EDMONTON, Ky. (AP) - A troubled 15-year-old shot and killed relatives who had taken him in because his mother could not control him, then stole their car and fled with the younger girlfriend they had ordered him not to see, police and family members said.
Gary and Barbara Holloway's adult son found them dead in their bed Tuesday. Police issued an Amber Alert for the teen and his 12-year-old girlfriend, saying they feared they might be in grave danger. They soon caught up to them after a volunteer firefighter spotted them in the car, the 15-year-old behind the wheel.
By Wednesday, in one of the strangest cases to arise from the system designed to find abducted children, the teen had been charged with murder in the Holloways' deaths.
Family members said the boy was an eighth-grader at the local middle school who habitually got in trouble for bringing cigarettes to school, bullying other children, and talking back to his teachers.
Barbara Holloway, his second cousin, had taken him in three months ago, said her sister, Ruby Whitehead. Family members said his father is in prison.
"He's always been abandoned his whole life," said Elizabeth Osborn, a friend of the Holloway's son, Stephen. "... I guess the first people who showed him love, he didn't know how to take it."
Then there was the relationship with the 12-year-old, which Osborn said both the Holloways and the girl's mother tried to end. There was no indication the girl was involved in the killing, and police said she was released after they questioned her.
"We had been trying to fight it and keep them apart," Osborn said. "Barb had grounded him from seeing her or talking to her."
The state medical examiner's office said Wednesday preliminary autopsy results showed Gary Holloway, 50, died from multiple gunshot wounds and Barbara Holloway, 51, died of a single gunshot wound.
The teen was being held Wednesday at the Adair County Youth Development Center. In addition to murder, he is charged with fleeing and evading, wanton endangerment, criminal mischief, reckless driving and driving without a license. Authorities have not said whether he will be charged as an adult. The Associated Press generally does not identify juveniles charged with crimes.