Every Town - Terrifying Axe Killer Christopher Porco - Delmar, NY

Episode Date: January 8, 2022

This is one of those stories that once you hear the details, it will stick with you forever. There are several strange parts to this crime which you'll learn about once you listen. If you want to watch this episode with all the crime scene photos then check that out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSDrBuMfgA&ab_channel=ScaryMysteries🥇 Watch This Episode with like.....visuals! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSDrBuMfgA&ab_channel=ScaryMysteries🎉 Patreon (videos too hot for youtube): https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 🎧 More Podcasts, we got you: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579 Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Today we had to Del Mar, which is a hamlet in Bethlehem, New York, where we learn about Christopher Porco and how he killed his own father with an axe. Lies, deceit, and fraud. Combined together, they can produce a formidable crime story for TV, in a movie, or in the real world.

Throw in a sociopathic character than you can expect. a tale that's fatally gruesome. For example, imagine a son killing his own parents. And the crime story becomes a unique case because the murder weapon isn't the predictable 45 caliber pistol or a razor sharp knife, but instead, a fireman's axe. Not every home in Delmar, New York may keep a fireman's axe, but the Porco family owned one. And in November of 2004, the heavy-edged cutting tool and the Porco household, became a witness and symbol of an unforgivable evil committed by Christopher

against his parents. He murdered his 52-year-old father and attempted to do the same to his 54-year-old mother. The unthinkable crime ended the 30-year marriage of Peter and Joan and started a 50-year ordeal for Christopher as a convicted criminal. Hi, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald, and you're tuned in to another episode of every town. Until now, Del Mar, the hamlet, and the town of Bethlehem and New York, is still rattled by the 2004 brutal crimes in the Porco home. What could have driven the family's youngest son, Christopher, to take away the lives of his father and almost that of his mother's?

How can he live for the rest of his life incarcerated, knowing that he has his father's blood on his hands? But this is also partly the story of Joan Porco, the mother inflicted with grave physical harm by her son, yet she chose her unconditional love for him to triumph. It's the redeeming factor in this tragic story, which will surely pique your interest and stir your emotions. In the mid-1970s, Peter Porco and Joan Belzano got married, and years later had two sons. The eldest, Jonathan, was born in 1981, and the youngest, Christopher, was a welcome edition on July 9, 1983.

The family settled in a two-story home at 36 Broccoli Drive in Del Mar. They lived a comfortable life with Peter working as a state appellate division court clerk in Albany, while Joan pursued a career as a children's spieth pathologist. As grown-ups in 1994, 23-year-old Jonathan was an officer in the U.S. Navy stationed in South Carolina, while 21-year-old Christopher was a student 230 miles away at the University of Rochester, a private research university. There was no explicit sibling rivalry between the brothers, but it was deemed that Jonathan was the good son being hard-working and dedicated to his military career. Christopher, meanwhile, was the one who had a history of getting into trouble due to his lies, deceit, and fraud. In school, the tall and good-looking younger Porco son told tales of

coming from a wealthy family with extensive real estate holdings and vacation homes. A boy who also grew up in Del Mar and went to Bethlehem High School with him said that Christopher's teachers found him insane. But his offenses had become more alarming. because as he grew older, he exhibited a history of antisocial behavior. Particularly, Christopher figured in cases of burglary within the family's Delmar home. When he was 19, he stole his parents, Macintosh, and Dell laptop computers. On July 21, 2003, while he was home for the college summer break, he stole another laptop computer, which he sold on eBay.

Two years later, in 2005, the gadget was retrieved by the Bethlehem Police Detectives in San Diego, California. While attending college, Christopher held a job at a veterinary clinic. It reported some missing electronic equipment due to burglaries. Then in October of 2004, a month prior to the axe murder and the Porco home, both Jonathan and Christopher froze their respective eBay accounts because they had a similar address. Thus, many customers who had paid for the orders didn't receive the goods from Christopher. Possibly wanted to get off the hook, Chris resorted to lies and deceit, and he posed as his older brother Jonathan sent emails to the customers he duped online

