Murder In America - EP. 27 OKLAHOMA - The Bever Brother Family Massacre (WARNING: VERY DISTURBING)

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

In 2015, two brothers in Oklahoma slaughtered members of their own family in their own home in an attempt to become the deadliest mass killers in United States history. The two were inspired by the Columbine shooting, Jeffrey Dahmer and loads of other notorious murder sprees... but they ended up committing a horrific act that Oklahomans were unprepared to deal with. This, is the story of the Bever brother family massacre... and you're listening, to MURDER IN AMERICA. Sign up for AcornTV now at the link below!! We highly recommend it! Lots of great shows. Don't forget to use our promo code "mia" at checkout (in all lowercase letters): acorn.tv Get VODACAST and dive even DEEPER into the stories that we're telling at the link below!: http://feed.vodacast.com/55713180/Murder%20In%20America/27:%20EP.%2027%20-%20OKLAHOMA%20-%20The%20Bever%20Brother%20Family%20Massacre%20(WARNING:%20VERY%20DISTURBING) Sign up for BetterHELP and take charge of your mental health with Colin and Courtney at the link below!: https://betterhelp.com/mia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's BetterHELP.com slash MIA. The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone.

You have been warned. Being a parent is not an easy job. I'm obviously not one myself, but from what I've been told, it's one of the hardest jobs. You want the best for your kids, and you spend countless nights worrying about them and their safety, praying that the dangers of the outside world stay far away. But what if the real danger isn't outside of your home? Instead, it's just down the hallway, fast asleep, and it's your own flesh and blood.

There is nothing that can prepare you for the fact that the biggest threat to your family's safety are your two oldest sons, who have been creating a plan to end the lives of you, your spouse, and the rest of their own brothers and sisters. This is a sad and gruesome story, so buckle up. This is the story of the Beaver family murders. And you're listening to Murder in America. Our story starts in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in a house on the 700th block of Magnolia Court. Within this big two-story home lived the Beaver family. There was the father David Beaver, who was 52.

The mother, April Beaver, who was 44, and their seven children. Robert, who was 18, Michael who was 16, Crystal who was 13, Daniel, who was 11, Christopher, who was seven, Victoria, who was five, and Autumn, who was only one years old. They had a very big family, and they mostly kept to themselves. Most people in the neighborhood said that they barely ever even saw the family. In fact, they didn't even know most of their names because of how reclusive they were. The father, David, worked as a computer programmer and analyst, but he also had a office at home so he was able to spend a lot of time with his family. The matriarch of the family,

April, worked a few odd jobs here and there, but her main job was raising and homeschooling her seven children. It was known that David and April were pretty strict and religious parents. They didn't really let their kids out much, nor did they let them have any friends. So the siblings really only had each other. The oldest of the Bever siblings, Robert and Michael, were only two years apart and age and they were extremely close. And because they weren't allowed out of the house very much, the two did everything together, including spending a ton of time on the internet. 18-year-old Robert actually had a YouTube channel where you can find several videos of him rambling on about things like video games and different songs he's made. Here's a quick little

clip of one of his videos. Oh, speaking of what is hopelessly outdated, Minecraft 0.6.0 turned out to be a bomb in a bad way. Everyone knows that by now. But my brother lost his ultimate survival world because of the 0.6.0 pocket edition World saving glitch.

It was awesome. The whole world had been mined out. It was a full-blown city with streets and neighborhoods and a big city center with skyscrapers and hot dog vendors and mimes and pollution. Maybe I was just cleaning out my closet.

