Continuing with our count down episodes – in the theme of the count down of 2021 – tonight we are talking about 5 kids who murdered their parents.
So last week we talked about 5 parents who refused to believe that their kids were murderers. If you didn’t listen to that, go back and listen to episode #38 – 5 Delusional Parents – Ethan Cromley. In that episode, like I said, I tell you about the horrible things these people did and then what their parents had to say about it and them. I also gave you details on Ethan Cromely and the latest school shooting. Just listen to episode 38 on whatever platform you’re on or go to our website at www.murderandlove.com
Also, one of the parents gave an interview and I read that on our Facebook Fan Page and Patreon. If you decide to join me over on Patreon, you’ll also get a bonus where I talk about a recent case in which a woman shot her boyfriend in front of her 1 year old child.
Now we’re gonna talk about 5 Kids Who Murdered Their Parents. So let’s get started.
#5 John William McGrath
John William McGrath was born on March 19, 1944 in Newport, New Hampshire. I so want to go and visit New Hampshire. In the pictures I’ve seen, it looks so pretty. Anyway, while he was in highschool, he was voted “class intellectual” by his peers in Towle High School. Due to his hard work and intelligence, his family counted on him to succeed in life and do better than them. According to John, all of this made him feel pressured and trapped by his family. In response to this stress, on March 10, 1962 when John was 17, he one evening decided to load a high-powered rifle and shoot Charles and Peter, his two younger brothers. One brother, who was 14 years old, John cold bloodedly shot him in the face. The other brother, who was only 5 years old – well, it wasn’t documented how he killed him other than shooting him; which was good because I didn’t want to know that. He then sat and waited or his parents to come home and he killed them as well. In the case of his father, he had to chase him out of the front door before murdering him on the front lawn. After this, he drove to the closest hospital, which was 45 miles away, and turned himself in. 45 MILES AWAY? That’s the NEAREST hospital – well state hospital. I guess there must be private hospitals closer than 45 miles away.
In 1965, he was found not guilty on the grounds of insanity and was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital. Are you serious? I just knew this guy was going to jail! Actually, they found him “insane and mentally deranged.” Damn. He told a psychiatrist that he didn’t feel anything when he went to kill his 5 year old brother. The only thing he could say he felt was “washed out,” whatever that means. Do you think he meant like done? Like tired … of everything?
While in the state hospital, he took math and science classes, he helped to remodel the interior of the hospital, and was given more freedom and responsibilities over time. However, as time passed by, he began using drugs and even stole from the pharmacy. In 1969 he was transferred to a prison that he stayed in for 3 years. In 1972, he was transferred back to the hospital. With good behavior, he was able to have supervised walks on the grounds and he even got rewarded with SOME freedom – meaning they didn’t watch him all the time.
Then, on August 13, 1974, when he was 30 years old, he escaped from the forensic unit in the hospital and vanished without a trace. And by “without a trace” I mean it literally. They didn’t have a DNA profile on him and all of his close family are dead. The only thing they have are dental records and fingerprints meaning someone would have to pull out a tooth of his and bring it to the police or he would have to leave his fingerprints at a crime scene. To this day, they still haven’t found him.
#4 Seth Privacky
Seth Privacky was born on June 2, 1980 in Michigan to Stephen and Linda Privacky. He was the youngest of 2 children, with a brother, Jedidiah, who was one year older than him. Now, Seth and Stephen never got along. They argued a lot – probably they were just too similar – you know how it is when you have way too much in common, you just don’t get along. As Seth got older, the arguments got worse. His father would push him to do better in school and Seth didn’t like that.
On Sunday November 29, 1998 the family decided to have a family only Thanksgiving type of day. It was planned to be Seth, Stephen, Linda, Jedidiah, and their grandfather (who was 78), John. At around noon on that day, Set and his father had yet another argument and his father told him he would have to move out after he graduated from highschool that year.
Seth decided today was a great day to talk to his family about how he was feeling. So at 12:45pm Seth went to his older brother, Jedidiah who was 19 at the time, while he was watching TV Seth shot him point blank in the back of the head. He then dragged his body to an area so that no one could see it. Then Seth went downstairs and patiently waited for his dad to get home. Not long after, he heard the key in the door. He stood up and rounded the corner, looking at the front door. When that door opened, Seth saw his father AND Grandpa John walked in, which he was not expecting. He greeted them, waited for them to pass him to go further into the house and then shot them both, point blank, in the back of the head. Grandpa John didn’t immediately die so Seth shot him again. After that, he walked to the bathroom where his mom was taking a shower and getting ready for the family’s special day. As she was getting out of the shower, Seth shot her in the head. Then as he was coming downstairs, April, Jedidiah’s girlfriend, walked through the front door. Since Seth hadn’t moved the bodies of his father and grandfather, she saw them, but she thought it was a joke and was like “yea right guys’ ‘ and continued walking into the house. As she got into the kitchen, Seth came behind her and shot her in the head.