explaining that his brother Christopher had died and was unable to deliver the items. All these served as a foreshadowing of a more sinister scheme. the Porco family's black sheep was plotting to bail himself out of his financial woes. Authorities believe that Christopher had his eyes set on his parents' $1 million life insurance payout. So, what was the boy's way out? Use a fireman's axe to murder his parents for his get-rich-quick plan to succeed. Chris Porco sank deep into financial trouble as a college student because of his lack of diligence and his scholarly pursuit, and partly due to his panache for extravagance

just to sustain the imaginary rich kid image he concocted. Does a 21-year-old college student really need a $16,000 yellow Jeep Wrangler? In his efforts to keep up with the Joneses, Chris victimized two educational institutions, a bank, and unfortunately his own parents. Investigations revealed that tension involving finances have been brutal, between Christopher and his parents months prior to the crime. An exchange of emails among the Porco couple and Christopher showed how distressed Peter and Joan were over their second son's actions.

The start of the rift could be traced at the end of the fall semester in 2003, while Christopher was enrolled at the University of Rochester. Due to his poor grades, school officials forced him to withdraw from the university. So Chris enrolled at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. But the change of environment didn't improve his academic performance. Worse, Chris never even completed a single semester. Soon enough, this reached his parents. At March of 2004, as Chris was spending a leisurely trip in England,

he received an email with the subject from his parents, failing grades you did it again. The message was heavy, with disappointment and read, You just left, and we can't believe our eyes as I look at your interim grade report. You know what they say, three strikes and you're out. Explain. And explain, Christopher did several days later, using his go-to tactic.

Lying. He put the blame on the community colleges registrar office and wrote, But obviously they are incorrect. My lowest grade that I got on anything. was a B on a physics test. Don't jump to conclusions. I'm fine. Christopher further said that a professor

lost his final exam papers, hence he got a failing mark. His plethora of lies didn't end there, though. He then assured his parents that because of the slip-up, the community college would pay for his upcoming semester in the fall of 04, which was far from the truth, of course.

So he resorted to doing a fraudulent act. He told his parents that he would need their financial information, and one of them as a co-signer in securing a loan to pay for $2,000 in fees. Christopher got access to the information and obtained a $31,000 loan from Citibank with Peter as co-signatory. He wanted to re-enroll at the University of Rochester, but how could he pull it off with failing grades at the Hudson Valley Community College? The art of deception then came in handy for Chris. He forged his transcript of records from the community college with all A's and B's and used them for readmission at the University of Rochester.

Peter and Joan were left in the dark by their son fraudulently took out a loan and used a portion of it to pay for his university tuition fee. Peter soon found out about Christopher's falsified bank transaction though and wanted to talk to him. But his and Jones' phone calls have been ignored by their son for weeks already. And now enraged, Peter, then reprimanded his son through email. Did you forge my signature as a co-signer? What the hell are you doing?

You should have called me to discuss it. I'm calling Citibank this morning to find out what you've done and I'm going to tell them I'm not to be on it as a co-signer. The strong words coming from his father should have made Chris really. his wrongdoing, but his callousness prevailed. He delivered another shock to his parents then the following day. Citibank notified Peter that his wayward son had also obtained an auto loan for the financing of his expensive Jeep Wrangler. As expected, Christopher forged his father's signature as a co-signer to get his loan application approved by the bank. Sort of blindsided twice

consecutively, Peter emailed Chris, warning him that he could no longer tolerate his dishonesty. His message sounded like a threat as well. I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability, and that applies to the Citibank College loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan. But perhaps no amount of anger and frustration can overpower a parent's genuine love and care. Peter concluded it with a heartfelt line. We may be disappointed with you, but your mother and I still love you and care about your future.

It was an invitation for Chris to head back to their Delmar home to settle their issue. Well, Christopher did, but his intention wasn't congruent to what Peter and Joan desired. The poor old couple wanted a fresh start. while the sun sought for her tragic end. On November 15th, 2004, Peter didn't report to Albany's stay at Appellate Division. So one of his colleagues, court officer Michael Hart, was ordered a check on Peter at his Broccoli Drive home in Del Mar that day. When Michael peered at the house's front door window,

the sight of Peter's bloody, dead body sprawling on the floor appalled him. Michael immediately called for help, and Peter had suffered from massive head trauma while Joan still clinging to her life, was found in the couple's blood-soaked bed lying on her back. Albany County Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard determined that Peter sustained serious injuries from getting struck by a fireman's axe multiple times, including one that penetrated his skull and another that took off part of his jaw. His wife was also hit three times resulting in severe head and facial trauma. The attack crushed Jones' jaw, penetrated her skull deep enough to expose her brain, and caused her to lose one of her eyes and teeth. A fireman's axe that the Porco family owned and was used to carry out the crimes was then found in the couple's bedroom.