The pollution fumes went to my head. Since the brothers never really got to experience life outside of their home, the internet opened up a window as to what the real world was like. But everyone knows that the internet has a dark side. And surprisingly enough, their parents didn't really monitor what the brothers were looking at online. Because of this, Robert and Michael became heavily interested in the dark parts of society, constantly researching about serial killers and school shooters. If you're listening to this podcast, you might be thinking,

That's not that weird. And we feel you on that one. Our search history looks a lot like that too. But Robert and Michael's interest went beyond just a curiosity. They were inspired by these killers and envied the notoriety they received after their kills. Robert was definitely the darker of the two brothers. He was heavily inspired by a movie called Rampage, about a man who snaps and goes on a killing spree,

wanting to eliminate as many people as possible. Robert also studied the acts of the Columbine Shepard. shooters, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Aurora Theater shooter, Jim Jones, and he would even doodle little pictures of these infamous killers and write underneath it that they were his heroes. He wanted to be just like them, to be widely known just like them. And as these dark thoughts infiltrated his mind day after day, Robert's fantasy of bringing these demented thoughts to life began to grow. Michael Beaver, the younger of the two, was definitely no angel.

but Robert had a heavy influence on him. Michael looked up to his older brother, and little by little, he too started to experience these dark fantasies. The brother's isolation from society sparked within them a deep desire to be known in the world. But instead of fame, the two desired infamy. When Robert wasn't at home fantasizing about mass shootings, he was at his job, where he worked at a Christian call center. His duties at this job were to answer phones,

take people's prayer requests and pray for them and whatever they were going through, which is bizarre to think about when you find out the crime he commits later on. And Robert uses this money he gets from the call center to purchase an alarming amount of knives and body armor, including a bulletproof vest, arm and leg shields, and helmets. And he used these eBay and Amazon purchases to aid his dark fantasy of mass murder. Robert even goes as far as to make a list of all the materials he would need to kill as many people as he possibly could. And over time, he decides that he's going to actually bring this dark fantasy to life. Robert, being super close with his younger brother, Michael,

starts to share with him this idea of committing a mass killing. He tells Michael that his goal is to kill their parents and their other five siblings, and then drive all the way to Washington State and kill up to 500 people along the way, murdering more victims than any other mass shooter in history. Michael listens to his older brother's plan. And he too wants in on it. Michael would later explain all of this in an interrogation. He has a speech impediment so it's kind of hard to hear what he's saying, but here is a clip.

Did you guys talk about being on the news and getting to see each other on TV and stuff? What kind of things did you say and talk about? Most like that, how we were playing. I couldn't people get them on the top. And I would become a M.S. We can't be able to be able this. Oh, okay. That would be a big deal, yeah.

I mean, do you think they might even make a movie or something or a TV show? I don't know that would be a TV show, but... Did you guys talk about that? Yes, I think, I had a question. He just wanted to be famous. What did you want? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. You could have what you wanted. No, I just want to go out of the least, would you get a job. But you, I mean, your big brother's telling me he wants to be famous, and you guys are making these plans. Surely you want something that bang, too. I didn't do. right, you know, I do it with him because, like, he's going to do it no matter why. He says, if I don't do it with him, then just going to do me too.

If you didn't understand that, Michael says that they wanted their own Wikipedia page for killing a bunch of people. He goes on to say that it was all Robert's idea, and that Robert said that if he didn't participate, then he would kill him too. But take that with a grain of salt. Over the next few months, Robert and Michael buy a ton of knives on the internet and ship them right to their own house. Apparently, their 13-year-old sister was very uncomfortable with her brother's knife collection. And she even told her parents that she didn't like it. But David and April didn't

find it very concerning. And they definitely had no idea that their two oldest sons were buying these weapons with the intent to slaughter their entire family. The brothers decide that instead of shooting their family members to death, they're going to kill them with their knives. They didn't want to use guns because it would be too loud and it would alert the neighbors. And if they wanted to go on and commit a mass shooting, they would have to be inconspicuous about murdering their family. The boys at this point have almost everything they need for the killings. They have the knives, the armor, the elaborate plan. All that they're missing are the guns.