After Seth was finished, he looked around and realized he couldn’t possibly clean up this mess by himself so he called his friend, Steven Wallace. He told Steven what happened and begged him to come over and help him clean up. Now, what do you think his friends said? Listen, let me ask yall – what would your answer have been? Me? I probably would have said yes, just so he thought I was coming over and then I would have called 911!! HELLO 911! MY FRIEND SAID HE KILLED HIS WHOLE FAMILY! GO ARREST THAT CRAZY BASTARD! HURRY! HURRY! HURRY! Ma’am slow down what did you say? (slowly) My friend who lives at 587 Get Your Ass Over There Lane killed his entire family. He thinks I’m on my way so he’s still there. Go now! That would be me. What would yall do? Tell me in the comments below because I want to know what you would do if your friend called you and said they killed their family – come over and help me clean up. So anyway – he begged Steven to come over and help him clean and Old Stevie Boy said, “Sure, I’ll be right over.” Steven comes over and helps him wrap the bodies in sheets and they made plans to bury the bodies later. Now, I know you’re wondering why they didn’t just take care of everything right there and then. Well glad you asked, Steven had to go to a church youth group party at 6pm BEFORE he had to come back and help his friend bury the body of his family. Between 11p and 12a Steven came back and tried to help Seth bury the body but you know how you get after partying. You’re tired. All you want to do is sleep. Burying bodies kind of messes up the mood. You know how it is. So, they decided it was too much work to bury the bodies so they decided to stage a robbery, but while they were doing that a car pulled into the driveway. Both boys stop, not knowing who it was or what to do. Seth peaked through the blinds and saw April’s parents getting out of their car. Both boys panicked and ran out of the house to hide in the woods.
At midnight the police received a phone call and went out to the Privacky house. They immediately search for Seth, but found Steven who surrendered. At 7:15am Seth was found hitchhiking by a classmate, Janavive Simonelli, who dropped him off at a friend’s house. Once she backed out of the driveway, she called the police. Police arrive to find Seth hiding in the barn and arrest him. He confesses to the murders. Both him and Steven are charged with 5 counts of open murder. Wow! Why was Steven charged?! I would think he would get accessory or something. Oh here it is! Steven’s charges was later reduced to accessory to murder. OK just what I thought. I guess during the investigation they realized he didn’t help with the actual murder.
On May 27, 1999 Seth is sentenced to 5 life sentences without the possibility of parole. He’d plead – What? Let’s say it together……Sike! He actually plead no contest. Steven was acquitted by a jury on November 1, 1999. Why???? Why would they acquit him?
Well, Steven then went on to have a colorful life of crime – stolen property, vandalism, 3 different charges of domestic violence and attempted resisting and obstructing police. On October 30, 2007, Steven violated his probation and was sentenced to prison for 28 months to 2.5 years.
On July 15, 2010, Seth tried to escape from Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. During the escape attempt, he was shot and killed.
There’s an interview transcript that I’m going to read in my Patreon. If you want to hear this, subscribe to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/loveandmurder. If you want to hear a sample of my recounting an interview, head on over to my Facebook Fan Group – just search Love and Murder Fan Page.
#3 Christopher Porco
On November 15, 2004 a 52 year old Peter Porco and his wife, Joan Porco were found covered in blood with massive head trauma in their blood drenched bed. Peter was dead, but Joan was still alive. The weapon, an ax, was found in the bedroom. Bethlehem Investigators looked to the couple’s youngest son, Christopher Porco who was born on July 9, 1983 in Albany NY. Christopher was a student at the University of Rochester, where he had been when his parents were found – 230 miles away. He’d said he’d only learned about the crime from a reporter and he rushed to his parents house on the same evening.
While investigating, police realized that Chris had a history of anti-social behavior and robbing his parents’ home. They also noticed eBay fraud in which Chris had two accounts, people purchased their items, but he never sent anything out. They also found that he’d staged a robbery, stolen his parents’ laptop, and sold it on eBay. They also found that he pretended to be his brother and sent emails to these eBay customers telling them that Chris had died and was unable to deliver the customers’ items.