Police also discovered that someone had smashed the house's burglar alarm, cut the phone line and opened and cut a hole in the window screen. Obviously, Peter and Joan were brutally bludgeoned while they were in a deep sleep in the early hours on November 15th. Dr. Hubbard estimated that Peter died anywhere between the hours of 1.30 and 6.30 a.m. on November 15th. But despite Peter's severe trauma and bleeding, he survived for quite some time and did some mundane things. His brain damage had put him on an autopilot. He got out of bed and began his daily routine which investigators were able to retrace by following the blood trail around the Porco house.

First, Peter headed to the bathroom and spent some time at the sink presumably to shave in front of the mirror. But he was oblivious of the blood dripping into the sink. Unbelievably, he then went down to the kitchen and loaded the dirty dishes from last night into the dishwasher and packed his lunch for that day. He was a walking zombie, fueled by the sheer adrenaline pumping through him. To top it all off, Peter managed to go out to the front door to pick up the morning newspaper, but he accidentally locked himself out of the house.

He remembered the spare key kept under a potted plant and got inside the home. Finally, though, the psychological mechanism that enabled him to still function. after getting multiple axe-stabbing's pulled its plug. Peter, then fell face down in the foyer, bleeding, and lifeless. The only surviving witness to the horrendous crimes was Joan, who may have survived, but will always be reminded of the incident by the loss of one eye and the disfigurement of her once beautiful face. The scar undeniably cuts so much deeper,

but Joan made sure to seal the pain within the recessive, of her heart and soul. When she was rescued following the discovery of the crime at their home, Jones' answers to questions via her head movement led the police to their first suspect. Christopher Porcoe. Flehem Police Detective Christopher Bodish said that while paramedics were stabilizing Joan's condition, he asked her if she could identify the assailant. Asked if it was a family member, Joan used her head to indicate yes. Was it the older son, Jonathan? shook her head indicating it wasn't him, which was plausible,

since Jonathan was stationed in South Carolina at the time. Was it the younger son Christopher? And reportedly nodded her head up and down, indicating yes. She was then rushed to the hospital, where she underwent a 12-hour surgery and then slipped into a coma. The police considered Jones' non-verbal reply as an identification of Christopher's responsibility and murdering his father and seriously injuring his mother. Two hours later, an all-points bulletin for Christopher was issued.

Thus, Bethlehem Police right away pursued the younger Porco sibling instead of conducting a broader investigation of other possible suspects. Then, where was Christopher between November 14th and 15th of 2004? Well, he told investigators that on the night of November 14th, He slept at the Monroe House, the university's dormitory lounge, three and a half hours away from Del Mar. He then accidentally found out about his parents' plight the next morning. When a Times Union reporter covering the crimes contacted Christopher's roommate about the Porco family, Chris then straight away rushed home from Rochester and visited his mom at the Albany Medical Center.

That night, the police questioned Chris, an authority. He also interviewed his fratmates and friends about his whereabouts in the wee hours of November 15th. Two weeks later, the grand jury was convened by the Albany Court District Attorney to hear testimonies implicating Christopher and his father's murder. In a closed session hearing, those who testified included Christopher's Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity brothers and friends, a university campus safety officer and his former girlfriend. Finally, one year after the attacks, the grand jury indicted Christopher in November of 2005. But there was a dramatic twist that caught everyone by surprise. Joan Porco had emerged from a medically induced coma

and maintained that her son Christopher had nothing to do with her husband's murder. She submitted a videotaped testimony to the grand jury in December of 2005 talking about the Porco family. but didn't identify Christopher as the attacker. In the coming months, a mother's unconditional love was on full display for the public to see as Christopher faced his trial. The Porco case gathered intense media coverage in Albany, so Christopher was tried in Goshen, Orange County, New York, starting on June 27, 2006. He was slapped with charges of second-degree murder and killing his father and second-degree

