North Carolina Teen Confessed To Killing Parents

Strict parents, no friends, couldn’t leave the house. 

Kid must have felt like a prisoner. 

I’m not saying he should have killed them, but I understand.

Why is homeschooling still legal? Maybe there are some people who benefit from it and aren’t suffering socially, but I’ve certainly never met one.

wow that link to the school job or whatever..it is his resume…since 1983 and no job lasted more than 1-2 yrs…in all those yrs…he also stated his “student” who is 15 is going to graduate high school by the end of 2011..this guy sounds like a friggen nutjob the poor kid was probably abused and stressed the  hell out..no one looking out for him at all it seems

Boy I feel this kids pain.  I couldn’t stand my step mom.  Try living with a Bully who picks on you because your hairs is to long and you look gay.  I heard this everyday of my life when I was 16.  It drove me to drink and do drugs.

I was terrified of my Dad so I knew better than to be disrespectful.  I took it out on my 15 year stepbrother.  He and I are real good friends but I have not spoken to any of my parents in Decades.

He should have told his student counselors at school and tried to get out of there. I know I left the day after my 18th birthday.

Maybe she would have mellowed if you got a haircut?

well that’s the other thing…which when they are religious “nutjobs”usually abuse is in there somewhere..of course this is just my opinion based on articles i have personally read

I got stabbed in the hand with a pencil by screaming banshee of a homeschoolee, and another one spoke daily of how I was going to hell if I didn’t repent immediately. And this was only in middle school, these kids hadn’t been suffering in isolation for 18 years like some kids. There’s a reason the worst of the worst in jail are thrown into isolation….

Proof positive that you cannot judge a book by its cover. I definitely would have guessed chess club member before murderer.

Everbody had big hair in the Eighties!

Why does her age matter so much ? She was a grown woman, and if they loved each other I don’t think that’s anyone else’s  business.I have dated older women who were way more immature than some of the younger ones that I have also dated.

I’m thinking that the guy did the whole “alternative school” with one student bit because that made him eligible for a tax break he otherwise would not have received.

Probably because it wouldn’t have done any good whatsoever. I know in my state, the CPS or anybody else can’t do anything unless they find you physically harming the child. And by reading many of these stories, it’s usually too late.

This kid reminds me of one of my boy’s friends, who has been home schooled for most of high school.  Parents divorced, forced against his wishes to spend time with his father out of state.  Right now I can’t help but feel for this kid.  I wonder where his biological mother is.

hadn’t thought of that… damn, that makes it worse.

I had friends who I felt weren’t good friends to me yet I was to them. I went to private school, my mom was strict.

I didn’t kill anyone.

we really have no idea at this point what was going on behind closed doors.  A lot of times kids are home schooled to get them away  from the protecting eyes of teachers and other playmates.  It will be interesting to see what information comes out about this.  Heartbreaking.  Those wedding pictures looked like a nice down to earth family.  

You have a strange idea of “fair”. To be “fair” we need to mention all the parents who actually have the education and knowledge to give their children a better education at home.Me,personally I don’t believe in home schooling;but I do acknowledge that some children are very lucky to have parents who are capable of doing home schooling , and doing it on a high level.

Grandma don’t count Ced.

I get your point … but that would make the 15 year old the one with the problem, and it still would not make his killing her and his Dad logical – or the correct thing for him to have done.

 scud420 I must say that you do make a lot of sense,however I think this little 15 year old weasel should have sucked it up, and not turned all Kill Bill on his family.Shit in approx 2 years he could have moved out to Florida, and went bat fucking crazy with some bath salts and pygmy goats … you know normal stuff.

Why do you guys read the little info given about a murdering lil Bastard , and then dream up all this “possible” bad shit to make the actual victims look guilty of a crime ? I’m not getting “your” logic.

Exactly where in the article do you see this ? 

Hell the lil Bastard probably killed his Mom too … and got off due to bleeding hearts like you guys.I don’t care for murdering lil Bastards.

