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LANCASTER - Attorneys for David Ludwig, the Lititz teen accused of killing his 14-year-old girlfriend's parents in November, have won more time to examine more than 1,500 documents and other evidence. Lancaster County Judge David L. Ashworth last week gave Deputy Public Defender Merrill M. Spahn Jr. until May 15 to file pre-trial motions. In his extension request, Spahn had said he had yet to receive all of the discovery material despite prosecutors' diligent efforts. Spahn was not available for comment last night. Ludwig, 18, is tentatively scheduled for trial in September. He is charged with two counts of homicide,...

Kara Borden will not be charged in the death of her parents, a prosecutor said today, despite the fact that she knew her boyfriend was bringing weapons to her Warwick Township home and might use them. · Two additional charges were being being filed against Ludwig: statutory sexual assault and carrying firearms without a license. · Three charges are being filed against a friend of Ludwig’s for his role in a “night patrol,” where the friend and Ludwig filmed themselves gathering weapons and going to an unidentified home, where they discussed breaking in and killing the home’s occupants. Samuel Lohr,...

Shortly after Michael and Cathryn Borden of Lititz, Pa., were slain by their daughter's boyfriend (David Ludwig), family and clergy – at least those who presented themselves to the media – indicated their readiness to forgive little Lizzie, I mean Kara Borden. Forgiveness at least implies some acknowledgment of wrongdoing. The media, for the most, wouldn't even impugn the girl. After the shootings, Borden hopped into her beau's get-away car. She told him she wanted to "get as far away as possible, get married and start a new life." Only after Borden was confronted with surveillance cameras did she confess...

Updates, Thoughts and a Timeline: David Ludwig and Kara Beth Borden, November 29, 2005by Bill Bickel"Sources close to the case" say that the prosecution isn't inclined to ask for the death penalty because of Ludwig's age and the lack of any prior offenses. Personally, I'd think that when you're considering a premeditated cold-blooded double murder, "prior offenses" is fairly irrelevant; after all, what previous offenses would even remotely approach the seriousness of the current charges? Yesterday, a Lancaster County (PA) judge, in response to a request made by Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hackman, ordered that four web sites owned by...

It's easier than ever for youths to keep secrets, and a slaying case highlights parents' worst fears.Perfect parents. Perfect home. Perfect kids. Or so it seemed. Then, unbelievably, two families in agony. A community in shock. The double-murder case in Lititz - 18-year-old David Ludwig charged with shooting the parents of his secret girlfriend, Kara Beth Borden, a 14-year-old he met in their Christian homeschooling network - has provoked more than speculation about the Nov. 13 incident itself. It has caused a wave of anxiety among many parents in the region, who wonder if anything ever truly is what it...

LANCASTER - Kara Beth Borden was the second girlfriend that David Ludwig took on a long-distance trip without her parents' consent this year. Confirming a report in a Lancaster newspaper, the Rev. Michael D. Shelley, pastor of the Lititz Christian Church, said Tuesday that Ludwig took a girl to his family's hunting cabin in Juniata County in the spring. The couple returned voluntarily, Shelley said, adding that he knows the Ludwig family well because they attend his church. "I know the incident and I know the parents took care of it," Shelley said during a telephone interview Tuesday. "No one...

Documents: Borden, Ludwig Wanted To Marry, Start New Life 19 minutes ago Court documents released today show that an 18-year-old murder suspect confessed to Lancaster police to murdering his girlfriend's parents and also that she went willingly with him after the killing, saying she wanted to marry him and start a new life. The revelations were contained in documents released to the media as part of court proceedings in the double murder trial of David Ludwig. In light of the new evidence, the kidnapping charge he had been facing has now been dropped. Stay with WGAL.com for more on...

[snip]David Ludwig, at least, seemed to use his "faith" in the same way other men use sports cars — as a "hook." It appeared to be a tool with which he manipulated the young woman in Hawaii. . . .

PHILADELPHIA - Kara Beth Borden, the 14-year-old who fled with her boyfriend, David Ludwig, after he is alleged to have gunned down her parents in the family's Lititz, Pa., home, was not involved in planning their deaths, her attorney said Tuesday.

"If she is charged because she was part of the planning, if she is charged because she was sort of a co-conspirator, she will face murder charges, even if she didn't pull the trigger. And the important thing to know about this, in terms of Pennsylvania law, is because she's 14, she's old enough to be transferred to adult court, be prosecuted as an adult and face, not the death penalty because of her age, but life behind bars."

