Season 03 : Episode 03 : Robert & Michael Bever

Robert bever believed that Society was useless and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory his younger brother Michael bever looked up to Robert and was willing to follow with whatever he had planned this is monsters [Music] in this season of the podcast uncovering cases of parasite that's the act of a child killing their parents some historical examples of parasite or Lizzie Borden who killed her parents with an ax and Lyle and Eric Menendez who shot their parents so many times with a shotgun they were unrecognizable unfortunately some of the cases of parasite don't only include just the parents the term familicide is used to describe someone who kills their entire family used most commonly with family annihilators like Chris Watts or Michael Jones Jr it also applies to kids who kill their parents and siblings Paul moans an organ-based attorney who has worked on parasite cases around the United States said that between one and two percent of homicides in the country involve children killing their parents the most common cases are of sons who kill their fathers there's not a lot of information available about the bever family neighbors say that the family of nine was quiet and reclusive they lived in a large house and Broken Arrow Oklahoma about 20 minutes southeast of Tulsa David and April bever married in Texas when she was only 15 years old according to comments she made on her Reddit account David worked for Samson resources in the I.T Department his co-workers described him as a quiet man who kept to himself his supervisor Lisa Wolfe said that he was a nice guy who didn't get involved in office politics and that was the type of person she liked to work with the couple went on to have seven children at the time of the murders they were 18 year old Robert 16 year old Michael thirteen-year-old Crystal twelve-year-old Daniel seven-year-old Christopher five-year-old Victoria and two-year-old Autumn the youngest was born premature and April created a non-profit called Autumn's hope to raise money to help other people who had children who were born ill or premature all of the children were homeschooled their entire lives but none of the homeschooling groups in the area had any interactions with the bevers one of David's previous supervisors even founded the Cornerstone homeschool cooperative and Broken Arrow but she said in an interview that she had never seen them associate with any homeschooling groups neighbors said the children only played in their own backyard and the family seemed to actively stay away from social gatherings in the neighborhood it seemed that the parents wanted to protect their children from the outside world it might have something to do with Robert's claim that he had attended preschool outside the home but he had been molested which caused his parents to pull him out of the school it seemed as though they let that outside world into their home as they had very few restrictions on internet usage the children were free to use a number of tablets and computers to access whatever they wanted now I don't believe that media such as the internet movies music and video games cause children to become violent but it's still a place where they can find inspiration for ideas they're already having early on it seemed as though the boys were interested in the same things as other boys their age Star Wars sports cars and the band Linkin Park oh and we can't forget Minecraft he made two Vlog videos where he seems like your average goofy teenager salute hey everyone it's me Colt Empire because she didn't know you found me by accident or you're expecting someone else yeah why would you do that anyway this is the second first ever update which I think is Major Improvement I tried a news report theme last time that's not very vlogging is it so I'm being a little more chillinated writing stuff drifting I'm going to make my first skit soon I can't show you a sneak preview or it would ruin it it'll be like a minute long it's it's going to be some good stuff I think it's gonna be hilarious let's go have a few crops in which is the only delay so um I came up with a couple of songs they aren't parodies though they're some intense gangster rap type stuff I came up with when I was listening to someone's mixtape about that yeah I had a parody song but it's probably offensive So I'm Never Gonna upload it now I'm having to write a whole new parody song uh you can't explain that man why this song he's writing a song I got that creativity juices flowing all right uh I also found out that Minecraft is compatible with Windows 8 I heard I don't know how reliable that is but it turns out it's just my laptop is a compact I've had for about four years and his Graphics drivers are hopelessly outdated so um oh speaking of what a purpose hopelessly outdated Minecraft 0.6.0 turned out to be a bond in a bad way um everyone knows that by now but um my brother lost his ultimate survival world because of uh the 0.6.0 pocket edition uh world saving glitch it was awesome the whole world had been mined out it was a full-blown uh City with streets and neighborhoods and a big city center with skyscrapers and hot dog vendors and mimes and pollution or maybe I was just cleaning out my closet uh the pollution fumes went to my head at some point Robert became interested in murder and started looking at stories about famous serial killers and mass Shooters Michael looked up to his older brother and the two shared everything even their thoughts about committing mass murder the pair fed off each