In the state of Oklahoma, you don't have to have a permit to purchase a gun. You just have to be 18 years old. So Robert decided to take advantage of these lenient gun laws and buys two glocks, a shotgun, and a ton of ammunition. off the internet, ordering a thousand rounds of ammo for the Glockes and 250 rounds of shotgun ammunition. I have a couple of months ago, I think we had talked with this guy we started talking about, uh, road ruin, stuff like that. Okay, and take his serious later first, but then he started buying like a body armor and stuff. Where did he buy body armor from?

eBay and Amazon. Oh, okay. About a month, about like June 30th, his wing came to me. his ring came to me and say found out that he can legally buy guns without a criminal that he could. Okay. And that's my start a plan. And so...

Did you... Now, you said he bought body armor, but you kind of said like a bunch of stuff, did he buy, what else did he buy besides body armor? Um, besides body armor and knives and using the both of buying guns and ammunition. I see. Okay. The guns, where did you start buying guns down? Um, he got him on nine, I think, what he said, like, the other sets, like, the bloods are

He bought two blocks. He bought three months. Because like $2.50 shotgun rounds on eBay. Not you paid for them. It's not in some words. He didn't think he bought close 3,000 rounds for the clocks. Wow. Okay. Robert even began taking money out of his bank account to fund their expenses during their murder spree.

He had also written out the entire plan in a journal that he kept underneath his bed. Robert and Michael didn't have a bank. didn't have a specific day plan to kill their family, but they were starting to get a little nervous. Their boxes of ammunition were to arrive at their house soon, and they knew that if their parents saw the nearly 1,300 rounds of ammo, they would obviously be concerned. So they decided to kill their family the day before the ammo was supposed to arrive at their house at midnight on July 22, 2015. I don't know about you guys, but I love watching TV.

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You picked a date, you said? Yeah, which was yesterday. Yesterday night. It was a good date. So you'd you'd make a dime and everything. Yeah, at the time at the night. When you were sitting, you were sitting on some days. So how did you guys know? He just came and got you or you got him or what you guys? I'm hanging on you. Okay. How did you go to date? For the big of all day in packages and stuff what we have.

Because you know all the ammunition, he didn't want them to see that. So he killed him the day before the ammunition could have the day after. For the next few days after they established this gruesome plan, the brothers carried on with their lives, pretending that all was well. They spent time with their family, ate dinner with them, conversed with them, and then after family time, the two would go up to their room and rehearse the kills. I want you all to take a second and imagine this. The brothers are sitting up in their room, and Roberts whispering, making sure that no one in the family can hear him. And he starts to tell Michael step by step how they will massacre their entire family. and he describes it sort of like this.

First, we will put on our tactical gear and I'll go and kill Mom. While I'm doing that, you go and kill Crystal and then Victoria. Then both of us will go upstairs and kill Dad and Baby Autumn. Then I will go downstairs and kill Daniel and Christopher. After everyone's dead, we'll put the bodies in the attic and wait for the guns and ammunition to come in the mail tomorrow. Once we have all of our weapons, we'll take Mom's car and drive to Washington, where we'll stop at gas stations and restaurants,

killing, I don't know, five people at each place. Their plan was elaborate. They wanted to quietly kill each family member and do it quickly so the other family members wouldn't notice. According to Michael, they originally planned to record the entire thing and post it to YouTube in the midst of their big murder spree. But luckily, that wouldn't happen. At this time, the brothers then sort out all of the details.

The exact weapons they'll use, which rooms they'll kill them. them in, and the order in which they'll kill their family members. They discuss everything, all while their family sits only yards away, completely unaware of their evil plan. And then the infamous day arrives, the day that would forever change the city of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, July 22, 2015. It's approaching midnight, and the boys are sitting in the room that they share, preparing themselves for the kill. They aren't nervous or having second thoughts. They're actually excited. Robert even pulls out his journal and writes, My only fear is that I can't hold the knife steady enough.

11 p.m. rolls around, and the two decide that they don't want to wait any longer. Robert knew that his 13-year-old sister, Crystal, was watching TV with their mom, so he instructs Michael to go get her and bring her to their bedroom. Michael walks into the living room and tells Crystal, Hey, come here, I have to show you something. Michael and Crystal walk into the boy's bedroom, and he stands her in front of his computer pretending to show her something. Crystal looks down at the screen.