I was never accused of being Gay,and I didn’t have long hair … but I feel your pain.I signed up for the Marine Corps at 17 and left right after my 18th birthday.My Dad was the reason – I wanted away from his ass … but guess what ? He still lives cause I am not a murdering Bastard … not yet anyways.

Maybe not …

How dare those fuckers deny their kids association  with “my” kids !!! I support the Bible … however anyone who pulls this shit has missed some of the basic concepts of the good book.That was a good point Joshua. 

Based on your logic – we should all be murderers. 

Ya know, making it through the teen years unscathed is a miracle for most kids.  It’s no cake walk.  While this kid obviously had some serious mental issues (depression, anxiety, who knows), possibly due to his home life, possibly due to a chemical imbalance, possibly due to both, it doesn’t really excuse the fact that there are a million teens in similar situations that DON’T go to such lengths.  It’s like our violent video games.  While one little prick will end up trying to shoot his parents in their noggins because the game was taken away, thousands DON’T pick up the gun and instead sit in their rooms vowing retaliation someday, somehow, but the thought of murder never enters their minds.  My point being, the kid is obviously imbalanced and while life might have sucked, had he not reacted in such a manner on this occasion I think it would have happened at some other time in life when he was pressured. 

I’m just applying the analogy to this case. I mean the neighbors said he didn’t get out much, he had no friends, no school. He was probably stuck at home with this 24 year old “teacher” all day.

“Not yet anyways”.

Ha ha ha ha. Something about this just struck me funny!

well said Heather, well said.

I personally come from a place of abuse. So many parents are good at hiding it that my first reaction is always what made the kid behave this way. Sometimes kids are just spoiled shits, but based on my admittedly biased opinion I usually think that there is something driving the kid to it.

I hope the court is lenient on orphans.

actually no, what do we read here every single day? we read about children abused to death..i with Christain Choate would have murdered his abusers…i wish that way back when i was 8 standing over my mom’s boyfriend with a knife while he slept after he got done doing unspeakable things to my little 8 yr old body..well i wished i did him in..i woulda got counseling, free schooling, college and maybe a normal life..instead of 7 more yrs of what he did to me..and to top it off what my mom did…so let me think … no i don’t feel bad..unless i hear that he did it over an xbox game then no

I agree actually.

I think it is a screwed up situation a teenager living with a step-mom just 9 or so years older than him BUT that isn’t carte blanche to kill them. People are born into f*cked up situations all the time but it doesn’t give them a license to kill.

Now if there was actually physical abuse involved (which we have no evidence of)…then I wouldn’t feel sorry for the parents.

I agree.

It sounds horrible, but with some perspective, it really wasn’t.

It just lives in the south? Northern blacks who move to my area, tell me that it is less racist than where they lived. In the north, they say, it was better disguised.

You are really offending my libertarian side. I’m not an advocate of home schooling myself, but it is sure nice to have the option. It could be useful in many situations. Say that you live in an inner city area with weak schools and the private schools aren’t a good option? Besides, you really believe in a government that has the right to tell you where your kids are going or else?

Yes I have. And my sister who has been a teacher for over 20 years, and teaches honors and advanced placement classes, has had many successful, well adjusted students who transitioned to high school after being home schooled.

I personally would never home school my children, and always thought it was doing a disservice to the child but it apparently works for a lot of families.

That’s the truth. good point.

Then move. There are better school systems elsewhere. If I ever saw a single successful case I might support it, but since I’ve just seen it ruin kids I do feel it should be outlawed. Poor school systems are better than a one man school system.

“The father…dangled handcuffs from the rearview mirror of his minivan, walked around the southwest Mecklenburg neighborhood with a gun and once shot a man on the street, they said.A “No Trespassing” sign was tacked to the house, and cameras recorded what went on outside.”http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/27/2643037/questions-begin-as-son-charged.htmlIt seems the mother IS alive and divorced the father in 2000.

