Teen Wanted in Pa. Double Murder Nabbed

LITITZ, Pa. – An 18-year-old man charged with killing a couple and fleeing with their 14-year-old daughter has been captured in Indiana, police said.

David Ludwig , 18, was apprehended about 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday after the red Volkswagen Jetta he was driving crashed into a tree about 20 miles west of Indianapolis following a pursuit by State Police, 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said.

Ludwig did not have a gun on him when he was patted down, and his passenger, Kara Beth Borden was screaming, yelling and crying when the car stopped, said David Cox, a senior trooper with the State Police.

Cox also reported Ludwig was driving recklessly, but no injuries were reported.

"The car got into a little bit of an accident. ... They are both OK,” Warwick Township Police Chief Richard Garipoli said.

The teens were handcuffed and taken away from the scene in Belleville, Ind., in separate cars. They were brought to the State Police post in Putnamville, where Ludwig - who's being charged with two counts of homicide and kidnapping - was being questioned and has cooperated with the investigation so far, police said.

Borden cannot be questioned in Indiana because of her age, and will be taken back to Pennsylvania where she will need to have an adult present to be questioned.

Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro has already come to a conclusion.

“This was premeditated,” he said of the crimes committed over the past two days, which warrant life in prison.

Footage from news helicopters in Indiana showed a girl sitting in a police cruiser and a young man wearing a gray T-shirt and sitting next to the Jetta that had run head-on into a tree. The site is some 600 miles from the scene of the killings.

Bobby Poteet, 36, a Belleville resident, said he was out walking when he saw the red car being pursued by two state police cruisers.

"They were flying," he said.

Police earlier had said the two were spotted at a gas station near exit 173 of Interstate 80.

There were conflicting reports of whether or not the teens had changed their appearance. A sandwich shop worker described Kara Beth Borden's face as swollen, possibly indicating she had been crying, Lititz Police Chief William Seace said.

Kara's 13-year-old sister, Katelyn, told investigators her father and mother were shot after they argued with Ludwig for about an hour, according to a police affidavit filed in court.

"As they got near the front door, Katelyn Borden saw David Ludwig with a handgun pointed toward her father and Katelyn saw David Ludwig pull the trigger, heard a gunshot, and then she ran into the bathroom," the affidavit said.

She heard a second shot — presumably the one that killed her mother — while hiding in the bathroom, it said. Ludwig then ran through the house calling for Kara, she told investigators.

Michael and Cathryn Borden, both 50, were found shot to death shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday, after the couple's 9-year-old son ran to the home of neighbors, who called 911. An older daughter also escaped, police said.

But Kara was missing since that morning at the family's home in Warwick Township, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia, and may have been abducted at gunpoint by Ludwig.

"We're feeling that because the parents were killed this could be an abduction, but we could be wrong," Seace told reporters Monday.

Police on Sunday night issued an arrest warrant for Ludwig on two counts of criminal homicide, one count of recklessly endangering and one count of kidnapping. Seace said information from the other children indicated that Ludwig shot the victims.

"We think they're boyfriend and girlfriend," Seace said. "The young girl was out during the night, came home, and her parents confronted her. From what we understand, he came to the house."

The Borden family had lived in the home for several years, said neighbor Tod Sherman, 47. Mike Borden worked for a printing company, and the children were home-schooled, he said.

Sherman said the family knew Ludwig through a home-schooling network. He said he had occasionally seen the teen at the Bordens' home.

Stephanie Mannon, 16, said Ludwig and Kara Borden had been seeing each other secretly.

"Their parents didn't approve of them being together" because of the age difference, she said. "It wasn't because he was a shady character, because he wasn't."

Both Ludwig and Kara Borden maintain Web sites on the Internet. Hers refers to interests in soccer, art and her Christian faith. His blog says he enjoys "having soft air gun wars" and claims expertise in "getting in trouble."

Neighbor John Hohman, 40, said his family got a phone call from Lancaster County emergency management officials Sunday morning warning them to stay inside. He said he looked out a window and saw police running through the neighborhood. About an hour and half later, authorities told residents to go to their basements.

"We were really upset. We didn't know what was going on," Hohman said.

Hohman described Kara, who occasionally baby-sat for his family, as "a very nice girl."

Sherman described her father as "very smart and focused, a nice guy."

"They were super people," he said.

The murders were the second violent incident in a week in normally quiet Lititz, a Lancaster County village known for its quaint shops, local artists and such attractions as the Sturgis Pretzel House, which bills itself as America's first pretzel bakery.

On Tuesday, police shot and killed a man hours after authorities said the suspect shot one of three officers who had gone to his home with a traffic warrant.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.