THREE MURDERS
On 28 April 1992, Kenneth Seguin took a razor from his office, concealed it (and possibly also a knife) in his trouser pocket and took the children to a soccer game. Afterwards he gave them juice boxes, laced with over-the-counter sleeping pills, to drink.
Parking outside a coin box, he used it to call his wife who was out at a cosmetics party. Seguin left a perfectly reasonable-sounding message on the answering machine. He said that the kids had persuaded him to take them on an impromptu drive to the Cape, that she shouldn’t worry. He sounded normal, even slightly upbeat. It’s possible that at this stage Kenneth Seguin was planning to kill himself after murdering the children, and suicidal people often cheer up, knowing that their problems are about to end.
The 34-year-old father drove his increasingly drowsy five-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son to Franklin, near Hopkington, and, when they lost consciousness, slit their throats, slashing so ferociously at Daniel’s neck that he almost severed his head. He also cut the children’s wrists so deeply that Amy’s hands were almost hanging off. Finally, the previously-devoted family man dumped their bodies into a Franklin pond and cleaned up the inside of his vehicle before returning home.
Seguin let himself quietly into the house and entered the master bedroom where his wife slept. He’d later say that he lay down beside her for two or three hours before killing her, but no one can verify this statement. What’s certain is that – sometime between 10pm and 8am – he battered an axe into the 34-year-old’s head as she slept.
Afterwards, the computer executive went downstairs and poured himself a glass of orange juice before writing a list of chores which he had to accomplish. This included helping the priest whom he would later accuse of molesting him and painting his mother-in-law’s house. When the coast was clear, Seguin wrapped his wife’s nightdress-clad corpse in bed linen and towels and drove to the Sudbury River in Hopkington State Park where he threw the body in.
A CONVENIENT AMNESIA
Within hours, Mary Ann’s body was seen floating in the river – and eight hours later, and a mile away, two canoeists found Kenneth Seguin wandering around a wooded area with cuts to his body, wrists and neck. They called the emergency services, who arrived to find him lying on his side. He was rushed to hospital, where he was patched up before being interviewed by police.
Seguin told them that two men had broken into his home, battered his wife with an axe, drugged his children and dumped his wife’s body at an unknown location. They’d driven him to another location before slashing him with a knife.
Police immediately began a massive search for the couple’s children, though, after searching the home and both family vehicles and finding blood traces, they feared the worst. Suspicion turned on the computer programmer when it became obvious that his wounds were self-inflicted and they found his message on the answering machine saying that he’d taken the children to the Cape.
Two days later, Kenneth hobbled into court and pleaded not guilty to his wife’s murder, though the assistant district attorney said that he’d be answering a charge of first degree murder. His wrists, neck and one foot were bandaged and he had stitches to a wound at his temple. His shirt was torn and he was sporting a new beard. The prisoner ignored journalists’ questions as to what had happened to Daniel and Amy, though he had previously told his lawyer that he didn’t know where they were.
A court-appointed psychiatrist said that Seguin showed no signs of mental illness, though he claimed to have memory gaps (killers often have such convenient amnesia) and suicidal thoughts. His lawyer asked for him to be moved to a mental hospital for observation but the judge refused this and also denied the killer bail.
Seguin told his lawyer that he missed his wife and that he was fearful for the future of his son and daughter. After the arraignment, he was returned to Middlesex County Jail. Meanwhile, the search for the missing children continued, and hundreds of searchers and tracker dogs combed Hopkington State Park and the adjacent reservoir, whilst helicopters hovered overhead. The following day, divers pulled Daniel and Amy’s virtually bloodless bodies from the sludge at the bottom of the pond and Seguin was indicted for their murders too.
TRIAL
During Kenneth Seguin’s trial in early 1993, at Middlesex County Superior Court, his attorney said that he had suffered a psychotic episode during which he killed his children and wife. The defence also suggested that his use of Prozac might have caused suicidal ideation. (But the drug would have had to be remarkably long lasting, as Seguin hadn’t taken it in the past 18 months.)
He had by now reneged on the ‘two bad men did it’ story and said he killed his family and tried to kill himself as he believed they would be ‘reunited in heaven.’ He said that the alleged sexual abuse in childhood by a priest had affected his mind. The defence noted that he had ‘only’ struck his wife once with the axe and suggested that he hadn’t wanted to cause her pain. He’d also drugged Amy and Daniel before slashing them and had cut deeply to ensure that they died quickly. They said that his self-inflicted wounds were a serious suicide attempt.
The prosecution countered that Seguin had phoned his wife en route to taking the children to their deaths, that the message he left for her on their answering machine showed no signs of disordered thinking. He had taken the drugged juice and murder weapons with him to kill Daniel and Amy, had carefully disposed of their corpses and had cleaned up afterwards. He had gone on to kill his wife, covertly removed her body from the house and quietly disposed of it. He had faked his own assault and been lucid when discovered, yet had lied to the police that he had no clue as to his family’s whereabouts.
On 7 February, the jury found him guilty of second degree murder. They said afterwards that they had rejected a verdict of first degree murder, because they recognised that severe stress and depression had left him mentally impaired – but they believed that he’d known that his actions were wrong and he wasn’t insane.