When all of a sudden, Robert comes up behind her with a knife in hand and slits her throat. Robert planned to kill Crystal this way. He thought that by slitting her throat, she would immediately die and they could go on to kill the rest of their family. But the issue with this plan was that Robert didn't know how to properly slit a throat, and he only ended up injuring his sister. One of the brothers would later say, quote, it wasn't like it was on the TV where you cut them once and they die." End quote.

Crystal was now bleeding from her neck, and she starts to scream and fight back, realizing that her brothers are trying to kill her. During the struggle, Robert stabs her several times in the stomach and arms, all while she's screaming out for help. And their plan to kill her without the rest of their family noticing quickly began to go south. Wait, no, okay, so she sat down at your desk.

And he sluttered her throat. What you're standing about that's going to be in? And then he stabbed her some more. When you stab her some more, where was he stab her? Oh, her. Oh, my head was that her stomach. And tell her, and then the mom came in. Their mother, April, hears Crystal's blood-cirling screams,

and she immediately runs to check on her. When she gets to Robert in Michael's bedroom, she sees her oldest son on top of Crystal, stabbing her. April then begins to scream, yelling for someone to call the police. The boys then realize that their plan is going awry. They quickly run over to April, knock her on the ground,

and start stabbing her repeatedly in the head, neck, torso, arms, and hands. April Bevers fought back against her sons, but she died that night with 48 stab wounds administered by her two oldest children, the children that she loved and would have done anything for. And stabbing someone is not an easy task. The blade doesn't just slip in and out,

it has to go through skin, muscle, bone, organs, and it takes a lot of effort, a lot of rage, to stab someone 48 times. While Robert and Michael were stabbing their mother, Crystal takes the opportunity to run downstairs and out the front door. When she looks down, she notices that there's an organ hanging out of her stomach, and she proceeds to collapse in the front yard. Soon after, Robert orders Michael to drag her back inside. Crystal at this point is severely injured, bleeding profusely from her neck, an abdomen. And Michael proceeds to drag her inside and lock the front door so she can't escape. While all of this was going on, 11-year-old Daniel hears the commotion, and he walks out of his

room to see what's happening. Standing there in front of him is his older brother, Robert, with a crazed look in his eyes and a knife in his hand. Robert lunges at Daniel, slicing open his arm. But before he is killed, Daniel is able to quickly run into a nearby room and lock the door. Luckily, there was a cell phone in this room, and Daniel quickly grabs it and dials 911. Before we play this 911 call, we want to warn you that 11-year-old Daniel does not end up surviving the night, which makes this call very difficult to listen to. If you don't want to hear it, please skip ahead a minute and 30 seconds. Broken Air 911.

1-1. What address? Okay. Are you the only one there? No. My dad is attacking my family. Your dad is attacking your family? Okay, who's attacking your family?

Who's attacking your family? No. Who is it? You'll notice towards the end, Daniel says, no Michael, and then the phone is disconnected. What happened after that phone call is horrifying. If you remember, Daniel only saw Robert with the knife before he locked you himself in the bedroom. He didn't know that Michael was a threat as well. So as he's on the phone with 911, Michael knocks on the door, telling Daniel to let him in. Daniel doesn't want to open the door,

but Michael tells him, quick, open it. Robert's trying to kill me. And in his last selfless act, trying to save his older brother from death, Daniel opens the door. As soon as it's open, Robert and Michael run inside of the room and take the phone from Daniel. You can hear one of them say, hello, to dispatch before the line disconnects. What's going on there? Hello? After they hang up the phone, Michael looks at Robert and says, He's all yours. And with that, Robert steps towards Daniel and stabs him repeatedly in the back, shoulder, and chest.

Daniel makes one final attempt to run out of the room after being stabbed, but ends up collapsing near the front of the house. 11-year-old Daniel ends up dying shortly afterwards at the hands of his older brothers. After murdering Daniel, Michael looks down the hallway and sees two of his siblings run inside the bathroom and locked the door behind them. It was seven-year-old Christopher and five-year-old Victoria. They had heard their mom and siblings screaming and knew that something was terribly wrong.