I do know an 18 year old that was homeschooled, and he is a great kid. He works, spends his money on frivolous shit, won’t do his own laundry, etc. A typical teenager. No, he’s not my kid, lol

My husband and I were stationed in OK in a disgustingly horrid school district. I withdrew my daughter and home schooled her for a few months until I could get her into a private school. Moving isn’t always an option, and sometimes the risk of later socialization outweighs the risks at the public school. You don’t know until you have to make that choice for your own child. Just sayin.

Mmm yes… Thats me

Forget the whole religious nutjob thing.  Maybe he was just pissed cuz “new mom” was eating all the Twinkies.

WTF ???  REALLY ????

Maybe he’s a soul-less little demon, and will never give a shit that he executed his own father and another innocent person.

Holy shit, this is like a “People Under the Stairs” mother fucker… I take back any doubt that I had about the kid’s reasoning to shoot him.

Who said the school kicked him out?  Have we determined that to be fact, yet?  The way things are written, “he was removed for fighting” rather than “he was expelled for fighting”, it kind of sounds like it was the dad’s idea, not the school’s.

This is why we wonder if and what the parents did wrong in this situation.  While it is possible for kids to be born bad seeds, it is not particularly common.  So, when red flags pop up on the parents’ end, it only makes sense for us to latch on to those to some degree.

When I was 14 my father started dating a 22 year old. Eventually the 3 of us moved into an apartment together. I tried SO HARD to get along with that woman, despite the fact she would openly talk bad about my mother in front of me (never mind the fact that she’d only met my mom a total of 2 times and both times my mom was polite and civil to her). After a while he started being verbally abusive towards me, a while later she’d get physical, like throwing things at me. She did these things when my father wasn’t around so it was always my word against hers, and since she’d act sweet as pie to me in front of my dad, he thought I was just lying because I was jealous, no matter how many times I told him I wasn’t jealous nor lying. She was the one who was jealous. She wanted my dad all to herself and told me many times she wished I would go live with my mom.

He finally believed me when he came home from work early one night and caught her trying to kick my door in. I’d locked myself in my room because she’d started being a bitch again and I didn’t want to deal with her.

He kicked her out that night and we never saw her again. He still feels really guilty about it, no matter how much I tell him it’s in the past and to forget about it.

My point is, I don’t know for sure what this boy’s home life was like, but judging by the article, he probably wasn’t happy. I’m totally not justifying what he did, but I have a feeling he felt trapped and thought this was his only way out. Teenagers need to remember that they’ll be 18 before they know it and doing something as serious and this is NOT the answer. You can’t turn back time and not commit murder once you realize that killing your parents was a huge no no.

I hope he’s able to get some help wherever the courts decide to send him.

Point made 

I am really sorry you had to live that, Alicia. 

Sorry CED I will change my statement.

The school system (at one point in time) was a major reason that the economy was so strong in the United States. We used to have the strongest public school system in the world, and one of the top economies. As the school system has fallen to…. thirty-somethingth in the world I believe (I am not sure of the exact number, but I think that’s the last I heard), so has the strength of the economy. I fully believe that education is the backbone of a strong country, and most people do not have the training to properly school their children. The states with the strongest school systems, like Massachusetts, suffered the least in the recession and had one of the lowest increases in unemployment. If there is to be government control, I do believe it should be in place to improve the economy so we can feed America and lessen crime.

If educators have to get degrees and certifications to become a teacher, why don’t parents who homeschool their children? Most have no idea what they’re doing. There may be a few who do, but the vast majority don’t. I would be fine with it if there was some control over homeschooling, but there isn’t and the system is failing so many kids. This kid is a perfect example, and so is every example I have met. However, I hope that you’re right and that I have just met all of the worst cases in America.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

And yet you got her into a proper school as soon as possible? You were sensible about it and realistic about what you could do. These people who keep their children home-schooled for years are not.

Found it! (And hoping I have more success with the link!)