other reading stories about Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez they idolized School shooters and started talking about wanting to be famous and killing more people than the other Mass Shooters it was also reported that they had talked about making a video of their family's murder and posting it to YouTube at a later date they started watching the movie Rampage no not the Dwayne Johnson movie an independent movie released straight to video in 2009 it takes place in a fictional town in Oregon where a 21 year old man who hates society believes that he needs to kill as many people as he can to reduce the population and bring balance back to society he crafts a set of full-body armor and heads into town with an arsenal of weapons he bombs the police station and then kills as many people as he can the worst part about the movie spoiler alert just in case you want to watch it trust me you don't want to watch it is that he gets away with it he somehow frames his only friend and at the end of the movie he takes off to go commit another Killing Spree somewhere else the movie became a source of inspiration and helped the two cultivate their ultimate plan they didn't just want to become famous for mass murder they wanted to be famous for having killed the most people they wanted to travel across the country racking up a kill count in the hundreds did you guys talk about [Music] um being on the news and getting to see each other on TV and stuff what kind of things did you say and talk about um I mean do you think they might even make a movie or something or a TV show I thought that would be a TV show but did you guys talk about that yeah um you just wanted to be famous what more did you want babe did you keep talking about what you wanted what did you want no I just want to go by The Williams please but you I mean your Big Brother's telling me he wants to be famous and you guys are making these plans surely you won't see that things did it right yeah I do want to do it with him because like he's going to do it no matter what he says if I don't do it with him then just killing me too they specifically wanted a Wikipedia page about themselves ironically if you search for them on Wikipedia you won't find any articles specifically about them what you will find is an article titled Broken Arrow killings which describes the event but doesn't really focus on Robert and Michael I don't know if that was on purpose but I like that it's a subtle slap in their faces Robert had a job working for mic attack which was a Christian call center where people could call in and the person working on the phone would pray with them this gave him money to start funding their plans he started ordering parts to put together a full set of body armor for both himself and Michael both boys began collecting knives something that Crystal had told her parents she was uncomfortable with they brushed it off as normal boy behavior and didn't intervene in the boy's hobby they were also aware that he bought a bulletproof vest but didn't seem to think that was unusual how long have you had the body armor Roberts had his presence it started to go and we've been buying it Police Department was it shipped to the house okay do your parents know I mean did they know it sure do you have a confess they always thought that was a little wild I didn't say anything about it did he have anything else like the the gear that the guys wear helmets or goggles or gloves yeah there's a soft can flow Fest a heavy um I don't want to say the metal plated he had a helmet he was called when it goes wow also let go quite nice okay and then you're the body armor that you had what was it like it was understandable okay just happened here okay with different models and where is your body are now all my vests and my helmets it was laying in the woods the dog pulled it off of me oh I was wearing it oh you were wearing it I was wearing this sort of festive okay what their parents didn't realize was that Robert was also purchasing guns and ammunition once he turned 18 he realized that he was able to purchase guns and the two began planning tell you more about making plans and I studied what actually going to do this young second night as I started getting ready the wind was bad at least second night so I finished okay that's when you started making the plan yeah that's what we found out you could buy it on sleep I see did you guys draw make drawings or write things down or did you have internal invasive areas is it like a I think like a journal like a notepad it's like a second blank book a current black book I think it's like a little case so do you think he wrote stuff in there yeah I think he was playing again um so then the second day you said that's when you realize that it might actually happen what made you realize that um how excited she was I mean he was going a few he started um he started planning on taking all this money out of his uh bank and fearing away stuff feeling about all this stuff so yeah why did you want to do it okay yeah um well it's mainly two reasons I think it's um because you just like says he hates everyone who thinks Society is pointless and so it is also he wanted to like Beats beat the kill like amount of other famous people like Colin Barnum into James vegan homes it sounds like Robert was able to purchase guns online and have them shipped to a gun store where he would be able to pick them up at some point before the murders a gun store employee called Robert to let him know that a shotgun and two Glock pistols were ready for pickup he planned to pick them