On November 15, 2004, during the trial testimony, it showed that the code was used to disable the security alarm and that the phone line had been cut. This all was done to be able to make the crime look like a home invasion and burglary.
It also came out that there was tension between Chris and his parents regarding money. He was failing in school and forged a transcript to be readmitted to U of R. Before bad grades made him leave school, he’d taken out a loan to pay for school and to buy a new Jeep. When he got readmitted, he took out another loan for $31,000 and forged his father’s name as a cosigner. I thought the co-signer had to be right there, in front of the 3rd party, while signing. Am I wrong?
Two weeks before he was found dead, Peter had sent Chris an email that read: “Did you forge my signature as a co-signer? … What the hell are you doing? You should have called me to discuss it … I’m calling Citibank this morning to find out what you have done and am going to tell them I’m not to be on it as a co-signer.” The next day, Peter found out that Chris had used his name to pay for his Jeep. He once again sent an email (by the way, he’d been calling his son this whole time to no response) and the email said: “I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability and that applies to the Citibank college loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan. We may be disappointed with you, but your mother and I still love you and care about your future.”
In continuing the investigation, police found that a New York State Thruway toll collector outside of Rochester said that a yellow Jeep Wrangler – the same color and make/model of car Chris had – went through the toll on November 14 at 10:45 pm. On November 15, just before 2am, a toll collector in Albany saw a yellow Jeep Wrangler going through the toll at what he called “excessive speed.” At the University, 4 security cameras recorded the same Jeep leaving campus at 10:30pm on November 14 and returning at 8:30am on November 15.
A neighbor witnessed that same yellow jeep in the Porco’s driveway on the evening of November 14.
Now, when Joann was gravely hurt at her home, the medical personnel attending to her asked her if she knew who attacked her and she nodded her head. Remember, at this time, her head had been bashed in. So badly in fact, that she lost an eye. So the emt asked her if it was a family member who did this. She nodded yes. Was it your older son. Head shook “no.” Was it your younger son? Head nod “yes.” However, some time later, after she was awakened from a medically induced coma, she said that she couldn’t remember the attack or her attacker and said there was no way her son did this. I think they need to go with what she said before her trauma took over, she had surgery, and had been in a coma for some time.
The trial began on June 27, 2006 in Orange County due to the media coverage that was going on in Albany. On the morning of August 10, 2006 the jury began deliberating. In the afternoon/evening of the same day, Chris was found guilty of second degree murder ad attempted murder. On December 12, 2006 he was sentenced to a minimum of 50 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in December 2052. The Judge in the trial, Judge Jeffrey Berry, said “I fear very much what happened in the early morning hours of November 15 is something that could happen again.” Christopher Porco is currently at the Clinton Correctional Facility. Quick question – as in Bill and Hilary Clinton?
#2 Jasmine Richardson
This one’s gonna be short, due to the nature of it – there’s not that much backstory information. Jasmine Richardson is from Medicine Hat Alberta Canada who was 12 at the time of this story. While in school in 2005, she got into goth and started hanging with that group. As you can imagine, she started wearing black and dressing like what she perceived as “goth.” Students became scared of her due to her actions and teachers would try to counsel her on her actions. At the age of 12 – so what grade is that? 6th? 5th? At the age of 12 in January 2006, she met a man – you heard me – a MAN – who was 23 years old and his name was Jeremy Allan Steinke. They began what they called “a relationship.” Her family and friends didn’t approve of who she decided to be with – I mean as anyone could imagine.
Jeremy Allan Steinke had a history of violence, and apparently had more in common with a 12 year old than anyone his own age. At one point in time he told his friends that he wasn’t human. No no. What you SEE might be human, but you have to understand that by the light of the full moon, he said he becomes something else. He was actually a “300-year-old werewolf” who always wore a vial of blood around his neck and liked the taste of blood. I mean of course, if you’re a wolf wouldn’t you like the taste of blood? I don’t think I’ve seen wolves wearing it around their necks, but I know they like the taste.
Anyway, Jasmine’s parents forbade her from seeing Jeremy so the two just found a way around this and started talking online on a site called vampirefreaks.com.
One night Jasmine and her friends were all hanging together and they watched a movie called “Natural Born Killers.” Have yall seen this movie? I haven’t; I might have to put this in my Netflix list. Is the movie any good? Anyway they watched this movie which is about two people who are in love and what they felt they had to do to be together. The boyfriend felt he had to kill the girlfriend’s parents so she could leave and come to live with him. Jeremy told his friends that this was him and Jasmine; that they should do something like this.
