Dateline NBC - The Crossbow Incident

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

A wife and mother is found dead in her Virginia beach home, shot through the back by a crossbow. Her husband insists it was an accident, but the prosecutor calls it murder. Keith Morrison reports in this Dateline classic. Originally aired on NBC on September 8, 2008.

It was a sunny day in October 2005 when Robert and Charlene Katz's good friend Anna Creamer walked into his jewelry store in Virginia Beach with the strangest tale. She says, he tried to shoot me with a crossbow. I said, you're kidding. And she goes, nah. And I said, really? What were you talking about? Anna Creamer was talking about getting shot by her husband, Kenny, with a crossbow. A crossbow? It was all an accident, she said. It happened in the two-car garage at the front of the Creamer's comfortable suburban home.

She said he was trying to load it or something, and the thing went off, and it grazed her, evidently. And she said, it's nothing. I'll put a Band--aid on it. Don't worry about it. It's fine. The whole business was little more than embarrassing, really. Anna said she didn't want to go to the hospital. It was Kenny who apparently panicked, called 911. There was a rush to the emergency room to treat a nick on the side of her breast, a few stitches. But of course, on that 911 call, authorities heard the word crossbow. And so down at the hospital, Kenny found himself in the company of Virginia Beach's finest. And then he got arrested. And then she wouldn't press charges. It was ridiculous. He said,

he didn't try to shoot me. Come on. It was an accident. And he was released. Anna told the Katzes that she and Kenny bought the crossbow together for recreation. They both tried it out, but after that close call, they were getting rid of it. He was giving it to his wife to give to one of the other teachers she worked with and, you know, get rid of it. But of course, the Katzes couldn't have any idea back then what would soon happen to that crossbow and their good friends, the Creamers. Such a loving couple.

He worshipped the ground this girl walked on. I mean, they just, they just, they kind of loved each other, and it showed. The Creamers and the Katzes shared Christmases and Thanksgiving together, and the Creamers would bring their son. He was eleven then, and the light of their lives. He was shy, had a few learning issues, perhaps a little trouble socializing. But oh, how they doted on that boy. He was a brilliant child.

Kenny was an insurance agent until he went on disability after a car accident. So now he was a stay-at-home dad. He and his son were virtually inseparable. Kenny even turned up most days at his son's school to have lunch with the boy, just because the child seemed to need it. I thought it was absolutely wonderful, to be quite honest. Kim Shotte was a friend of the Creamers, too. She said most of Anna's stories were happy back then. Like the one about their wedding, Kenny had a way of doing things with flair.

When he and Anna got married, he put on a giant fairy tale event. He actually rented Jackie Onassis' yacht for the reception. She never had anything negative to say about Kenny. I've always thought that they had a perfect marriage. But the creamers next door neighbor saw things through a less rosy lens. We weren't friends. We were neighbors. That's how I like to put it. This is Randall Howes, retired naval officer. And, well, it was something about the chemistry with Anna. It wasn't good, especially after an altercation over Howes' dogs.

And she said, your dogs, they bark, bark, bark, bark, bark. And then she really got mad. And after that, I never spoke to her. Howes was under the impression that maybe Ken had some trouble with Anna's temper, too. He asked me what the problem was with his wife. I said, so what I do is I just ignore her. So he said, it's probably the best thing. Because he said she has a hair trigger.