up the day after the murders Robert then ordered thousands of rounds of ammunition to be delivered to their house now you may be asking how are his parents not going to notice thousands of rounds of ammunition showing up at their home well that was the beginning of the plan they were going to murder their family and use the house to receive the ammo then steal the family's GMC Yukon and go on their road trip of random killing tell me what plans you started making well originally I think past eight stage fear of the month is still we want to tell everyone in the house first okay and they might call the packages to show up over the weekend um they didn't take your economy to have our state with the islands and that still okay did you know where you were going to drive to uh which was Washington Washington State or these Washington State production why would you go to Washington State this kid doesn't even know how to drive a car and he's planning on traveling across the country to commit mass murder they actually picked the date they would murder their family based on when the ammo would arrive at their house yesterday yesterday so how did you guys know and he just came and got you or you got him waiting okay and so did you pick up the date um with agriculture because you don't have the ammunition he didn't want them to see that student killed in the day before the United Health did they have to be removed Robert had been taking money out of the bank and putting it away in their room he had a notebook under his bed where he made notes about the plan they sat down and specifically plotted out exactly how they were going to kill each family member one by one the plan was to wait until the whole family was asleep the night before the ammo was to be delivered then Michael was going to use a small crossbow to quietly shoot his father in the head then they were going to go room by room and kill the other members of their family with a knife so who are you supposed to kill I was supposed to take a pistol cross though this position yeah she was the only person she was and then our rubber would go and slip obviously or push you over didn't we both go any club because he was supposed to be like quiet right there and then I would go upstairs and uh shoot David dad and the guy was my pistol classroom kill him and then probably would go over it okay so did you use your did you use your crossbow at all the only time I ever heard anybody you know was my steps Christopher's neck did um did Robert use your crossbow no I was just saying sorry where is your brother I think it's on my bed is still unless they collected it so did you have it out ready to go and then it just kind of didn't go as planned yeah it seems as though they believed that stabbing someone would instantly kill them Michael wrote in his confession quote the plane was first at around 12 a.m to put on our gear and Robert would kill April bever and then I would kill crystal in Victoria then go upstairs and both kill David bever and the baby then go downstairs and Robert would kill Daniel and Chris then wait a couple of days and leave the state and begin the Spree end quote sometime between 11 and 11 30. on the night of July 22nd 2015 Michael and Robert were in the bedroom that they shared and decided that now was the time to put their plan in motion according to Michael's account he went out into the living room and told his sister Crystal that he wanted to show her something on his computer as she came into the room and stood by Michael's desk Robert attacked okay so she sat down at your desk and he slurred through a few questions did you come out in the hallway according to Crystal she had gone into their bedroom on her own to tell both of them that their mother wanted them to do the dishes when she went in their room she saw them putting on body armor and that they had an assortment of knives laid out on the bed she heard Michael say quote should we do it right now end quote to which Robert replied quote yes end quote Michael asked Crystal to look at something on his computer and when she did Robert came up behind her and slid her throat Robert was under the impression that slitting her throat would kill her quickly and silently but a lifetime of action movies had lied to him and Crystal began screaming the screams from Crystal alerted their mother and when Robert turned his attention to her Crystal was able to run out of the room the girl was able to get out of the house and collapsed in the driveway April began screaming for someone to call the police before Robert began stabbing her with the same knife and eventually pushed her into the kitchen where he continued and you'd stabbing her in the neck at this point the house erupted into chaos after Robert was finished with his mother he went out the front door grabbed Crystal and dragged her back onto the front porch he then went to find the younger kids and told Michael to bring Crystal back inside Michael dragged his sister back into the house and left her lying in the entryway he must have locked the door because Authority said it was locked when they arrived at the scene Christopher had locked himself into the bathroom with their sister Victoria Michael went up to the door and pretended to be trying to hide from Robert telling them that they needed to let him in when Christopher opened the door Michael went in and stabbed the two to death Daniel had locked himself in their father's office which was right next to the bathroom he had managed to get Michael's cell phone and called 9-1-1 at 11 32 P.M yeah broken air 9-1-1 hello hi