspect and not enough about the victims.
Chief Garipoli tried to rectify that. Despite heavy demands on his time, he agreed to a dozen or so one-on-one interviews in the hope of restoring attention on the parents.
The last moments of their lives were both sad and terrifying. They probably never thought a daughter would need protection in Warwick, a place of spacious farms and sprawling new condo developments,
Domestic blowups leading to double murder are rare in any town. Chief Garipoli, who had not had a homicide in four years in office, now has two to investigate.
"I sit here and think, 'My God, how could this happen?' " he said.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05320/607051.stm
