APNewsBreak: Killer says his ideas influenced family suicide
Source: Associated Press
APNewsBreak: Killer says his ideas influenced family suicide
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press | January 29, 2015 | Updated: January 29, 2015 7:22pm
DRAPER, Utah (AP) — Kristi Strack and Dan Lafferty struck up an unusual relationship behind prison walls a decade ago.
She dreamed about the prisoner who murdered a family member and an infant in what he called the name of God in 1984. She wrote him letters and began visiting him in prison. He said they fell in love. At one point he cut off his beard and waist-length ponytail that had been growing for about 15 years and mailed it to her. In recent years, they drifted apart as she questioned his status as a prophet and Strack was banned from visiting the prison.
Strack killed herself by overdosing on a concoction of methadone and cold medicine with her husband, Benjamin, and three children in September, and authorities wrapped up the investigation this week.
In a Thursday interview with The Associated Press from behind Plexiglas at the Utah State Prison, Lafferty said his hell-on-earth philosophy that says the world is controlled by the devil likely influenced their suicides. Investigators cited the couple's belief in apocalyptic ideology as a reason why they carried out the killings.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Utah-family-s-deaths-followed-mom-s-obsession-6047864.php
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