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/28/2645291/mother-laments-her-lost-boy.html

I worked with a chick that was home schooled while I was in highschool and she thought the mace on a fellow employees keyring was perfume. Yeah, she sprayed it right in her face.  We worked at an all-you-can-eat salad joint.  It was durning lunch. 

I always felt a little bad for her.

 Jeeze, am I the only relatively sane person to come out of homeschooling?
Maybe its religion.  Other homeschoolers seem to almost universally be psychotically strict christian extremists who think even being in the same building with a woman is an affront to god, because erections are evil or something.

Actually, I believe Idaho and Montana have the highest rates of white supremacists in the nation.  The hardcore ones have been chased to where people won’t screw with them.  But, yeah, racism IS everywhere.

What people don’t know about homeschooling is that, while – yes – a large percentage of homeschoolers appear to choose that option for religious reasons, that other percentage does so because they believe they can do a better job.  And they often do.  Statistically, these parents are better educated and of a higher socio-economic status than parents that put their children into private school, and these children outperform both parochially and publicly-educated students.

I’d say this was probably the case in your situation, as well, given how it appears you’ve turned out.  :)

Because sometimes the public school system leaves kids with learning disabilities in the lurch, and it’s a better alternative for many. The kid had problems at school, THAT’S why he was at home.

I know many who are successful…one of my friends is a graduate of Wake Forest and now working as a dr in a private practice, after homeschooling from grade 3 on, because he had a learning disability and his parents took him out of the public school. And many, many homeschooled kids have group events, field trips, and get plenty of idiots, friends, bullies, and crazies in their lives. A smart, well rounded homeschooling parent knows that they will have to make extra effort to enhance their child’s social life.

I’m not one to believe what I’ve never seen evidence of. Like I said, I am basing this on every single case I’ve met. I think when something is overwhelmingly negative something needs to be done about it, even if a couple people out there can handle it. I think 18 years is not a good idea. If you’re talking in temporary terms, then I do think that’s acceptable.

I think the temporary situation likely helped. A whole childhood just seems way too long for homeschooling. If there is a time for it though middle school must be better than elementary or high school.

Ok. Now can you tell me why my black brother in law stays home and homeschools while my sister works? And he’s an atheist.

I agree with you, I’m also aware of some parents who think homeschooling means they let their kids read while they veg out on the couch. And don’t get me started on “un-schooling”…that’s a nightmare. I get what you’re saying, I do. And I dont’ mean to be so sensitive on the subject, it’s just that I have a relative who homeschools, and several friends who either have been or are homeschooling, and only one of which is for religious reasons (and she’s a former teacher). I don’t really plan on it myself, but if my kid reaches school age and things aren’t looking up around here educationally and we can’t afford private school where we can be sure she’s receiving a strong, well rounded education, I may end up doing it. Alternatively, we may move to NY by then, to my husband’s hometown, where it’s one of the few schools left in the country that still has K-12 in one school, with consistency that isn’t seen in jumping from elementary to middel to highschool, and with a very strong academic record…I’d feel fine about it then. And I do believe you should teach your kids too, whatever you feel the school’s lacking in…I make sure we go to reenactments, musicals, plays, I’ve gotten the girls interested in BBC productions of the classics, and talk to them about underlying themes…and they actually enjoy it…they took the BBC production of Great Expectations into their room the other night to watch after we went to bed, a proud moment for me, lol. But if the education system is really bad, sometimes that just isn’t enough, and some parents have to do more, and instill a full education in their kids. And now they have online programs for schooling too, and a network of teachers to tutor and answer questions for homeschoolers, so it’s improving continually. 

He was probably resentfull of her getting to sit at the grownup table now she married his dad, while he still sat at the dumb old kid table…

ahh repent!

What about a crack addicted Snowleopard that projects black holes?

