5 in Oklahoma family slain
2 sons arrested in stabbings near Tulsa; 1 injured sister survives.
BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Oklahoma police responding to a 911 call in which no one spoke found a gruesome scene at a suburban Tulsa home: a 13- yearold girl stabbed but alive near the front door and five members of her family either dead or dying inside.
Broken Arrow Police Cpl. Leon Calhoun said Thursday that two teenage sons were apprehended and expected to be charged in the stabbing deaths of their parents and three younger siblings. A 2- year- old sister was found unharmed.
“It certainly is shocking. I’m shocked,” neighbor Patricia Statham said. “I feel so bad for everyone who walks into that house. You can see it in the faces of the officers when they come out.”
At the scene, investigators stepped around pools of blood on the home’s front stoop, their feet covered to help protect the crime scene. Other officers put up tarps to veil two bodies in the front yard as the sun rose Thursday. A gust of wind blew down one section of the makeshift wall, revealing a bloody white sheet.
“I’ve been here 19 years and I don’t know if we’ve had more than three homicides in a year,” said Calhoun, the department spokesman. “This is the worst single criminal event in Broken Arrow history.”
Broken Arrow is on the Arkansas River, just southeast of Tulsa.
Calhoun said officers responding to a 911 call about 11: 30 Wednesday night could not enter the house through the front door but heard moaning and found another way inside.
They found the injured 13- year- old first and dragged her outside for fear the killer might still be in the house.
They did the same with two other victims, not knowing whether they were dead or alive. Elsewhere in the house, they found three more bodies.
A tracking dog led officers to 16- and 18- year- old brothers in woods near the house. They were taken to the Broken Arrow police station for questioning and were to be transferred to the Tulsa County jail, Calhoun said.
Calhoun identified the parents killed as David and April Bever, ages 52 and 44. He identified one of the two suspects in the deaths as their 18- year- old son, Robert Bever. The other suspect was not identified because he is a minor.
The three children found dead were boys ages 12 and 7, and a girl age 5, Calhoun said. The two survivors were the injured 13- year- old girl and the 2- year- old girl. None of those names was released.
“Anytime someone murders their family members, as young as 5, I don’t see how there could be a mental process for that,” Calhoun said.
The unharmed toddler was transferred to state custody.
Neighbors said they were familiar with the family — in part because they stood in contrast with others in a close- knit neighborhood.
Bill Whitworth, 46, who drives a bread truck, said his 18- year- old son was the same age as one of the teenagers detained.
“My son never had an opportunity to play with him because their parents wouldn’t allow them to play with the other kids,” Whitworth said.
Helen Hoagland, 88, a neighborhood resident for 42 years, said the children were homeschooled and kept on a tight leash.
The family had helped with neighborhood Christmas decorations in the past, but they stopped after two years.
“We just have a great neighborhood. That’s just crazy; it’s absolutely crazy,” Hoagland said as she watched police working at the crime scene before dawn.
Statham, 74, said she never would have expected trouble from the family.
“Usually the worst thing we have here is kids with baseball bats destroying mailboxes,” she said.
Police Sgt. Thomas Cooper said officers went to the home near the Indian Springs Country Club after emergency operators received an “open 911 call” — probably placed by the wounded girl — in which no one spoke but the line remained connected. Police traced the number to the home.