But the Creamers did seem to get along, said Howes, except for that one time when he overheard all that yelling. Got in her car, started it up and started to back out. And her son burst out the door. And said, Mommy, don't go, don't go, you don't have to go. Still, everybody has fights sometimes. So it hardly seemed likely that this neighbor, and what he saw, were about to move center stage in our strange drama. Because of what happened on another fine morning, a Sunday it was, about three months after that bizarre crossbow accident,

almost beyond belief, really. Lightning striking twice. What has happened? Sir, don't hang up with me. What's happened? I need an ambulance right now. 3089 Polk Drive. 3089 Polk Drive. Please hurry. What has happened? Sir, don't hang up with me. What's happened? Sir? Sir? It was a Sunday morning when it happened. Here is what the next-door neighbor, the retired Navy commander Randall Howes, remembers. I was walking out through the garage, and I heard the dogs barking,

and somebody was at the front door. It was the Creamer's 11-year-old son. He was in his pajamas, and he said, Mr. Randy, we need your help. Howes asked the boy, what are you saying? He said, Mr. Randy, the crossbow. And Howes asked the boy, what are you saying? He said, Mr. Randy, the crossbow. And Ken had come to the door, and I say melting down. He was very upset and just said, I need help. I need help. Ken Creamer led his neighbor through the house and into the two-car garage.

And there's Anna laying at the end of the treadmill with her hands up under her head with an arrow stuck straight in her back. Dead. Had to be. But now, what happened next would be central. This is what the military man says he saw. The first thing I did was scan the garage for the crossbow.

I looked real quick and it was sitting on the box on top of this blue wrapping paper on the far side of the refrigerator. Funny, the things that become so terribly important later on. Here's what else he saw. He was beside himself. He was very, very, very upset, agitated. He would say, where's the ambulance? I need help.

This was supposed to be a gift for a friend. It wasn't supposed to be here. And he started to cry. Officers came. A detective put Kramer into a police car. Kenny said goodbye to his son, said he'd be back. The detective drove down to the station. Am I in trouble? No, you're not.

You're not in trouble. Okay, we're just talking. Ken Kramer told the officer that he, under the direction of his wife Anna, had been cleaning up the garage. And then he picked up this one bag. Didn't know what was in it, he said. He kind of threw it off to the side. I heard it in the side refrigerator. I see through the bag.

You heard the sound of the crossbow going off immediately? Yeah. Okay. I heard the sound. I heard the sound. And I didn't really know what was happening. An accident, said Ken Creamer. Horrible, unbelievable, but true. Creamer told the cop he didn't even know the crossbow was still in the house. Didn't know it was in the bag he tossed across the garage.

Didn't know it was loaded. With a hunting arrow, no less. Maybe she loaded it, he said. Really? Really? Even after she'd already been injured in that earlier crossbow incident? Asked the interrogator. I didn't touch it.

I didn't say anything. And only then it seemed to dawn on Ken Kramer that the man in the room did not believe him. You've been married 13 years. You've never had one. Never had a fight? Never had a fight. Okay. I buy my wife bags, jewelry, whatever she wants. I'm just asking you because the investigation, Kenny, okay?

For me to go to jail for the rest of my life. I love my wife so much. I would never ever do anything to my wife. And my son, I love my son dearly. Of course, Ken Ker was exactly right. This officer was very suspicious of him. I don't know. Anna would put a loaded crossbow.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Ken Creamer was the picture of a grief-stricken man, but his answers decided police just didn't add up. What happened to Ken's wife, Anna, simply couldn't have been an accident, could it? They arrested him, charged him with murder. Ken's son went to live with Anna's relatives while Ken stayed in the Virginia Beach County Jail. It was more than a

year later when police, still preparing their case, mind you, asked neighbor Randall Howes for another interview. They had some pictures, crime scene photographs that I had not seen. But now he saw something very disturbing. And right then and there, Randall Howes knew he was about to play another important role in Ken Creamer's life. So I went, uh-oh, you know, this means probably that my testimony will be key. And Randall Howe was absolutely right. By June 2008, Ken Creamer had been in jail for two and a half years awaiting trial. He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Anna.

How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty. The Commonwealth's evidence will show this was no accident. Had to be murder, said the prosecution. Look how the arrow went straight into her back and almost right through her, said the medical examiner, as if it was carefully aimed from close range. I was able to run my hand over the skin of her chest, and I could feel the tip of the arrow under my fingertips. Also, said the examiner, it was a razor-sharp hunting arrow. Did a lot of damage.

