Kara Borden: Victim or Accomplice?

Kara Beth Borden

On November 22, Penn-Live reported excerpts from court documents that indicated that Kara Borden was not coerced to join David Ludwig on his cross-country flight. He'd just shot both of her parents to death, he said, and then went looking for her. When he didn't find her, he got into his car to leave and saw her running to meet him. His statements were filed on Monday in court by Lancaster County DA Donald Totaro.

Initially, police officers had believed Kara was a victim, kidnapped and forced to leave with her parents' murderer. However, Ludwig told Detective Joseph Geesey that when he saw Kara, he opened the car door and she got in, telling him she wanted to stay with him. Kara also apparently told Geesey upon her return to Pennsylvania that at no time had she been forced to accompany Ludwig. She went with him because she wanted to.

Ludwig's reason for gunning down the Bordens was that after a heated argument about the relationship Ludwig had with their daughter, Michael Borden had forbidden him from seeing Kara. Ludwig had a gun with him, so as the man turned his back, Ludwig fired and killed him. He then stepped into the living room and shot and killed Cathryn Borden. Ludwig indicated that "it was intentional."

Cathryn & Michael Borden

But why would a fourteen-year-old girl flee with a young man who had just exhibited such violence? Wasn't she shocked and horrified? Both of them were considered good kids. How did this outlaw streak grip them?

In Ludwig's profile, we likened this couple to Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, 19 and 14, who fled across Nebraska in 1958 after murdering her parents and sister. We can also get insight from a more recent double homicide in 1996.

The Rod Ferrell-Heather Wendorf case

Rod Ferrell

Rod Ferrell, from Murray, Kentucky, had lived in Eustis, Florida, where he'd developed a relationship with Heather Wendorf, 15. They both liked to pretend that they were vampires, and spent hours on the phone discussing how to get away together. Then Ferrell went to Florida with three other kids to "rescue" Heather from her parents. While she was at the home of a friend, he bludgeoned to death Richard Wendorf, 49, and Naoma Ruth Queen, 53. He then stole their car and fled with the gang to Louisiana, where they were apprehended and returned to Florida.

In a grand jury hearing, Heather was cleared of all charges, although the other four were held for murder trials. Heather claimed that she was not present when the murders took place and had had no idea what Ferrell was planning. She was not certain that he'd actually done it until she saw him playing with her mother's pearl necklace.

However, the same day her parents were murdered, she had received Ferrell's blood in a cemetery ritual in order to "cross over" as a "vampire." She had also reportedly told friends that she had been a demon in a past life and that she talked with spirits during blood-drinking rituals. When dating Ferrell, she had viewed him as a kindred spirit and awaited the day when they could be together. She named her cat Vassago, a name that Ferrell had adopted after a Prince of Hell. She'd also told a friend she sometimes wished her parents were dead, especially after they stopped Ferrell's collect calls to her, and had once asked her older sister, Jennifer, if she ever thought about killing their parents. In addition, she had mentioned that Rod could kill people, if Jennifer ever needed that done. Jennifer said all of this at the grand jury hearing, but Heather was nevertheless cleared. She later said that she had been afraid that Ferrell might kill her, but on her road trip with him after she'd realized her parents were dead, she had made no attempt to call for help or turn him in.

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