So they do what any small child would do. They run and hide. Michael, seeing the two head into this room, speeds over and begins banging on the bathroom door. And after a brief moment of silence, he begins to beg his little brother and sister to let him inside the room, telling them that, that Robert is trying to kill him.

He then tells them that if they open the door, he will protect them. I'm sure that they felt a small sense of relief knowing that their older brother, who they trusted was on the other side of that door. So they unlock the door and they open it for their brother. Only to see Michael standing there with a knife in his hand and Robert standing right behind him.

As soon as Christopher and Victoria opened the door, Michael barges inside, and they soon realized that the person that was supposed to protect them was the monster all along. Christopher and Victoria start to scream when all of a sudden, Robert sees his father. Surprisingly, David had actually slept through most of the killings, despite all the screaming. When he finally realizes what's happening, he runs towards Robert and screams, I'm going to get you! But before this, Robert had pulled out the biggest knife in his collection, and David stood no chance against his own crazed son. Robert runs towards his dad and stabs him 28 times in the back chest and abdomen.

Robert then notices crystal lying at the front of the house and walks over to her and tries to suffocate her. After a few moments, he leaves her there on the floor, assuming she's dead. Back inside the bathroom, Michael turns to Christopher and Victoria. He walks towards his little brother with a knife, while Christopher screams and backs himself into the corner of the bathroom. Michael then repeatedly stabs him in the neck until he. he dies. While this was happening, five-year-old Victoria is watching in horror as her brother murders her other brother right in front of her eyes. Michael then turns to Victoria, who was also

screaming in the corner of the bathroom, and he proceeds to stop her and the neck, chest, back, and arms until she too is dead. Robert and Michael's very last victim is upstairs fast asleep. It's their one-year-old sister, Autumn. But before the brothers go to kill her, they hear the police in their front yard, and they begin to panic. This was not a part of their plan. And they decide to make a run for it out the back door and into the woods behind their property. Hey, everyone, have you ever been listening to our podcast and wish that you could see pictures of the victims, killers, murder weapons? See pictures of all of that while you're listening to our show. By the way, Guys, thank you so much for listening to our podcast, Murder in America, but before you go any further, we have to stop.

Go download the app, Vodicast. Now, you won't regret it. Vodicast is an amazing, new, immersive podcast app that allows you to experience the podcast and others in a way that you haven't been able to until now. Vodicast will provide you a deeper version of the show and allow you to view photos of the people and places that we're talking about in the episode. You'll also get links for articles about the case and additional bonus content pertaining to this week's story. This episode that you're listening to now is actually available now on Vodicast. So go download the app and see what all the buzz is about. When you experience a podcast on Vodicast, you're not only listening to your favorite podcast, but you'll be getting stories that come alive with supplemental digital content that allows you to have everything being discussed in the episode at your fingertips.

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Now, back to our story Dispatch sent police officers out to the scene after receiving Daniel's phone call and as they approach the house, officers see Crystal's blood covering the sidewalk and front porch. They all start to brace themselves knowing that the situation already looks very bad. As they peek through the front door of the house,

they hear faint cry. They all listen closer and realize it's a young girl saying, Please save me. Detective Brent Burton breaks down the door and sees 13-year-old Crystal lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. He runs to her side and tells her that she's safe and that she's going to be okay. I'm sure that Crystal didn't expect to make it out of there alive that night, and she made sure to think the officers before they took her away in an ambulance.

After finding Crystal stabbed, the officers on scene call for backup and continue to make their way through the house. They all have their guns drawn, not knowing whether or not the suspect was still inside. And as they inch their way through the home, going room to room, they soon come across April Beaver. Her body is covered in blood and stab wounds. In the episode of killer siblings about this case, Detective Brent Burton says, quote, I just remember turning the corner and there was blood smeared everywhere. End quote. Just a few yards away from April, the officers find Daniel, who had tried to run from his brothers,

and collapsed on the living room floor. Paramedics take both April and Daniel outside, where they declare them deceased. The officers continue to make their way through the house with their weapons drawn. And as they turn the corner, they find David Beaver. The officers can immediately tell that David is dead. So they continue on with their sweep of the home.