On the night of April 21, 2006 Jasmine emailed Jeremy talking about a plan to kill her parents. She ended the email with saying that she would be with Jeremy forever. Jeremy agreed to the plan and they went to bed.
On the night of April 22, 2006 Jasmine and her family went to bed as usual. Jasmine’s parents, Marc and Debra, were awakened by a noise. They got out of bed and looked around the house. Checked upstairs, downstairs, nothing. Marc decided to be extra vigilant and check the basement. Debra said she’ll check it and told Marc to continue checking the kitchen area. Debra went downstairs and Jeremy began stabbing her. When Marc heard Debra screaming he ran down to the basement, saw Jeremy stabbing her and began fighting him. He attacked him with a screwdriver, but Jeremy stabbed him to death. Jasmine ran into her 8 year old brother’s room and Jeremy met her there. Jacob said, I’m scared. I’m too young to die.” Then Jasmine stabbed him in his chest and Jeremy slit his throat. What a pair of monsters. The next morning, the 6 year old neighbor came over to play with Jacob. He looked through the window and saw the bodies of the Richardson parents and ran back to his house. At 1pm police showed up and initially thought the entire family had been murdered, but when they saw a family photo, they saw that one person was missing – Jasmine. In their investigation into the murder and the missing girl, they arrived at her school and at her locker. Inside her locker they found a drawing of a girl lighting her house on fire and running out to her boyfriend’s truck. This drawing is what turned Jasmine from lost victim to #1 suspect. Police found both Jasmine and Jeremy in Leader, Saskatchewan. They were arrested and charged with 3 counts of murder. Police also charged Kacy Lancaster, Jeremy’s 19 year old friend, with accessory to murder because she had driven them out to Leader and helped them to destroy evidence.
On July 7, 2007 Jasmine was convicted of three counts of first Degree Murder. On November 8, 2007, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison – the maximum penalty for her age. She was only 12 at the time and this is the maximum you could give a minor at that time. That’s bullshit! Anyway, her sentence included 18 months already spent in custody, 4 years in a psychiatric rehabilitation, along with 4.5 years house arrest. That’s all she got for stabbing an 8 year old?! At 12 years old, she was the youngest person in Canada to have ever been convicted of multiple murders. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Canada, which came into effect on April 1, 2003 so that young people can be held responsible for crimes they’ve committed by age 12, the child’s name can’t be released to the public and anyone convicted under the age of 14 couldn’t be sentenced as adults and could not be given more than a ten year sentence. That’s insane. This should have been on a case by case basis. So no matter what someone under the age of 14 does, they can only do 10 years? She stabbed her 8 year old brother in the chest and watched as someone slit his throat! What is wrong with people?!
Anyway, on December 15, 2008, Jeremy was found guilty of 3 counts of murder and sentenced to 3 life sentences. He will be eligible for parole in 25 years. Parole?! He slit an 8 year old’s throat! What am I missing here?!
The charges were dropped against Kacy, but she plead guilty to an obstruction charge. She ended up getting 1 year on house arrest and an order to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
After being arrested, Jeremy proposed to Jasmine to which she said yes.
Jasmine was released from the psychiatric institution in 2011. It was reported that her rehabilitation was going well and that she even felt remorse for what she did and what happened.
On January 11, 2012, Jeremy officially changed his name to Jackson May. May is his mother’s maiden name. He’s still incarcerated and is currently 39 years old.
Jasmine’s mandatory supervision was lifted on May 6, 2016 and her sentence has been completed. She is currently 27 and lives a secretive life in Canada.
#1 William James Bresnahan Jr.
On August 4, 1964 a hiker happened upon 2 bodies at a campsite. They alerted authorities and, during the investigation, it was found that the bodies belonged to Dr. William Bresnahan Sr. and Laurel Bresnahan of Colorado. The Bresnahan’s had a 16 year old son who couldn’t be found. However, once located, he confessed to the murder of his parents.
Jr told authorities that his parents were abusive and, while camping, he and his mother had gotten into an argument. During the heated exchange, he stabbed her to death. He then went and told his father what he’d done and then beat him to death.
On August 8, 1964 Jr was arrested and charged with two counts of murder. During his trial he plead – ah our first Love and Murder plea since this episode started – he plead not guilty twice by reason of insanity. During the trial, he was examined by 3 doctors who each reported that he was confused and emotionally disturbed but he WAS sane. Good try though. On August 24 he withdrew his not guilty pleas and plead guilty to first degree murder. On January 27, 1965 he was sentenced to life in prison for each murder.
