(NC) Johnson Co. parents arrested after teens' murder-suicide
WyrdWoman
http://www.charlotte.com/0807deadteens.htm
Johnson Co. parents arrested after teens' murder-suicide
By ANNA GRIFFIN
Staff Writer
PRINCETON -- The parents of three Johnston County teenagers killed in a
murder-suicide were arrested Tuesday and charged with misdemeanor child
abuse and improper storage of a gun.
Investigators had been treating Nissa Mae Warren, 41, and Boyd Kent
Warren, 43, with a certain level of sensitivity. But that investigative
stoicism ended Tuesday after District Attorney Tom Lock agreed to press
charges and detectives took the parents to jail.
"Common sense tells us that these adults were not the parents these
children deserved," said Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell. ". . . As
parents, we've all got a responsibility to raise our children in as best a
situation as we can afford. A lot of things come without a price. Right is
right, and wrong is wrong.
"It's frustrating to all of us, losing three precious lives. Death is as
bad as it gets. But having to live in the unsanitary environment we
observed, that's bad enough."
Detectives who responded to Nissa Warren's 911 call on July 26 found three
dead teenagers in a mobile home filled with garbage and animal droppings.
Investigators believe Brandon Keith Warren, 14, shot his half-sister,
Marnie Rose Warren, 19, four times, and his younger brother, Bradley, 13,
11 times. Brandon Warren then put his mother's .22-caliber semiautomatic
rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. There was no suicide note. Two
of the teens were naked, though investigators won't say which of the
three.
Social Service inspectors apparently had recently warned Nissa and Kent
Warren that if they didn't clean up their mobile home, they could lose
their children. The boys had been spending nights with a neighbor for
about two months.
The warrants investigators received Monday night say that Nissa and Kent
Warren left the .22-caliber rifle loaded and accessible. "The defendant kn
ew and should have known that an unsupervised minor would be able to gain
access to the firearm," the warrants state.
The warrants also say that "the defendant unlawfully, and willfully, did .
. . create or allow to be created a substantial risk of physical injury
upon those children by other than accidental means." That mirrors the
basic state statute definition of misdemeanor child abuse.
Bizzell has described conditions at the Warren trailer as "inhumane."
Neighbors say animals were allowed to wander in and out of the family
home, and that a fetid smell often drifted from the Warren yard.
Nissa and Kent Warren were charged with child abuse in Arizona a decade
ago, after neighbors spotted bruises on the legs of then-9-year-old Marnie
Warren. Both parents received probation. The couple also filed for
bankruptcy several years ago.
If convicted of the new charges, each parent could face a maximum of 120
days in jail for each offense, Lock said.
Detectives arrested the Warrens Tuesday morning at their home, located on
a rural road between Princeton and Kenly about 40 miles east of Raleigh.
They surrendered without incident, driving to the county jail in their
Honda Odyssey minivan. Sheriff's deputies drove cars in front of and
behind them.
The couple was being held at the Johnston County Detention Center, each
under $1,000 secured bond.
The parents have declined to speak to reporters.
North Carolina is one of 18 states that have enacted safe weapon storage
laws in the past dozen years. Under the N.C. law, any gun owner who lives
in the same home with a minor is guilty of a misdemeanor if the firearm is
not secured and the child takes the gun without permission, then waves it
around in public, hurts someone other than in self defense or uses it to
commit a crime.
An effort to expand the law, to cover all homes rather than just those
with children, died in the General Assembly this spring.
In addition to the .22-caliber rifle, a .22-caliber handgun was found in
the Warren trailer. All 16 shots fired on July 26 came from the rifle.
Despite the charges, Bizzell said investigators would likely spend several
more days working the case. They're still hoping for more details about
why Brandon Warren fired the shots.
The Warren children's ashes were buried Saturday in separate containers
placed in the same grave.
mothra...@hotmail.com
>
> ** Too bad more wasn't done while the kids were still alive.
>
> http://www.charlotte.com/0807deadteens.htm
> Detectives who responded to Nissa Warren's 911 call on July 26 found three
> dead teenagers in a mobile home filled with garbage and animal droppings.
> Social Service inspectors apparently had recently warned Nissa and Kent
> Warren that if they didn't clean up their mobile home, they could lose
> their children. The boys had been spending nights with a neighbor for
> about two months.
<snip>
Apparently, animals were allowed to roam in and out of their home, and
no one cleaned up after them, or after anyone else, either. Has there
been any indication of *why*--if there is a why in this case? Everyone
remembers the MOVE story in Philadelphia, when the city finally actually
dropped a bomb on a neighborhood. The MOVE folks were kind of
back-to-nature, but without understanding how nature works. They quite
literally equated throwing garbage into the back yard with "composting,"
and they refused to rein in their animals in any way because it wasn't
"natural." I always wonder in cases like this if there's some
philosophical background, or if these are basically filthy people (and
of course I know there's a *reason* for being basically filthy, too).
Martha