At the end of the hallway, they see a closed door. The officers start to prepare themselves, thinking that the suspect could possibly be inside the room. But when they kicked the door down, they were faced with an image that would forever be ingrained in their minds. It was the bodies of two young children, Christopher and Victoria. The bathroom was covered in blood and looked like a scene straight from a horror movie. Detective Jackie Smithson, one of the officers on the scene,

said later on that he experienced shock, nothing but shock. Worst thing I've ever seen. The officers continued to go through the house and notice that blood is in almost every single room. and there are still no signs of their suspects. Lastly, the officers enter the final room of the house. One of the only rooms where a struggle hadn't taken place, and there they find one-year-old Autumn, fast asleep, completely unharmed. This scene was one of the worst the officers had ever seen.

Having to find five dead bodies, three of which were children, was traumatic to say the least. But all of the officers said that they felt a tiny glimmer of hope when they found baby Autumn safe upstairs. Autumn was about to actually turn two. April, her mother, had a birthday cake waiting for her in the fridge downstairs. But Autumn's family would never get to watch her turn two, or even watch her grow up at all,

because her older brothers had killed them all. Later on, investigators discovered that the boys had planned on killing their infant sister by cutting off her head. luckily, the monsters never had a chance to do so. And it was now time for the officers to do everything in their power to find the two Bever brothers. At this point, law enforcement notices that the back door to the house is ajar, so they get all of their canine units and start their search.

The canines quickly discovered a scent, and they followed it through the woods behind the Bever residents. As the officers follow the dogs, they find a trail of body armor, the armor that the brothers used during the murder of their family. About five minutes later, the canines and the officers see movement behind some bushes. They immediately yell commands, telling the boys to come out with their hands up. Robert Beaver immediately complies and comes out from behind the bush. Michael, however, doesn't surrender immediately.

The officers see him, kind of moving his hands around, so they release the canines on it. The dogs take a hold of Michael's shoulder, violently shaking the murderer, and soon enough he begins to surrender. The police handcuffed the two brothers and walked them back through the forest and tore. the house. The officers noticed that the boys are both wearing body armor with black t-shirts over the top. They're covered in their family's blood and an absurd amount of dirt. Detective Burton stated, quote, they weren't upset, they weren't distraught. It was almost like they had a sense of cockiness. One of the brothers even said, quote, it wasn't like it was on TV. We thought just one cut and they die.

end quote. Once back at the house, one of the officers begins to take pictures of the boys for evidence. Michael's clothes were almost entirely torn off his body from the canine attack, and he gave the camera a blank stare. Robert, on the other hand, was smirking at the camera, almost boasting about the crimes he had just committed. Both of the boys were covered in dirt in the blood of their family members. We will post these pictures on our Instagram if you want to take a look. But just before the officers put the boys in the patrol cars, Robert turns to Michael and says, quote, it's been a pleasure. I'm proud of what I've done. End quote. Robert and Michael are then taken to the Broken Arrow City Jail for questioning. The officers separate the two, read them their rights, and both

agree to talk without a lawyer present. Officers first want to talk to Michael. He's the youngest, the smallest, and it seems like he's the most vulnerable of the two. But as soon as the detectives start their interview, they can tell that he's not really telling the truth. Michael walks detectives through the planning of the murders, telling them that Robert planned all of it, and that he threatened to kill him if he didn't participate. Michael then goes on to say that he didn't kill any of his family members, and that he just stood by while Robert killed everyone. But the detectives know that this isn't true. Michael is denying everything, and you can tell by his demeanor that he's very nervous.

