Posted on 11/21/2005 4:23:43 PM PST by Peace4EarthNow
LANCASTER, Pa. - A 14-year-old girl whose 18-year-old boyfriend allegedly fatally shot her parents left willingly with him after the slayings and was not kidnapped, prosecutors said in court papers filed Monday.
Kara Borden told detectives she left of her own free will, according to the filing. David Ludwig told detectives the two planned to get married and start a new life together.
Ludwig confessed to the slayings after his arrest and told police where to find the murder weapon in his car, according to court documents released Monday in Indiana.
In court documents filed in Pennsylvania, prosecutors said Kara Borden ran from her home to get into Ludwig's car after the Nov. 13 shootings.
"(Kara) told the defendant that she wanted to stay with him, and they drove west with the intent to 'get as far away as possible, get married, and start a new life,'" Ludwig told detectives, according to the court papers.
District Attorney Donald Totaro said Monday the kidnapping charge against Ludwig, of Lititz, will be dropped at his preliminary hearing next month.
Earlier Monday, Indiana authorities released a search warrant affidavit for the car the couple drove nearly 600 miles from the murder scene in central Pennsylvania to Indiana.
Ludwig told Indiana State Police that a Glock semiautomatic pistol he used to kill Michael and Cathryn Borden was under the driver's front seat of his parents' car, according to the affidavit.
Police seized a .40-caliber Glock pistol, a .223-caliber rifle and several articles of black clothing under a search warrant executed Wednesday. Under a separate search warrant executed Friday, police said they found a .45-caliber Colt pistol, a screwdriver, several maps and two Indiana license plates.
Ludwig told police that there were several guns in the car.
"He certainly did make a statement and cooperated with police," said Hendricks County (Ind.) prosecutor Patricia A. Baldwin. "They basically let him talk is what they did."
Police have said the murder weapon was a .40-caliber handgun.
Ludwig is being held without bail, awaiting a Dec. 16 preliminary hearing on charges that he shot the Bordens in their home in Lititz on Nov. 13. Police allege the shootings occurred after an argument over Ludwig's relationship with Kara Borden.
Police caught up to Ludwig and Borden Nov. 14 after a chase that ended with him crashing the car into a tree in Belleville, Ind.
James Gratton, a public defender representing Ludwig, said he was aware that his client had given a statement to Indiana authorities, but did not know specifically what he told them.
Neither Ludwig nor the girl, who has not been charged, was injured in the crash.
Investigators said previously they were treating Kara Borden as a crime victim but that the investigation was continuing.
In a court filing Friday, Ludwig's attorneys said they wanted investigators to preserve evidence in Ludwig's wallet, such as receipts from their journey, so that surveillance video could be obtained. The video would show that he didn't kidnap the girl, the attorneys said.
How old do youths have to be to be prosecuted as an accessory after the fact?
Chilling what this generation of creeps is able to do without any conscience.
Hershey, read on. She didn't have to leave with him at all--she ran after his car when he started to leave without her.
At 14 you think that your 3 month school vacation is a long time. I have shirts older than this stupid child."
Shirts??? I raise you a whole closet full of things that are as much as 30 years old +. Lots of very old racing t-shirts.
One is OK, but 2 is too much?
I don't get your reasoning.
The one thing that's really apparent is that she left her parents to die without lifting a finger to help them. If those braces on her teeth aren't completely paid for, her remaining family members might not feel like footing the bill.
Judge Napolitano said on tv tonight she'll be out in two years, regardless of her involvement. (because of her age)
Dr. Jonathan (that's me) says that she suffered from severe mental shock, and both realizing and repressing the guilt from being a cause of her parent's death, she attempted to run away from reality, attempt to alleviate that guilt, go back in time, and escape from the bodies and horror she left behind. (Correspondence school)
Sadly, this is what I expected.
I knew you were making a joke. ;9)
The worst thing I can remember doing at 14 is signing my mothers name to a low scoring test paper.
This story is beyond tragic and it has just gotten worse.
She needs to do jail time.
I agree. I did stupid things at fourteen, but running off with a murderer wasn't one of them.
Pretty impressive theory, but what about the plain old "bad seed" theory? This is one scary girl who practically stepped over her dying father on the way out the door.
Another ping
"But on the surface, the Borden family seems like a closely-knit loving family. I wonder if that's true. Is there more to the story than simply that Kara and Ludwig are evil? "
The sad thing is that no matter how a good a family some kids are raised in....some of them turn out like this.
The lesson learned here? Nip it in the bud as soon as the creepy older boyfriend shows interest.
Take away computer access. Take away phone priveleges.
Set up motion detector lights outside her bedroom.
Sign the kid up for activities - any activity - that doesn't involve him.
But even then...you always have to be one step ahead of the kids - and kids can be such sneaky buzzards!
Thanks. It's getting hard to keep up.
""Ludwig told detectives that after the killings, he couldn't find Kara Borden. He started to drive away and saw her running down the road toward him.
She got in the car and said she wanted to "get as far away as possible, get married, and start a new life," Ludwig told detectives." "
I'm sure - once Kara's family learn of this part of the story...they'll be real glad she was present for her parents' funeral - and that she will actually inherit money from them.
If life were fair - her share of the estate would go to her siblings.
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