attempted murder and the severe wounding and disfigurement of his mother. The prosecutors were steadfast that Christopher drove more than three hours east to Albany in the early morning hours of November 15th to murder his parents and presented overwhelming circumstantial evidence, refuting Chris's claim that he was at the university dorm since the night of November 14th until the next day. Nine of his frat brothers belied seeing him there. Christopher's classmates went on to describe him becoming an increasingly heavy drinker and someone who had threatened to kill one female student. The recorded footage from the University of Rochester's security cameras of a yellow Jeep Wrangler

fitting Christopher's vehicle also proved he wasn't at the dawn. That vehicle left the campus at 10.30 p.m. on November 14th and returned at 8.30 a.m. on November 15th. The time interval fit a realistic timeline for committing the crime at the Porco home. Its burglar alarm was deactivated at 2.14 a.m. And the phone line was cut at 4.59 a.m. Police believed Christopher cut the hole in the window to make it look like a burglary, but nothing was stolen from the house. Moreover, older son Jonathan said that his brother was one of few people

who knew the alarm's four-digit deactivation code. During his testimony, Jonathan never made eye contact with his brother, saying that his relationship with him was strained and that Christopher knew that his parents had life insurance policies. Two, New York State Thruway Tollboots collectors also told investigators that they'd seen a yellow Jeep Wrangler passing through their respective stations. One saw it at around 10.45 p.m. at exit 46 outside Racha. The other one, collecting tolls at exit 24 in Albany, said she particularly spotted the Jeep before 2 a.m. on November 15th because of its excessive speed upon nearing the Toll Plaza.

The Porco family's neighbor, Marshall Goki, also told investigators that he spotted the yellow Jeep in the Porco's driveway before 4 a.m. on November 15th. This strengthened the police's belief that they were on the right track. They believed that Chris had obviously left Rochester on the night of the 14th, used the hidden spare key to unlock the front door, used the family code to disarm the alarm and attacked his parents with an axe. He then cleaned himself up, staged a robbery, and cut the phone line before driving back to Rochester.

The prosecution's only forensic evidence was a throughway ticket that allegedly carried Christopher's mitochondrial DNA. Investigators theorized he wore scrubs from the veterinary office during the assault and then destroyed or hid them. The colleague testified that Christopher had experience cleaning up after surgical procedures. In defense of Chris, his husband and wife team of lawyers emphasized that the Bethlehem police department had no physical evidence linking Chris to the attack of his parents. No fingerprints were recovered from the fire axe found at the crime scene.

One of them also suggested that the department and made Christopher's guilt a foregone conclusion, describing it as a department that chases skateboarders away from the 7-Eleven. This is not the FBI. They also maintain that the police failed to consider the possibility that Peter's murder was the result of a retaliation against his uncle Frank, a captain in the Bonanno crime family in New York City, and someone who once served in the New York City Fire Department.

Frank's mob name was the fireman, which could have had something to do with the fireman's axe used as a murder weapon. Among the legal battle of proving or disproving Chris's guilt, Joan's heartbreaking love for her son stole the show. She stood by him throughout everything, accompanying him with their arms linked in court and testifying for the defense. Joan told the jurors that she didn't remember implicating Christopher to Peter's murder or her assault

and that her son would never do such a heinous crime. She maintained that while Christopher's financial misdeeds angered her and Peter, they all loved one another and wanted to work out their relationship. In fact, after Christopher's 2005 indictment for second-degree murder and attempted murder, Joan had scoured $250,000 for his bail. On August 2nd, 2006, both the prosecution and defense teams wrapped up their presentations. At 5 p.m. then, on August 8th, the jury found Christopher guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder. On December 12, 2006, he was then sentenced to 25 years to life on each count, totaling a minimum of 50 years in prison.

It broke Jones hard into pieces, which prompted her to write a letter for publication. and the Times Union about Chris that read, I implore the Bethlehem Police and the district attorney's office to leave my son alone and to search for Peter's real killer or killers so that he can rest in peace, and my sons and I can live in safety. Christopher's appeals to the Appellate Division, Third Department, and to the New York Court of Appeals were rejected. He is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, New York,

Alas, a mother's genuine love can at times lose to a well-deserved justice in the eyes of men and God. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange and mysterious stories, because who knows, maybe your town's going to be next.