Detectives go on to tell Michael that he can deny his part in the murders all he wants, but the evidence doesn't lie. They tell him that after the autopsies, they're going to know exactly who he stabbed that night. So he better man up and tell the truth. And sure enough, Michael confesses to stabbing his mom, Christopher, and Victoria. So everybody that you killed and every single stabbing, that you inflicted we're going to know about. And this is your last chance to just kind of let us know,

to be honest, to man up and tell us exactly what she did and start making it right. I hate Christopher. It's not stabbed. Too late at Daniel. You did not step. Yeah, I got a step on. You said, you all.

That's a guy, I got it. Yeah, I got it. She was just, all people at stends with me. But, you know. Is that when you cut your head? you cut yourself then? Yeah, I think that's what you should have? I had to go through behind it.

Did you cut her? Did you cut her? I think so, yes. This doesn't seem like something you have to think about. I know it's, you're still kind of dealing with it. And I wasn't there, I was like the one different, but you don't have to think about it. You know what you did. So you cut her neck, you stab Christopher in the neck.

How many times did you stack Christopher? you stack Christopher? To exceed. And who else did you stab? Sites mom? Because here's the thing. Everybody's been stacked and you both had knives and we know you both stabbed everybody. So you guys are kind of at the same level and so now it's who's going to be honest and make this right and who's a liar? Okay, which one do you want to be? Okay, so you're manned at your word? Yes. Okay. After Michael confesses, the detectives want to know why? Why would you kill your entire family? In the episode of killer siblings that covers this case, Detective Eric Bent says that when interviewing Michael, quote, I'm just waiting for the big detail

to come out. Why all this happened? You know, we have five dead people. Surely you've been abused. You've been molested. There's some kind of crazy mental health problems in his family. I don't know. I'm waiting and it never comes out. end quote. But then, in the interrogation, Michael reveals the truth. And he says, quote, the reason we were going to kill the family is because they were in the way. End quote. The innocent Beaver family was in the way of Michael and Robert's plan to kill hundreds. It's disturbing to hear the audio of Michael's interrogation. And it's even more disturbing that Roberts' interrogation was never released to the public. Robert was the mastermind behind everything,

after all. He was proud of what he did. Unlike his brother Michael, Robert was very honest in his interrogation. He described in detail how he killed every family member, how he desperately wanted to be a serial killer. And I can imagine that whatever he said on those interrogation tapes was so disturbing, so depraved, that law enforcement decided to seal it up forever. Both Robert and Michael were charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill. While waiting for their trials, Robert Beaver tried to commit suicide by hanging himself with the prison bed sheet. But he was unsuccessful. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Obviously, the whole last year and a half has been rough on everyone's mental health.

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Anyways, let's get back to our story. Throughout all of the tragedy in this story, there was a single miracle. Crystal, their 13-year-old sister, ended up surviving the stabbing that night. But the courts knew that putting her on the stand against Robert would be a traumatic experience. She would have to relive all of the gruesome details of that night. So to avoid that, they offer Robert a plea deal, saying that if he pled guilty, if Crystal didn't have to testify against him, they would take the death penalty off the table.

And Robert Beaver took the plea deal, avoided trial, and was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole. We have breaking team coverage this evening. One of the brothers accused of murdering his five family members in Broken Arrow will spend the rest of his life in prison. We start with two works for you, reporter Darcy Jackson at the Tulsa County Courthouse with the decision. Darcy? Well, Brian, there's no chance that Robert Beaver, the older of the two teens charged with the deaths of their family, will ever leave prison. Earlier this afternoon, Robert Bever entered a guilty plea during his arraignment.

A statement to the court, he said he and his younger brother, Michael acted together in the murder of his parents and he was taking responsibility for those acts. His attorneys say he agreed to the conditions and was prepared to go into court today with this plea. Now, the agreement saves Beber from the death penalty. Michael's counsel tried to get him charged as a juvenile since he was only 16, but thankfully that motion was denied and he would go on to be charged as an adult. The courts tried to offer Michael the same plea deal as Robert, again trying to protect Crystal from having to testify. But unfortunately, Michael denied this deal and decided to bring his case to trial.