As the arrow came from back to front, it went through the aorta, completely severing it. Just cut it right in half. No doubt about the conclusion, she said. I determined that the manner of death in this case was homicide. Remember, this was the second time Anna was shot. So now the prosecutor looked back to that first incident. Was Kramer's story about that time consistent or believable? Here's what Kramer's brother-in-law, Anna's sister's husband, remembers him saying back then. He told me that he called his wife into the garage, Anna, and that when she, he had a surprise for her, and when

she walked into the garage, that the weapon somehow discharged. Now listen to what an acquaintance remembers Creamer telling her. He said that the crossbow was sitting on a shelf, and that it fell as she was reaching for the keys, and he said it came up through the right side of her breast and out the center, and just that it exited completely. Then there was a firearms expert, J.J. Mason, who testified it couldn't have been an accident. He said he tried to make that weapon fire by accident, hit it with a mallet a couple of dozen times, and...

During the course of my examination of this crossbow, I found no reason why it would fire without a pull of the trigger. In other words, the arrow that went through Anna Creamer must have been fired on purpose. I saw Anna laying there face down with an arrow square in her back. But the true star of the case against Ken Creamer was the next-door neighbor, retired Naval Commander Randall Howes. Ken is kind of just babbling, saying, you know, we need help, we need help now. Howes testified that as he stood there near Anna's body, he was scanning the room looking for that crossbow.

On the far side of the refrigerator, there was a cardboard box, and sitting on top of the cardboard box was the crossbow. I could see the front of it. Mr. Howes, I'd like you to take a very careful look at that picture. You see a blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator in that picture, sir? Yes, I do. Was that blue paper bag in front of the refrigerator as it is in that picture when you went into the garage with Mr. Kramer? No, it wasn't.

And there it was, the gotcha in the prosecution's case. Here was an extremely credible witness whose memory strongly suggested that when Howes stepped outside the garage that day to talk to the police, Ken Creamer moved that crossbow, staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. Again, because it sounds bad doesn't mean it is bad. The defense was up next, and it would argue this was nothing more than a freak accident. Ken Creamer would never kill his wife, said the defense. He adored the woman.

And a parade of friends came to the witness stand to confirm it. Got along great. Loving, caring family. They were very, very close. As for that first crossbow incident, the one that injured Anna, well, Anna herself said it was an accident. This teacher testified... She laughed about it.

She was very light-hearted about the whole situation. Then the defense set out to demonstrate that the prosecution's firearms expert was wrong, that the Kramer's weapon could fire by accident. Mr. Mason, this is how the draw would be drawn back to begin with? That's correct. And if I can ask you to tell me... Bear with me just a moment. Judge, I'm going to try it one more time,

and I'm not going to take up any more of the court's time. The demonstration was an embarrassing bust. Judge, thank you for the court's indulgence. Now, the defense had but one blockbuster witness left. Judge, I'm going to ask permission to call my client, Ken Creamer, please. Ken Creamer would show the jury what happened that Sunday morning in his garage. How did you manipulate the bag? Not this one.

Okay. Okay, just like that? Just like that. Thank you. You can have a seat, sir. Once you did that, then what happened? I heard a seat, sir. Once you did that, then what happened? I heard a puff sound, the bow, and then I turned around quick, and then my wife was already on the floor. Did you hear her say anything? No, just like a growling sound. And, he said, his neighbor, the one who testified that he saw evidence that Kramer staged the crime scene to make it look like an accident, must have been seeing things.

