Originally Posted by brizzad

why not just post the whole story?

PALMETTO - A 20-year-old Myakka City man fatally beat his brother, grandmother, mother and father with a 2 1/2 foot metal pipe on Thanksgiving Day, Sheriff Charlie Wells confirmed this afternoon.

At a press conference in Palmetto, Wells detailed the confession of Richard E. Henderson Jr., who faces four murder charges in connection with the death of his family in a home at 47210 14th St. E. He remains in the Manatee County jail without bond.

Henderson also left a confession note at the home where the bodies of Richard, 48, Jeaneane, 42, June, 82, and Jake, 11, were discovered mid-day Sunday by a relative who alerted authorities with a 911 call. The note read, "I knew I did it but don't know why. ...I didn't kill them out of hate but out of selfishness because I didn't want to die alone. R.H."

Throughout Sunday afternoon authorities searched for Richard E. Henderson Jr. He was found walking along U.S. 301 after trying, according to the sheriff's office, to break in to an ex-girlfriend's home in Palmetto. The woman's father called authorities.

Wells said Henderson confessed to killing his family members one by one after Thanksgiving dinner at a relative's home.

The sheriff said Henderson killed his younger brother Jake, 11, first. The two were playing a video game in a bedroom when Henderson struck his brother with the pipe. He then wrapped the pipe in a towel, went to his grandmother's room, where she was reading a book, and asked to see something in her nightstand. When she bent down to look into a drawer, Henderson hit her with the pipe.

Next, Henderson clubbed his father while playing a video game in the living room, according to Wells.

The sheriff said Henderson then hit his mother with the pipe while she played video poker in her bedroom.

Wells said the young man said he couldn't remember how many times he swung the pipe.

Afterward, he said he took a shower and then spent the night lying on his parents' bed, looking at the ceiling.

Before he left the home, he left the note and covered the bodies with blankets and sheets.

Henderson told authorities that he didn't kill his family because he hated them but that after he hit his brother he had to kill everyone. He also told authorities he killed his family because they wouldn't let him leave.

Henderson apparently spent Friday and Saturday at a hotel with a girlfriend. He then returned to his family's home on Sunday, where he was seen by a relative.

Wells said he told the relative not to go to the house because his parents were fighting.