where are you at pooping out Oklahoma 7411 what address okay are you the only one there no my brother's attacking my family your dad is attacking your family okay who's attacking your family what is who's attacking your family yes who is it here are you there hello hi what's going on there what's going on there hello hello [Applause] Michael used the same ruse to get Daniel to open the door and when he did he took the phone from him and smashed it Michael told Robert quote he's all yours end quote Robert stabbed Daniel multiple times and when Robert let him go he ran away but collapsed in the living room where he died David was asleep upstairs and when he was finally awoken by the commotion he came downstairs when he saw the horror that was going on in the home he charged Robert unfortunately Robert managed to stab his father in the chest as he came at him and David Fell to the floor Robert continued stabbing his father to death almost as soon as they had killed everyone or so they believed there was a knock at the front door they didn't know who it was and thought it might be a neighbor so they grabbed a backpack and fled out the back door they ran through some Woods to a creek behind their house when police arrived on the scene they knocked on the door and when they heard a faint voice inside saying Help Me detective Brett Burton kicked in the door and they found Crystal bever lying in the entryway in a pool of blood they picked her up and took her out where paramedics were already on the scene the city of Broken Arrow has about a hundred thousand residents and is the fourth largest city in the state it only has a murder happen once every couple of years so when something like this happens they call out everyone to the scene all detectives canine units firefighters paramedics all hands on deck Crystal made it to the paramedics who had no idea how she was still alive but she was so they got her stabilized into the hospital where she was rushed into surgery despite multiple stab wounds a slit throat and excessive blood loss Crystal survived the attack 52 year old David had 28 stab wounds to his back neck chest and abdomen 44 year old April had 48 stab wounds to her neck face arms chest and abdomen twelve-year-old Daniel had 21 stab wounds to his back neck head and chest seven-year-old Christopher had 21 stab wounds to his back chest head and neck five-year-old Victoria had 23 stab wounds to her back neck chest face and abdomen the Broken Arrow police walked into the scene of a horror movie Blood was smeared everywhere and they didn't know if the attackers were still in the house they found both April and Daniel first and since they didn't know if they were still alive or not they carried them both out of the house to the paramedics they were pronounced dead at the scene they turned a corner and found David lying on the floor they said they could tell that he was dead so they continued to the back of the house where they found a locked bathroom door normally a locked door at a scene like this means there's a suspect who has barricaded himself in the room due to what they were finding at the scene they didn't want to take the chance on there being someone in there that needed help and Officer Walker kicked in the door inside they found the bodies of Christopher and Victoria both stabbed to death and left in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor crime scene investigator Jackie Smithson said it was the worst thing he had ever seen police made their way upstairs and cleared the rooms one by one when they got to the last room they found a baby girl lying in her crib not moving when they checked on her they found that she had been unharmed two-year-old Autumn had been fast asleep during the entire incident Robert and Michael had forgotten about her before they fled the house and fortunately didn't have time to discover her and complete their plan which is good because according to court documents their plan was to cut off her head after the house was cleared police discovered the back door was a jar and believed that their suspects must have fled out the back using canine units to track their scent Robert and Michael were quickly discovered hiding in some brush near the creek when police commanded them to show their hands and come out Robert complied right away but Michael hesitated officers released the dog who instantly grabbed a Michael by the shoulder prompting him to come out of the bushes he can be seen in the arrest photos with a torn shirt and bite marks on his shoulder Robert was still wearing his body armor but Michael had taken his off and it was lying on the ground between their house and where they were found when the brothers were arrested they were photographed for evidence and Michael has a vacant look on his face like he didn't really care one way or the other that he just murdered his family Robert on the other hand actually looks quite happy he has a smirk on his face like he just passed a test as police went to put them in separate troll cars Robert looked over at Michael and said quote it's been a pleasure I'm proud of what I've done end quote on the night of the murders a neighbor Julie Wallace informed police that the family had a dog their dachshund Chihuahua mix wasn't found until later the following afternoon and she was given to Julie to care for Julie said that the dog who she has since renamed Sally is still frightened anytime they're screaming on the television back at the police station both Robert and Michael talk openly about their plans for reasons I couldn't find Robert's interrogation