Kids Who Kill | The Bever, Porco, and Van Breda families

We hear almost daily about mothers and fathers killing their children, sometimes their entire family. You would absolutely be familiar with Scott Peterson, Susan Smith and Chris Watts.

What you hear less often is when children plot and scheme and murder their families. The term for this is either familicide if many family members are killed, or parricide if only parents are killed.

Today on the the True Crime Society Podcast we discuss three cases of ‘Kids Who Kill’.

-In 2015 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Robert and Michael Bever who were 18 and 16 at the time, went on a murderous rampage using knives and hatchets. They managed to murder their parents and three of their siblings before they were stopped by police. The brothers had planned to go on a cross-country killing spree, hoping to kill over 100 people. Thankfully, two Bever children survived and a lot of the testimony that was given helped to put Robert and Michael behind bars for good.

- Christopher Porco was in trouble in 2004. He had forged his father’s signature on financial documents and had obtained fraudulent loans. His parents were not happy and frequently told him so. In November that year, Christopher drove from his dorm to the family home, where he attacked his parents with an axe. His father Peter Porco sustained 16 major axe wounds to his face and head including penetration to his brain and part of his jaw ‘ fell’ off following the attack. Despite all this, Peter managed to get out of bed and go about his daily morning routine before dying. He spent some time in the bathroom and at the sink, he loaded the dishwasher, packed his lunch for the day and wrote a check. He finally collapsed and died at the front door. Joan initially told police that Christopher was the attacker but then recanted.

- The Van Breda family lived an affluent, high-flying life in South Africa. Martin and Teresa were very successful and were raising three children Rudi, Henri and Marli. One night, an intruder allegedly broke into their mansion in a secure, gated community, murdering three members of the family with an axe. Henri survived with minor injuries and Marli spent months in hospital recovering. Except it turns out, there was no intruder. Henri had an alleged methamphetamine addiction and his allowance had been cut off by his parents, so he killed them.

Please note that this episode contains recordings of 911 calls made by a child victim and one of the murderers. Listener discretion is advised.

We have detailed blogs for all three cases, including crime scene photos, at TrueCrimeSocietyBlog.com

You can listen on Spotify here - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Jt0K05oS2zHL6TrdBP1sm?si=-Bn926_yQUiGt1IkKoqJfg

And Apple here - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/true-crime-society/id1504300714

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