Man kidnaps niece after killing her parents
A man obsessed with his teenage niece killed her parents and abducted the girl before releasing her unharmed, authorities in the US said.
The suspect was arrested yesterday following a high-speed chase and four-hour armed stand-off.
Robert Lee Hixson, 42, is charged with killing his wife’s brother, Myron “Butch” Bilger, and Bilger’s wife at their home in Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania on Saturday night before kidnapping their 13-year-old daughter Hadley.
“There is some evidence of an obsession of a sexual nature with the 13-year-old,” Monroe County District Attorney Mark Pazuhanich said. Hixson may have thought an arrest related to his relationship with the teenager was pending, he said.
Hixson was arraigned on two counts of criminal homicide and sent to the Monroe County Correctional Facility without bail. Other charges were expected to be filed.
Hixson, a tall, stocky man with scruffy blond hair, sat shaking in the chair during the brief hearing, quietly answering questions from the judge. Asked if he planned to hire a lawyer, he replied: “I can’t afford one.”
Myron Bilger, 40, identified Hixson as the gunman before he died, said Pocono Mountain Regional Police Detective Harry Lewis. After the shooting, the family’s five-year-old daughter ran next door to get help while Hixson drove off with Hadley, police said.
Police issued a statewide alert for the girl, who was wearing teddy-bear print pyjamas when she was abducted. That led to a tip-off that Hixson’s red pick-up truck was spotted about 90 miles from the girl’s home, police said.
Police placed tyre-flattening “stinger” devices in the road, disabling the vehicle after a high-speed chase. Hixson released Hadley at about 11.25am local time yesterday, but continued to hold police at bay.
During the stand-off outside a small market, Hixson stepped in and out of his pick-up truck, at times holding a shotgun to his chin.
Hixson’s mother-in-law said police who arrived at her house after the killings discovered that two of her husband’s weapons, including a shotgun, were missing from a locked cabinet. The suspect had dropped his wife off at his mother-in-law’s home a few hours before the shootings.
Both victims died from shotgun blasts to the abdomen, police said.
Myron Bilger’s mother, Donna Faye Bilger, said Hixson is unemployed. He has been married to her daughter for about eight years, she said.
