A man has confessed to killing his stepfather with a sledgehammer, tossing his body into the family pool, hiding his crime from his mother, and then starting on the task of building a casket, as reported by KCTV Channel 5 News from Kansas city, MO.
According to court records, B.H., 41, was arrested by police officers after he allegedly told a church intern what he had done.
The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office charged B.H. with second-degree murder along with armed criminal action on May 15.
B.H. had been living with his mother and stepfather, H.C., 70, at the time of the murder. H.C. was located at the bottom of their swimming pool on May 13 by B.H.'s mother, who is also H.C.'s widow.
The last time that H.C. was seen alive was for breakfast on Saturday, May 10. By Monday, May 12, B.H.'s mother asked him where H.C. was and he made up an answer. She knew something was amiss, and confronted B.H. a second time – then he took his mother over to the pool and showed her H.C.'s dead body.
When detectives first questioned B.H. he told them that he found the body in the pool – without admitting to the crime – and had begun to build a casket as he didn't know what else to do.
Then on the evening of Wednesday, May 14, B.H. spoke for over an hour to an intern at the International House of Prayer and allegedly confessed to the murder.
According to court documents, "(B.H.) told him that he struck the victim in the head with a rock and threw him in the swimming pool. (B.H.) told the intern that he had lied to his family and the police about what occurred."
Though B.H. had originally hidden the crime from investigators, he later admitted "that the victim had a gun on him and so he struck him with a hammer and then held the hammer against the victim's neck to hold him down. (B.H.) stated that he walked away from the victim and he heard him moving in the bushes, so he then approached the victim and struck him with a sledgehammer. (B.H.) advised that this all occurred by the garage and that he carried the victim to the back of the house and threw his body in the swimming pool."
Police searched the family home for evidence, removing several items including a dolly.
One neighbor told reporters that H.C. had raised B.H. as his own son. Another neighbor, G.L., said that B.H. had recently lost his job. The two men were home alone for the weekend and during that time G.L. had a strange encounter with B.H. that he had difficulty forgetting:
B.H. had told G.L. that H.C. was driving him nuts and he had whipped himself into a frenzy over it. G.L. offered to call 911 for help – as B.H. was incoherent, behaving bizarrely and at one point had fallen to the ground – but B.H. assured G.L. that he was fine.
Facing one or more criminal charges? Contact a criminal defense attorney to best serve your needs before you speak to investigators.