And almost one year after Robert pled guilty, Michael's six-week trial would start. His attorneys tried to seek an insanity defense, claiming that his parents were to blame because they kept him isolated from society. And they brought forward some witnesses to help their case. One of the witnesses being Michael's older brother, Robert. While on the stand, Robert lies under oath, saying that Michael didn't kill anyone that night, and that he was the one who murdered his entire family. Robert also smiles and giggles throughout his entire testimony, and it's obvious that he loves the attention.

But the next witness brought to the stand was Crystal Beaver, and she would tell the real story of what happened that night. People in the courtroom that day said that it was clear Crystal was struggling, holding back emotions as she recounted everything that happened on that horrible night in July of 20. And her testimony not only left everyone in tears, but also proved that Michael was far from innocent. The jury deliberated for five hours before they found Michael Beaver guilty on all counts. 14 days of emotional testimonies.

The jury of 11 women and three men came back last night around 10.30 after deliberating for more than five hours, finding Michael Beaver guilty on all charges. The 19-year-old collapsing after. hearing the verdict. Defense attorney Corbyn Brewster stressed the isolation and mental illness the 19-year-old suffers from, but the district attorney argued Michael had many chances to do the right thing, and he says Michael deserves life without parole. They punched a knife into their sister's neck. They then went and attacked their mom, gave her 40-some-odd wounds to her body. They then hunted down their dad and stabbed him in a bedroom. And then they had the audacity to go and knock on a door to try and lure out those children

so they can stab them so that they can go on some kind of cross-country crime spree. I want to know when do you want them out, right? When do you want them as your next door neighbor? Michael Beaver would later be sentenced to five life terms with the possibility of parole. But the sentences are to be served consecutively, meaning he will most likely never get out of prison. On July 15th, 2019, Robert Beaver walked up to two guards in prison and tried to stab them with an eight-inch-long shank, but that was unsuccessful. You see, Robert thought himself up to be this badass, hardcore killer. But the truth is, the only person

that thought highly of him was his younger brother, Michael. But luckily, they aren't allowed to serve their sentences in the same prison because they were co-conspirators in the same crime, meaning Robert and Michael will never see each other again. And now they have no one. They murdered the only people who ever cared about them, and their plan to murder hundreds in America will die with them in prison. There aren't many current reports about Crystal and Autumn, the only survivors of that night. But some sources say that they were later adopted. I can imagine that the two are doing their best to put the tragedy behind them and move on

with their lives, and we wish them the best of luck. The house where the murders took place sat on the market for years after. the murders. No one wanted to buy it, especially when they found out the dark acts that occurred inside. Spectators often visited the house, breaking in trying to get a feel of what it was like in the murder house. The home even became known around the block as being haunted. But eventually, the house burned down. No one knows exactly how, but many people suspect it was arson. Now, in its place, is a memorial park that was created in March of 2019, named Reflection Park. And instead of the dark presence that once hung over the property, it's now a place where people go to reflect and appreciate life.

City officials made a statement about the park saying, quote, In Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, we will not let evil overcome good. And I want to finish with a quote I found. Good will always prevail over evil. no matter how much evil attempts to break you. More than that, you are never truly in darkness. Sometimes all you need to do is turn on the light. Today in Broken Arrow, we are turning on the light.

Everybody, it's Colin here. And Courtney. Thank you again for listening to another episode of Murder in America. We're so glad that we have all you guys out there listening. Courtney, this was a story that you really cared about. How was it writing? It was really difficult, honestly. It was really, it was hard getting through the murder scenes and everything.

And it was just a dark story all around. But I'm really glad that we told it and we got to share their stories. Well, guys, if you want to become a patron and get access to new bonus episodes, go search Murder in America on Patreon. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Murder in America. We just filmed an episode of my YouTube show at The Killingfields last night. That's going to be out next week. It was crazy.

But I'm always left with the same question. Even though the house is gone, the energy from that crime could still be around. It makes you wonder. The dead don't talk. Or do they? See on the next one, everybody.