The Bever family consisted of mother April, father David, and their five children. David, who’d made a good living working for a computer company, had been a disciplinarian who ran his home with an iron fist. He was known to be harsh, and would become physically abusive towards the children and their mother when angry. Both parents had been overly religious; they’d believed that the rapture would be upon them at any moment, and the children were taught to prepare for this. The kids had all been homeschooled, they’d been taught to steer clear of windows, and it was not uncommon for them to go weeks on end without leaving their homes.
Since the Bever children had no access to other young people their own age, the 2 oldest brothers, Robert and Michael, became extremely close. They would stay up late at night when they were supposed to be sleeping, just talking. By the time they were teenagers, the brothers had discovered serial killers and mass murderers online; the boys looked up to these psychopaths. Their late night conversations had taken on an ominous tone; while other boys their age were fantasizing about girls, Robert and Michael were dreaming of racking up the largest body count ever.
Robert and Michael wanted to be like the infamous killers they so admired. When they were old enough, they obtained jobs; monies earned were not used to purchase cool clothes or a car, but knives, body armor, helmets, bullets, and firearms. The teens built up their arsenal bit by bit. Since their parents had believed that the end of the world was coming, they thought it was a good thing that their boys had been preparing; the teens had often walked around the home wearing their prized body armor, and their parents hadn’t thought twice of this. If anything, it was encouraged.
The brothers had planned to kick off their murder spree with their very own family; they would dismember everyone they loved and store their remains in tubs up in the attic. They even wanted to kill their 2 year old baby sister, they’d plotted to decapitate the toddler with an ax. Once their family had been dealt with, the brothers would take their parent’s vehicle and go from place to place, they would make sure to claim at least 5 victims everywhere they went.
The teens believed that their killing spree would drag on for days, or maybe even indefinitely. They truly thought that they’d rack up a body count of at least 100, they were truly naive about it all.
Michael and Robert wanted to be gods among men, they yearned for the infamy which other killers had obtained. In order to reach this coveted status, they had planned to film two gory videos: one would be given to the police, and the other would be played for the public.
On July 22nd of 2015, 18 year old Robert and 16 year old Michael decided it was time to act. They’d ordered 2,250 various rounds of ammunition set to be delivered the next day; this was important as they didn’t want to run out of ammo.
So just before midnight on this date, 13 year old Crystal walked into her big brothers room to inform them that they’d been expected to wash the dishes; at this time the boys asked her to look at what was on Michaels computer screen. Robert walked up behind Crystal, placed his hand over her mouth, and he slit her throat. To their surprise, Crystal screamed bloody murder; the teens had been under the impression that slicing a throat would silence a person, and that this would cause immediate death. That’s how it happens in the scary movies, right?
So, Mom heard the scream and she came running to see what was happening; it was at this point that Michael began repeatedly stabbing his mother.
As Robert chased his oldest sister through the house, Crystal yelled at her non-homicidal siblings to hide in the bathroom and lock the door; once Crystal reached outside, she collapsed. The terrified girl awoke to being dragged back inside the house; the next thing she knew, a police officer was busting down the front door.
During the attack, father David had been stabbed 28 times, and mother April had suffered at least 48 stab wounds. 7 year old Christopher and 5 year old Victoria had locked themselves in a bathroom as per Crystal’s orders. Michael had pounded on the door demanding that the kids open up, but they had refused; finally the older brother tricked his siblings. Michael hollered through the door that Robert was going to kill him unless they let him in, and this is how the killer gained access to his prey; they had loved him, the kids wanted him safe.
This same dirty trick had been used on 12 year old Daniel, who had barricaded himself in Dad’s office; in the moments before his murder, Daniel had managed to phone the police. This child told his killer how much he loved him while being stabbed to death.
Crystal suffered a slit throat and a few stab wounds, but she did survive the ordeal. The only other survivor had been the baby, Autumn, who had somehow slept through all of the commotion. Her brothers were so busy with everyone else that they’d virtually forgotten about her, thank goodness.
During their interrogation with police the brothers became excited and laughed when they spoke of the murders. Their only regret had been that they hadn’t obtained a high enough body count.
At trial it was a different story, of course. Michael turned against his brother, the young man sobbed into his Kleenex whilst he testified; the younger brother claimed it had all been Robert’s doing. Robert, who has since been diagnosed with mental health issues, did not deny that he did all of the stabbing; he claims that while they had acted as a team, Robert was to blame. Whether this is true, or big brother is just protecting little brother, who knows. Either way, both Michael and Robert have been given life sentences. From what I understand, since Michael had been underaged at the time of the killings, he could very well be paroled some day.
One of the most frustrating aspects of this case is, Crystal had known of her brothers devious plans for a couple of years prior to the murders. When Crystal had informed their mom of her concerns, she had not believed that there was anything to worry about; mother is quoted as having said, “Boys will be boys”. Now I’m not in the business of blaming victims, and I’m not blaming them in this case, but had mom taken these threats seriously and gotten her sons the help they so desperately needed it’s very likely that this family would still be alive today. Watch out for those red flags, y’all, don’t be blinded by love. There are always red flags.
I’m just glad Crystal and Autumn turned out to be ok in the end. It’s sad about the parents and I would never victim blame but come on you had the chance to try and prevent this. I think what’s really sad is the little brother who was being stabbed repeatedly telling his murderer he loved him
Terrible! All of it! The parents though, so many parents ignore the signs, and there are Always red flags! I have great kids, but I’m always watching for something. I’d send them to a psych eval so quickly it would make their heads spin! “Boys will be boys” 🙄 SMH
Coming from a broken home and seen many broken homes. Living in sin one way or another will always bring destruction. In this case these boys took it upon them selves to entertain a thought. Just like when a husband/wife drinks for years infamously thinking he/she has it under control until they don’t and loose it all at the very end. It can be anything, sleeping around, doing drugs, et cetera. To simplify it, it’s sin as described by the Bible (preferably the KJV authorized version).
I never understood the saying through sin comes death, but now I do after analyzing and seeing what happened to me personally.
I get it, there are many ways to live, but once you assess the findings of Ronn Wyatt you’d be dumbfounded as to there is only one way to live.
I mean you could continue to live empty without any real filling, no plan or reason, meaningless. Or, try to look at this from a summing up (1+1=2) perspective using your own basic logic.
Environment is everything. These kids grew up in an environment full of hatred and fear. They were isolated in this environment by being homeschooled (and likely had limited access to the internet, books, music, and magazines) and only had themselves. It’s so sad. The murderers are murderers, yes, and are getting what they deserve in prison. But they were not born murderers. No one is born evil. It is the environment. That is the point that everyone is missing. Their parents raised them in fear and anger and the two eldest boys turned out this way as a result. It’s takes a village to raise a healthy family. School, friends, unlimited access to knowledge (libraries), family. Isolation and fear won’t do it.
While I do agree with almost everything you said, and that’s a killer’s childhood almost always plays a major part in a person killing, it’s not always the case. It’s believed that psychopaths are born that way, while sociopaths are made through severe childhood trauma. That said, most psychopaths never kill – they go on to become police officers, CEO of major companies, they tend to have powerful jobs. Usually when a psychopath kills you can find some sort of childhood trauma. There are exceptions, of course. One being Karla Homolka. She came from a Well to do family, parents weren’t abusive, no known trauma, yet she did the things she did.