Did you move the crossbow at all in any way after Anna was struck? I never touched it. In closing arguments, Prosecutor Patrick Connolly laid out the case. The defendant took this crossbow and he took this arrow. He loaded it and with it in there and his wife on a treadmill stood behind her and fired it directly into her back with malice, with premeditation, with deliberation, and he did it willfully. To which defense attorney Afshin Farashani replied, how many times after an accident

that you've said to yourself or someone said, oh my god, I can't believe I did that. And just because it's an accident, it's unlikely that it's a freak accident, does not mean that it's murder. The case would go to a jury to decide. I don't think anybody in the jury really wanted to say that this man, you know, did it. The jury had a number of questions to consider in the case of Ken Kramer. They struggled to figure out how an accident might have played out. His statement that he threw this Christmas bag unbeknownst was the weapon in it, and that it discharged. You know, and where did it hit the refrigerator, for example? And how did it land?

But as they looked at the evidence, and how the arrow killed the woman, how it went in straight, and as they re-read Ken Creamer's testimony, his memory of the careless toss, the bag hitting the fridge, the loaded crossbow going off. It physically was not possible. The physics of it disallowed it. And then there was the neighbor, Randall Howes, whose memory suggested Kramer staged the scene to make it look more like an accident. Could he have been mistaken, do you think? No, I don't think there was any doubt. He told the truth. Still, Kramer said the crossbow went off inside a bag. Maybe that made it an accident after all.

We had the bag, we had the weapon, and we were trying to figure out desperately how could this weapon be in the bag and have done what it did. And none of the positions this bag was in made any sense whatsoever. So if it couldn't have been an accident the second time, then what about the first? This sounds like that's, to me, already he's planning something. And so the jury returned to the crowded courtroom and told the judge they were ready.

With the jury, find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. Guilty. Creamer twitched a little, looked down. They didn't believe him. Then, as the clock ticked down toward his sentencing, from his jail cell, Ken Creamer jumped at one last chance to explain. What made you think you could actually kill your wife and get away with it? What you're saying now is like basically insulting me. No, it never happened the way you

were saying it. No. Trouble is, that's what the jury believes, that you planned it, conspired about it, set it up. Not true, not true. What is true, said Ken Creamer, is that he and his wife had a wonderful relationship, loved each other, never fought in the way the neighbor described. As for the crossbow, he insisted he didn't know it was loaded. I never loaded it, so... You're saying she did?

Most probably, yes. I'm just trying to get through my head. Why would somebody load a crossbow with a hunting arrow with a razor tip on it and put it in a bag in the garage? Doesn't make any sense. That goes through my mind, too. I don't know. In fact, he was convinced Anna had given the crossbow away to a friend at work. And as for Randall Howe's testimony that he saw evidence Kramer had staged the crime scene. Find his statement to the police and read it and let's see what it says. I bet you it's different than what he testified. But the problem, he saw what he saw in the garage

and he said the crossbow had been moved. And the only person who could have moved it is you. Well, that's what he testified. But if you get his statement, wouldn't it be a statement if he's the first one in the scene to the detectives? He should have a statement, right? It might support his story. I doubt it very much. I doubt it very much. Worth going to have a look.

Please bring a copy to my lawyer. We did ask for the record to see that statement. The prosecutor declined our request. Howes insisted his memory was accurate and the jury, after all, believed him. All rise. And then Ken Kramer appeared for one last chance to claim it was an accident, to appeal for the court's mercy. And then it was the judge's turn. Mr. Kramer has convinced himself that, in fact, it was an accident. Obviously, the jury did not believe this particular killing was an accident. And having sat through the entire trial, quite frankly, neither does the court. The sentence? Life. No parole. Decision made. The Virginia Supreme Court would later turn down Ken Creamer's appeal.

The day of our interview, we were preparing to leave the man behind the glass. When he broke into a moment of unguarded emotion, he was remembering the minutes after the shot that took his wife, saying goodbye to his son. I miss him a lot. I mean, I worry about him and just, you know, in general, what he thinks. And just miss him because last time I seen him was I said I'll be right back. And it's like I abandoned him. And, you know, I worry about him.

He's my son. Maybe you are the unluckiest guy in the world. Well, yeah, like, it looks that way.