Michael Bever age 16 and Robert Bever age 18 carried out a brutal attack on their own family members which left 5 people dead and one seriously injured. Robert pictured left and Michael pictured right.
Prior to the crimes.
The family of nine was made up of parents April and David Bever and their seven children, Robert (18), Michael (16), Crystal (13), Daniel (12), Christopher (7), Victoria (5) and Autumn (2). Not much is known about the home life of the children but they were all home schooled. It has been mentioned that their father could become angry and violent at points, in one particular incident he threw the kids across the room in a fit of rage. April had also had conversations with David about being too tough on his eldest boys. We don’t know whether this is one of the reasons the boys decided to kill their family but it is highly likely.
According to Michael the boys had been planning the attack for 2 months, this is also backed up by purchases during that period. Robert had been buying knives on ebay along with large quantities of ammunition. They had even purchased kevlar vests to wear as they carried out their attack. Below Michael is talking about their purchases.
You may be wondering why they needed so much ammunition and weapons but this was because of their aspiration to be like other killers such as the Columbine shooters. Later in the interview Michael spoke about his brother saying ‘he wanted to beat the kill count for columbine’ and ‘he would like 50’. During the same segment Michael reveals their plans, had they not been caught, saying that they were planning on driving across the states and shooting random members of the public at gas stations and restaurants. A very scary thought and lucky that the police were able to apprehend them at the scene, however this was mostly due to the bravery of one family member which we will discuss below.
The Night of The Attack.
On the night of the attack Robert and Michael sat together plotting and waiting for their family to go to bed. At around midnight once most of the family were asleep the boys set their plan into action. Crystal was still awake and the boys convinced her into the room on the pretense of showing her something. Whilst one boy showed her something the other came up behind and began stabbing her in the neck. Michael described how she ‘fell to the ground screaming’.
This woke their mother who they then stabbed in the neck and cut her throat. Robert then cut his father's throat leaving him dead on the floor with 28 stab wounds as their mother managed to run outside the front door before collapsing. Michael then dragged his mother back inside before finishing her off, the coroner report stated she had 48 stab wounds.
At this point in the attack Michael told detectives, ‘I went back inside to go after the little kids’.
At some point during the attack 5 year old Victoria was also stabbed to death and it is believed that Michael lured her out by shouting for help because Robert was attacking him. Once she left the room the boys then stabbed her to death as well. Christopher and Daniel had also managed to lock themselves in two adjacent rooms in the house. Again Michael persuaded them into opening the doors and the two boys rushed in and stabbed their younger brothers to death. Michael later recounted how he ‘shanked him in the neck’, quite a grisly way to describe murdering your 7 year old brother! Daniel however had managed to run away and get hold of a phone on which he called 911 in an attempt to call for help. He was so badly injured he could not speak but the police dispatched a car anyway and the scene they found was horrific.
When the police arrived they could hear faint calls for help coming from inside the house with blood stains on the door. They first found young Daniel dead and followed the cries of help finding Crystal (13) still alive. The rest of the family were found dead beside their 2 year old sister Autumn who was found unharmed in a cot thankfully. Michael stated they had planned to kill Autumn but had forgotten about her in all the chaos of the attack. Robert pointed out to detectives they had planned to cut Autumn’s head off with an ax, I have no words for this kind of statement other than thankfully they forgot about Autumn. Officers soon dispatched dogs in the area and shortly after found the two boys covered in blood and mud lying down in an attempt to hide from police. They were found wearing the kevlar vests they had ordered previously, I found this quite fascinating that they felt they needed protective vests to attack their defenseless family, however maybe this was a warning of the crimes to come.
Robert Bever at the time of his capture.
Michael Bever at the time of his capture.
Interview with 16 year old Michael
The full interview with Michael is quite interesting as he looks to diminish his responsibility and lay the full blame with Robert. When talking about anything related to the crime he uses the word ‘he’ instead of we over and over. As much as Robert may have been the driving force we know from forensics that Michael played an equal part when it came to committing the crimes. One of the most interesting parts of the interview is where he states ‘I don’t wanna do it because I don’t wanna kill anyone’ but then goes on to saying ‘I stabbed my younger brother’. This clear contradiction shows how he wants to come across as though he was forced into this but deep down I think he enjoyed it. This is the only murder he originally admits to stating that his brother killed everyone else. Strange as to why he admitted this and not the others but maybe he thinks he could get a reduced sentence which is not the case.
Throughout the whole interview he maintained that he had only stabbed his brother Christopher and lured the others about because Robert had told him too. The detective eventually grows tired with this and calls him out in the clip below.
As the detective puts more pressure on Michael eventually caves and mentions how he also stabbed his mother. Do you think he confessed to this given the pressure or that he was speaking the truth? The clip is below for you to decide.
To finish the interview the detective then asks why he killed the family and it is now we can see their true reasoning behind the crime. The detective also asks how he feels about the attack to which he describes it as ‘pointless’. He also describes his family as just a number and a means to ‘set the record’.
Overall the interview is very interesting and gives an insight into the mind of a 16 year old who had just butchered his family. It's clear throughout that Michael does not want to take responsibility for his actions and that he did want to take part in this killing. However it is difficult to tell whether he is slightly less guilty than his brother as Robert clearly made an impression on this young mind. The question has to be asked would Michael have displayed violence had his brother not been in the picture. Let us know your thoughts below.
Would Michael have committed the murder without the influence of his brother?
Yes
No
Robert Bever
Less is known about Robert given his interview was not published however some of the comments to come out are shocking. Robert frequently laughed on recanting his story and became visibly excited. On this evidence it is probably likely that Robert was the driving factor in the crimes as Michael seems rather subdued in the interview footage. He also stated that killing more than one person would make him god-like. He also talked about cutting his two year old sister's head off with an ax which we mentioned previously but again very lucky he forgot about this. Finally he spoke about how he had wanted to kill his parents from the age of 13. Clearly Robert had some pent up anger toward his parents and society in general. This was also emphasized by a comment made by Michael stating how ‘he hates everyone and thinks society is pointless’.
Robert and Michael were both sentenced to life imprisonment for their crimes however Michael was given the possibility of parole. The last we heard from them was when Robert attacked prison officers with a ‘sharpening instrument’, again another indicator of the violence that Robert was capable of. We will also be covering the columbine shooting next as this has cropped up in a few cases of killers using this as their sick inspiration.
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