was sealed but Michael's remained available while talking to detective Burton he tried to downplay his involvement in the murders his story involves Robert running around the house stabbing everyone with himself just standing by he disabled the home alarm when Crystal went out the front door and helped bring her back into the house eventually he admits to stabbing Christopher once but tries to say that Robert did everything else and he only participated because Robert said he would kill him if he didn't show everybody that you killed in every single staff room 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 the man up and tell us exactly what she did and start making it right it's non-step futility yeah yeah I am I tried to step on you said well that's a good guy but she was popular is that when you cut yourself yeah yeah I think after that where did you stab her I just had to go through behind him cool but did you cut her yeah I think so yeah this doesn't seem like something you have to think about I know it's it's you're still kind of dealing with it um and I wasn't there I wasn't the one doing it 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 to a c I think and who else did you stab besides more 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 a man of your word yes okay now he claims he stabbed Christopher two or three times unfortunately for Michael Robert's story doesn't match while they talk to Robert he is proud of the people he killed he wants credit for all of his evil Deeds so why would he give Michael credit for killing people if he hadn't actually killed them both of the brothers were charged with five counts of first degree murder and one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon Michael's defense lawyer Rob Nye filed a motion to try their client as a juvenile but Oklahoma state law says that 15 to 17 year olds are to be tried as an adult if they're charged with first-degree murder his motion was denied on June 17 2016 while both of the brothers were being held in the jail medical unit segregated from each other Robert tried to commit suicide he had tied a sheet around his neck with the other end tied to his bed and tried to hang himself but was unsuccessful since Robert was 18 at the time of the murders he was eligible for the death penalty in an effort to save Crystal from having to testify in court on September 7th District Attorney Steve kunzweiler offered Robert a deal to take the death penalty off the table if he pleaded guilty to all counts Robert took the deal and was given five life sentences without the possibility of parole to be served consecutively plus another life term the state assumed that Michael would also take a deal especially since he tended to follow the lead of his older brother but he didn't Michael pleaded not guilty and brought the case to trial at the trial Robert testified for the defense and his story did not match what he said during his interrogation he claimed that after he stabbed crystal in the neck Michael turned around and said quote Robert what are you doing end quote he told the jury that Michael had only convinced the younger children to open the locked doors but never stabbed anyone Michael's knife had his own blood on the handle he said in his interrogation that he thinks he cut himself when he stabbed his mother the knife also had blood from his mother and his father Michael had claimed that Robert had killed their mother which gave Crystal time to run away but according to testimony from Crystal Robert immediately ran after her and caught her in the driveway and Michael is the one who killed April both Robert and Crystal testify that there was physical abuse in the house Robert described his father yelling at Michael about his speech impediment he claimed that one time out of frustration for Michael stutter he shook the boy and yelled quote stop and don't talk until you could speak clearly end quote he said there were occasions where David would Punch or kick Michael crystal said that David threw the kids across the room in the past and one time overheard her parents talking about being too rough on Robert and Michael when they were younger Robert believed that his parents were paranoid and wouldn't let them be around any stranger they had cameras around the house but the cameras didn't record they just allowed David to monitor the house from his phone at all times on May 10 2018 Michael bevers was found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon Michael was scheduled for sentencing on July 24th where he made a statement saying quote every minute and every second I've been thinking about what I could have done different and what kind of life I could have had with my family end quote judge Sharon Holmes put off sentencing until August 9th in order to give herself more time to think about her decision when August 9th came the judge sentenced Michael to five life sentences with the possibility of parole plus a 28-year sentence for the attempted murder of Crystal but the sentences are to be served consecutively so it's likely he will spend the rest of his life in prison this sentence went against the jury's recommendation to give Michael a chance at parole after 38 years and the defense believed it violated State rules against sentencing juveniles to life sentences Michael's lawyer filed an appeal on the grounds that five consecutive life sentences even with parole is still in fact a life sentence people under the age of 18 are unable to be sentenced to mandatory life sentences on the grounds that it violates the eighth amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment I would argue that being stabbed to death is cruel and unusual punishment why is Michael immune from receiving the same sentence he carried out on his own family Supreme Court Judge Gary Lumpkin said that children accused of multiple violent crimes should not get a volume discount on the sentence imposed he said that the decision on consecutive or concurrent is within the discretion granted to trial courts the Supreme Court ruled three to two in favor of upholding the sentence Michael will spend the rest of his life in prison the bever home sat on the market for years with nobody willing to purchase the heavily stigmatized house the neighbors worried that the home would continue to be at eyesore on the community and continue to attract lucky Loos who wanted to see the house where the bever family was murdered on March 18 2017 the house was destroyed in a fire authorities believe it was arson no [ __ ] but they have no leads as to who may have set the fire a month after the fire the city of Broken Arrow raised the funds to purchase the property where the bever home sat and turn it into a Memorial Garden the park that we have designed the park department has designed is a place that brings healing and Tranquility so we hope that eventually the First Responders that came to this property and even maybe years from now the siblings that survived could come by here in remembrance of the family members lost and provide some healing for them I just want you to know that in Broken Arrow Oklahoma we will not let evil overcome good and I just wanted to finish with a a quote that I found that says 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 sometimes all you need to do is turn on the light today in Broken Arrow we're turning on the light this house has been um in more ways than anybody other than the neighbors will know just yes a constant reminder I'm almost positive that in the future it would be a constant reminder for those surviving victims we're proud to say because we maintain a beautiful relationship with the extended family we have their blessing on this it is the right thing to do um it's time to turn the light on in May of 2018 the home was demolished and the city began work transforming the property into a garden the garden was dedicated on March 27 2019. as the mayor said I'd like to thank everybody for coming out today to to support the city's efforts to help our community heal after obviously a major tragedy that we had back in 2015. I do want to recognize as I'm sure other members that are going to speak today to talk more specifically about those that have contributed but for me anytime that you can add a park to your community whether it's a passy park or it's an active Park it's always a really good thing and what I'm most impressed about about this park is the fact that it was a partnership between the public sector and the private sector to help this neighborhood and our community heal from that tragedy back in 20 2015. I just want to say hat on behalf of the city staff and also the city council thank you to everyone that contributed to this park I think it's going to be something have folks in this neighborhood in the community will be able to enjoy for many years to come on July 15 2019 Robert bever attempted to attack prison staff with an eight inch long sharpened instrument the incident report states that two prison staff members were standing in the day room at Joseph harp Correctional Center in Lexington Oklahoma Robert approached them from behind and tried to attack but one of the officers got him in a bear hug and ordered him to drop the weapon he complied with that command and the commands to get on the ground I guess he's learned the hard way that killing isn't so easy when your target isn't an innocent little kid he was written up and the incident will go in his prison records but what are they going to do give him more time all information about Crystal or Autumn's whereabouts has been sealed for their protection hopefully they're in a safe place and are getting the help and support they need if you're the victim of domestic abuse please reach out to someone for help please call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799 safe that's 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org to chat with someone online the great thing about this website is that at any time hitting the Escape key twice will instantly take your browser to a Google search page in the event the abuser is nearby you can assure that you don't get caught trying to get help if you're having feelings of harming yourself or someone else or even just need someone to talk to please contact your local mental health facility call 9-1-1 or call Mental Health America who operate the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-talk that's 1-800-273-8255 they're available 24 hours a day seven days a week be safe thanks so much for watching this video you can help us out by hitting the like button or leaving us a comment you can also subscribe to the show to ensure you don't miss an episode also remember that if you'd like to support the show the easiest way is to donate a few bucks at buy me a coffee or check out some of our merchandise at Teespring you can find information on how to do that along with links to our social media at thisismonsters.com thanks again foreign

Channel: this is MONSTERS

Views: 3,159,661

Keywords: True crime, robert bever, michael bever, broken arrow, murder

Id: 1fYNPg_w4qs

Length: 39min 4sec (2344 seconds)

Published: Mon May 03 2021