The judge sentenced him to life, with the possibility of parole after 30 years. He stared woodenly at the floor as the sentence was handed down but said nothing. His lawyers appealed on a technicality, but his sentence was upheld.
That December, Kenneth Seguin was stabbed by another prisoner at Walpole Maximum State Prison, but the wound was not fatal. He went on to run the prisoners’ union, a position he still holds to this day.
CHRISTIAN MICHAEL LONGO
Christian’s mother and father separated when he was three, after which he and his two-year-old brother lived with their mother. She later married a fellow Roman Catholic, Joe Longo, who loved the boys dearly and became their legal guardian.
When Chris – as he preferred to be known – was 10, his mother became a Jehovah’s Witness and took him and his younger brother to five meetings a week, with further religious study at home in Indianapolis. Soon he was ministering to other children and, from the age of 11, gave Bible readings at the church. The school holidays were similarly given over to religion and spent going from door to door trying to convert strangers to his mother’s beliefs.
The Witnesses preached that anyone who didn’t share their creed was worldly and that you shouldn’t socialise with them, so Chris missed out on parties and sleepovers with his school friends. He was also banned from partaking in after-school sports as anything which took him away from his spiritual life was considered to be bad.
Chris was bright and his teachers told him that he had untapped potential but his faith told him that the world was about to end so there was little purpose in further education. By the time that the Longos moved to Louisville, Kentucky, he was getting Cs and Ds despite having a high IQ. The family moved to Ypsilanti in Michigan where, at 16, he left school and took a series of menial jobs.
At 18, he asked his parents if he could go on his first ever date, as he found himself attracted to 25-year-old MaryJane Baker, a fellow Jehovah’s Witness who worked for a paediatrician. But his parents said that he was too immature to court a
woman and couldn’t date whilst he lived under their roof.
Determined to forge a life for himself, Chris moved into a flat with two other Witnesses, though he struggled to pay his share of the rent from his photography shop assistant’s wages. He and MaryJane quickly became inseparable, though she was understandably troubled when he stole money from his employer to buy her an engagement ring.
Their religion forbids sex before marriage so they opted for a short engagement, marrying on 13 March 1993. Chris had just turned 19 whilst MaryJane was almost 26.
After their honeymoon in Jamaica, generously paid for by Chris’s parents, the couple rented an apartment in Ypsilanti. MaryJane was a natural introvert whilst Chris was extroverted, so he sometimes felt stifled by the relationship. Taking a better-paid job as a field manager with Publications Circulation Fulfilment, he spent freely on computers and photography equipment and bought his wife expensive designer clothes.
A FATHER OF THREE
In the summer of 1996, MaryJane became pregnant. Both parents-to-be were delighted, and Chris set up a website to celebrate the pregnancy. The couple even hired an artist to decorate the nursery. Chris attended the birth on 28 February 1997 and proudly brought home Zachery, his firstborn son.
MaryJane was almost 30 when Zachery was born and her biological clock was ticking. Chris also wanted a second child so was delighted when Sadie was born on 30 April 1998. He’d been travelling a lot in his job but apparently gave it up so that he wouldn’t miss landmark moments such as his child’s first steps.
He took a sales job with a lower salary, which meant that his evenings were free and he was able to spend more time at Kingdom Hall. The Jehovah’s Witnesses were so pleased with his commitment that they considered making him a congregational elder, and his fellow worshippers were impressed that he seemed so devoted to his young family.
But the father-of-two was struggling to pay the bills, and, with MaryJane’s blessing, booked a vasectomy – but before he could have the operation, he found that she was pregnant again.
Madison was born prematurely on 19 October 1999 and spent a month in hospital, a month when Chris understandably did very little work at his commission-based employment. Yet he continued to spend freely and soon maxed out on his 14 credit cards. Keen to give friends the impression that he was a high flyer and that money was plentiful, he was deeply humiliated when his wife’s car was repossessed.
THEFT
Determined to succeed, he left his sales job and set up his own company, cleaning newly built homes for the construction industry. Convinced that he would soon be a rich man, he promised to buy the home-based MaryJane a minivan. He worked incredibly long hours, and was successful on paper, but the construction companies were slow payers and he soon had serious cash flow problems which he hid from his wife. In order to look successful, he stole a mini-van worth $34,000 by taking it for a test drive (he gave the car dealer a fake driving licence) and never brought it back. He repainted the van, changed the number plate and gave it to MaryJane as a gift, later falsifying emails which looked as if they had come from the van’s finance company. This was the second time that he had resorted to crime in order to look good to his family and fellow Witnesses. Sadly, it was a pattern which he would repeat with ultimately fatal results.
A JOYLESS LIFE
Shortly after stealing the minivan, Chris had an affair with a married Jehovah’s Witness and sent her emails saying that his life had been joyless before she came along, that he would always love her. MaryJane found the emails and went to the elders, who barred Chris from some church activities. At 26, the age when most men are only thinking about settling down, he was already supporting a wife, three small children and the family pet, a beautiful husky dog called Kyra. His business was failing fast but he couldn’t bring himself to file for bankruptcy.
