Siblings Admit to Killing Brother

ByABC News via logo
April 17, 2002, 1:46 PM

L E W I S V I L L E, Texas, April 17 -- Residents of a Texas town are trying to understand why a teenage girl and her 10-year-old brother decided to take the life of their six-year old sibling.

Jackson Carr, 6, went missing Monday evening after what his older brother said was a game of hide-and-seek. Authorities spent hours searching for him before the boys' 15-year-old sister admitted she killed him and led police to her brother's shallow grave.

His body was found beneath 2 feet of mud, dirt and debris. He had been asphyxiated and had a stab wound to his neck.

Lewisville police spokesman Richard Douglass said the older brother admitted to assisting his sister in the killing.

"The 10-year-old brother that was the one that was supposed to be playing hide-and-go-seek also admitted to holding down his brother during the murder," Douglass said.

Troubled Child?

Janet Ellison, a friend and neighbor of the Carr family, said the 15-year-old could often be heard yelling at both of her brothers.

"When I first met her, she just seemed like a really troubled child," Ellison said on Good Morning America. "And we knew that something was wrong. She just wasn't very nice to her brothers. She was very hateful to them," she said.

Ellison said the two Carr boys always seemed to get along.

Both siblings have run into trouble in the past. They confessed to setting a fire in an elementary school four years ago, according to The Associated Press, but no charges were filed against them, records show.

Mike Houser, a volunteer who joined the search, said he is in shock over the tragic ending.

"The whole thing, talking to the sister, walking by here and not even knowing that the body was here and this happening in the neighborhood, it's all just devastating," Houser said.

The siblings were taken into custody Tuesday and detained on murder charges, according to Lewisville police. They appeared at a detention hearing Wednesday.

The police are not commenting on a motive, but they have said important evidence was found in the family's home. Douglass said the parents are not suspects.