Suspect confesses to 'intentional' murder' By Justin Quinn, Intelligencer Journal Staff Intelligencer JournalPublished: Nov 22, 2005 9:48 AM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Minutes after her boyfriend allegedly shot and killed her parents, 14-year-old Kara Beth Borden ran down the driveway and jumped into his car, intending to "get as far away as possible, get married and start a new life," according to a court document released Monday.The same document also reveals David G. Ludwig admitted killing Michael F. and Cathryn Lee Borden, both 50, in their home on Nov. 13. "It was an intentional murder, I intended to...

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...

[snip] . . . However, the entirety of one blog was not yet deleted, and in that weblog, created using a variation on Kara Beth's "KareBear" screen name, she had pasted, on October 17, 2005, at 2:20 p.m., an instant message transcript of a chat she had with a friend. Using yet a third variation on her "KareBear" nick, Kara Beth seemed to show a different side to her personality. if it has to do with david and me, we are taking care of it — we know what we are going to do. so you are just gonna go...

The funeral service was led by elders from Monterey Chapel in Leola, where the Bordens worshipped and where Mike Borden was an elder and Sunday school teacher. None of the five children spoke during the service. They appeared drawn but composed, even near the end of two hours of greeting mourners. The deaths of Mike and Cathy Borden were a tragedy. But, Rex Trogden said Saturday, “I’d like to introduce you to the word ‘triumph.’ ” A hard word to speak when standing on a stage behind two closed caskets, with five orphaned children in the front row, yet one,...

LITITZ, Pa. (AP) -- Kara Borden sat with her four siblings in the chapel of Lancaster Bible College for her parents' funeral on Saturday. On the Bordens' street, white ribbons were affixed to mailboxes to honor their memory. The relationship between 18-year-old David Ludwig and 14-year-old Borden was a closely guarded secret. There was good reason to keep things quiet: Their four-year age difference displeased their parents. The tensions in the Borden house apparently spilled over last Sunday, when police say Ludwig fatally shot Kara's parents, Michael and Cathryn Borden, after an argument about their relationship, then fled with the...

LITITZ, Pa. -- An 18-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend's parents and kidnapping her was videotaped discussing plans to conduct an armed raid on another family's home and kill people inside, according to court documents released Friday. Police said another teen in the 18-minute video told them that the aborted break-in was among several such "late night armed 'plans of forcible entry"' that he and David Ludwig conducted. Ludwig and Samuel P. Lohr, 19, are shown in the video taking guns from Ludwig's house to a home and discussing using them to "shoot and kill family members inside of...

RALEIGH -- If homeschooling families want to draw attention to their lifestyle and education methods when their children excel -- as in academic competitions -- they've got to accept that they will draw unwanted scrutiny when one of their own does something horrible. Such is the case with 18-year-old Pennsylvania murder suspect David Ludwig, who abducted his 14-year-old secret girlfriend Kara Borden Sunday after he allegedly gunned down her parents in their home. Ludwig was arrested in Indiana Monday with Borden in tow, after crashing his vehicle. Both were homeschooled and, according to some media reports, "deeply Christian." The nature...

Lancaster County, PA - One man said he was thankful that Justin Borden, who is in the Army, returned from Iraq and was able to see his parents "before You called them home." He said the Bordens' oldest son, James, who lives in Chicago, had planned to return to Lititz for Thanksgiving to introduce his girlfriend to his parents. At a prayer service Wed at Monterey Chapel in Leola, church members and visitors prayed for the children of the late Michael and Cathryn Borden, and for the forgiveness of the Bordens' accused killer, David Ludwig. More than 100 people gathered...

LANCASTER, Pa. - An 18-year-old who's charged with killing his girlfriend's parents before fleeing with the 14-year-old girl is frightened and confused, his attorney said Wednesday. David Ludwig is being held without bail on murder and kidnapping charges after being flown back to Lancaster County on Tuesday from Indiana, where police captured him following a chase. His attorney, public defender Merrill M. Spahn, said he will ask for a postponement of a scheduled Nov. 23 preliminary hearing. "Over the coming days we will strive to determine what, in fact, occurred last Sunday morning and what may have led to these...

LITITZ, Pa. — Fifty-four guns were seized from the home of an 18-year-old in custody for shooting his girlfriend's parents dead and then taking her on the lam, court papers show. The weapons and ammunition removed from David Ludwig's home were confiscated in a search conducted Sunday, according to the documents. At the time, Ludwig and his 14-year-old girlfriend Kara Beth Borden were still at large. Ludwig has since been caught, charged with two counts of criminal homicide, kidnapping and reckless endangerment, and is in prison without bail. Kara is home in Pennsylvania with her family.