Desperate for a quick financial fix, he deposited counterfeit cheques, totalling $17,000, in his account and initially got away with it. But, instead of using the money to pay outstanding bills and have a nest egg for the future, he bought himself a second hand motor boat and jet skis. He was emotionally a boy, in need of instant gratification, who was leading a mature man’s life.
When he went to deposit yet another forged cheque he was arrested and charged. MaryJane was shocked at this latest deceit but agreed to stand by him. Both Longos hoped against hope that word of his crime wouldn’t leak out.
On 21 September 2000, Chris went to court and was given 80 hours of community service and ordered to pay more than $30,000 to the company that he’d defrauded. He took the sentence calmly, but was shaken when details were reported in the local newspaper: how things looked were more important to Longo than how things actually were. When the Jehovah’s Witness elders read about his crimes, he was promptly disfellowshipped, which meant that he could still attend services but that no one was allowed to speak to – or make eye contact with – him. He was even shunned by his Jehovah’s Witness parents. It was a devastating blow for a man who needed to be loved and admired and he decided to stay away from the Kingdom Hall.
His wife remained devout and she and the children attended services without him. Meanwhile, the couple fielded numerous phone calls about their increasing debt.
In January 2001, Chris forged his father’s signature on a credit card application and used the card to buy scuba equipment and pay for diving lessons. Again, these were bizarre choices as by now his company had failed and he owed his parents over $100,000. He also owed back wages to his employees, all fellow Witnesses.
By May he couldn’t stand being ostracised any longer, and persuaded MaryJane to move with him and the children from their home in Ypsilanti to a warehouse in Toledo, Ohio, an hour’s drive away. They told no one of the move in a bid to outwit the police and their creditors.
FURTHER CRIMES
Temporarily unemployed, Chris Longo made money by stealing goods and selling them and by pawning his diving equipment. He also continued to forge cheques. When the police impounded his stolen van and boat, he went on the run with his family in a rental truck. Cruelly, he released their dog, Kyra, on a piece of wasteland – animals which are abandoned in this way suffer terribly. When Zachery asked what had happened to his beloved pet, he said that the dog was on holiday just like they were and was staying with a kindly farmer. The four-year-old accepted this. But MaryJane was soon worn down by trying to keep the children happy as they missed their pet, were often hungry and no longer had a stable routine.
Eventually they reached Yachats, a little hamlet on the West Coast, and rented a holiday chalet there. By now, Chris was so broke that he had to pawn their television set in order to buy food. But he didn’t have enough money to pay the rent for the chalet for more than a few days, so the family went on the road again.
The Longos drove on to Newport, Oregon, where, by washing windows, Chris raised enough for a room at a travel lodge. With five of them cramped in one small motel room, the family survived on noodles and cereal.
Chris’s lack of education made it difficult for him to find well-paying work so he took a part-time job at a coffee shop in the hope that someone else would leave and he’d been given more hours. He refused to walk to work, believing that arriving in his truck gave him status, but when he ran out of money for petrol, he simply filled up his vehicle at a garage then drove off. Meanwhile, MaryJane and the children spent most of their days at the children’s section of the local library.
In December 2001, Chris moved his family into a much more expensive condominium hotel in Newport, despite the fact that one month’s rent equalled one month’s salary. He knew that he’d never be able to pay the second month’s rent, but spent a few days living in relative luxury, even inviting another couple, whom they’d recently befriended, over for a meal.
As a single man he could enjoy such bonhomie on a regular basis – but, with four other mouths to feed, his life would remain cumbersome. A rational adult would have claimed welfare benefits or simply jumped
ship, but he had been brought up to believe that the man of the house had to appear strong and capable, the provider. To leave his family would make him seem weak and immoral, but if they appeared to have deserted him, he would be viewed sympathetically…
FOUR MURDERS
During the third week of December 2001, Chris Longo told his co-workers that his wife had left him and gone to Michigan, taking the children with her. He appeared to be coping well with his unexpected freedom, arriving at a Christmas party at a local restaurant in a brand new car which he’d stolen hours earlier from a car showroom. He laughed and joked with other revellers and they assumed that he was putting a brave face on things. He also began to make use of a nearby gym.
On the 19th, his four-year-old son Zachery’s body was washed up on the shore: it had been weighed down with a pillowcase containing a rock but had slipped free of the material. There was no identification on the body. Three days later, three-year-old Sadie’s body was discovered by divers with a pillowcase tied around her ankle. She too had been weighed down with a rock.
As he worked out at the gym, Chris Longo heard the news that two unidentified children’s bodies had been found in local waters. For a man who apparently believed that his offspring were in Michigan with his wife, he had a sudden inexplicable urge to leave town and drove to San Francisco, sleeping in the stolen car and later spending two nights at a youth hostel, though he kept a low profile for such an extroverted man.
A woman who had babysat for the Longos, and who saw artist’s sketches of the children on television, sadly identified the two bodies and police began searching for the rest of the family, though they feared the worst.
Parents Who Kill--Shocking True Stories of the World's Most Evil Parents Page 19