While in prison, Jr tried to escape once, but that attempt failed miserably. On March 24, 1966 he apealed his guilty pleas to each murder stating that the pleas were not voluntary. The court threw out the appeal and told him to keep his butt in prison.
In 1970, Jr began taking courses from the University of Colorado and graduated top of his class with a 4.0 gpa in 1974. In Governor Richard Lamm’s opinion, this was proof enough that he was trying to turn his life around and, in 1975, he commuted his life sentence to 24 years. In 1977 Jr was paroled and in 1978 was accepted into the University of Colorado’s medical school. 4 years later he graduated. In 1983 he obtained his medical license and began a medical career treating migrant workers at a clinic in California. In 1987 he received an unconditional pardon from Governor Roy Romer. According to encyclopedia.com an unconditional pardon is the same as a full pardon – meaning it “fully restores an individual’s civil rights forfeited upon conviction of a crime and restores the person’s innocence as though he or she had never committed a crime.” Good Lord! What did they see in this guy to completely just absolve him of his crimes? I’m just curious.
BONUS David Brom
David Brom was born on October 3, 1971 in Cascade Township, Minnesota. Oh yea. He was born in Minnesota. You betcha. LOL Sorry.
Anyway, fast forward to the good ole teen years that I’m going through with my daughter right now.
On February 18, 1988, during the early evening, police were called to the Brom home. The call originated from the principal at Lourdes Roman Catholic High School. There they discovered the bodies of 4 people – parents Bernard and Paulette and children – 14 year old Diane and 9 year old Richard. All four victims had gashes to the head and upper body. Upon further investigation into the house, police found a blood stained ax in the basement. However, they couldn’t find two other children, 16 year old David and 18 year old Joe. At first they were concerned that maybe they had fled the scene of a home invasion, but during the investigation they learned of a rumor that David had told another student that he had killed his entire family that morning. Police located this friend and the rumor was confirmed; the friend told investigators that David did tell her this. She said that on the way to school, David stopped her and tried to convince her to skip school with him. She said, “He said he hit his dad with an ax, he kept hitting his dad and his dad kept on getting up.” She said when she saw him that morning, he had dyed his hair black, shaved and spiked his hair in the form of a mohawk
According to David, he and his father were arguing on the night of February 17. His family was strict in the Catholic faith and his father didn’t approve of the music David chose to listen to. Instead of going to sleep after the argument, David stayed awake until 3am stewing about his parents and how unfair he felt his life was. Instead of realizing that all he had to do was get through 2 more years until he graduated highschool, he went to the basement and got an ax that his father had down there. He took this ax to his parents’ bedroom and killed his father first. Then he turned his anger to his mother and killed her. He then went to his little brother’s room and murdered him as well. Upon exiting his brother’s room, he saw his little sister standing over his mother’s body in the hallway – apparently his mother hadn’t died like he thought and had crawled out of her room trying to protect her children. David attacked and killed them both.
Police apprehended David on February 19 at a payphone near the town’s post office. He was arrested and charged with 4 counts of first degree murder and 8 counts of second degree murder. At first, he was put in the juvenile court system because he was only 16 at the time, but due to the severity of his crimes, he was sent to the adult judicial system.
Initially David did not enter a plea and was forced to undergo psychiatric examination and was held under a 24 hour watch at the county jail. Later, he entered a plea. David plead – what do you think he plead LandM fam? Let’s say it together shall we? Not guilty – yes, by way of insanity and mental illness.
During the trial, it showed that David was severely depress at the time of the crime and that he had attempted suicide twice. Friends also testified that he had spoken about killing his family for 6 months.
It also emerged that the total amount of blows from the ax to kill almost his entire family was 56. He hit his family a total of 56 times! Good Lord! The jury rejected the plea of insanity.
On October 3, 1989, on David’s 18th birthday, the jury convited him of four counts of first degree murder. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms and won’t be eligible for parole until he turns 80. Happy Birthday?
By the way, the only reason David’s older brother wasn’t killed along with the rest of the family is because he didn’t live at home. He was also never a suspect as he’d had a solid alibi and only David’s prints were all over the murder weapon.
And those are the stories of John William McGrath, Seth Privacky, Christopher Porco, Jasmine Richardson, William James Bresnahan Jr., and our bonus David Brom.
So what do you think of this end of year countdown? First, parents who won’t believe their kids’ guilt and then spoiled kids who selfishly killed their parents?
I do want to thank each and every one of you for your support in 2021! Next week, we won’t have a show. We will return in 2022 with an all new season, an all new show, and all new cases!
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