On the upside watch out for Mack’s wolf..it chewed up Pikemans Boots in Lithuania

Let’s not go that far.
If he had only killed his father, you MIGHT be able to say that (assuming various rumors are true).  But shooting the step mother totally fucks up the “victim of abuse” defense.  Again, assuming rumors are true, he probably hadn’t started in abusing his wife at that time.

I have been in education for ~10 years now. The methods we use today are often inferior to those of yesteryear. Some of the most successful schools in the world use the same methodology we used in the 50′s and 60′s. Education in the US is in the business of coming up with the newest “thing”. These news things often create buzz and spin. The buzz/spin is useful to the career ladder of adminstrators and legislators who seek to capitalize on a public that wants an improved school system. Education and learning are most effective with the simple and time tested strategies. Think of it as an equation with fundamentals such as: learner in ready state + prepared teacher + proven strategies + effort = quality learning. Our US culture is obsessed with the next big thing or magic pill that will make it all better. The true answer always lies in practicing the fundamentals to the best of our ability.

Teen charged with parents’ deaths too dangerous for release, judge says
Sept 30 2011

PINEVILLE, NC (WBTV) – The teenage boy arrested for killing his father and stepmother appeared in court on Thursday.Police in Charlotte say the teen called 911 early Monday morning and reportedly confessed to shootings.Matt Liewald, identified Monday afternoon by neighbors, appeared during his detention hearing in a Mecklenburg County courtroom Thursday afternoon.Prosecutors said Liewald waited for his father and stepmother to come home and then ambushed them. Liewald’s lawyer, Valerie Pearce, asked the judge that he be released to his paternal grandparents.Pearce told the court her client was forced to stay in his room and not allowed to leave, and was manipulated by his father.She also said he witnessed his father shoot his neighbor and was traumatized by it.According to the judge, Liewald demonstrated that he was a danger to others and would remain in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center at least until his next hearing on October 6.Officers were called to the couple’s home on the 12300 block of Buxton Drive, just south of Pineville, around 2:05 a.m. on Monday.Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say they found the bodies of Christian Hans Liewald, 43, and Cassie Meghan Buckaloo, 24 after receiving two 911 calls from a 15-year-old boy.Police say they were first called out to Buxton Drive after the teenager called and said he needed help, but refused to say why. Police said the teen called again and said he shot his dad and stepmom.The teenager, identified Monday afternoon by neighbors as Matt Liewald, told police in the second call that he would be “sitting on a nearby street corner waiting for officers to arrive.”Officers say found the teen about three-quarters of a mile from the shooting scene and took him to police headquarters.In accordance to North Carolina State law, the teenage suspect’s name is not being released by police due to the fact that he is a juvenile. WBTV has chosen to identify him after talking to various neighbors.Neighbors say the teen was homeschooled by his father after leaving school because he was getting into fights. Neighbors say Matt rarely came out of the house and the family kept to themselves.They say Leiwald was known to be strict with his son and had been seen walking down the street with a gun a few years ago. In fact, we searched our archives and found the elder Liewald has been in trouble with police before. In 2007 he was charged with shooting one of his neighbors, Greg Hicks, in the chest after the two got into an argument. Police later dropped the charges against Chris Liewald after they determined he shot Hicks in self-dense. Still, what Hicks told WBTV at the time was strangely prophetic: “They better do something,” Hick warned. ”Because the next one’s gonna be a dead man.”[..] lots more at linkhttp://pineville-ballantyne.wbtv.com/news/crime/67422-teen-charged-parents-deaths-too-dangerous-release-judge-says

“Many important lessons are learned by being thrown into a thriving sea of idiots, friends, bullies, and crazies.”

No truer words written in this thread.

Of course there are homeschooled kids who “graduate” and are barely literate. But you can also say that about a large number of kids who graduate from public schools. Not all homeschoolers are products of Bible-thumping ignorant/under-educated parents. That’s just a stereotype.

We homeschooled our son from mid-6th grade through 12th grade because his alternative at the time, the public school, was atrocious (the kind of classes where the teacher plays a video for the hour rather than instruct). He was a smart kid who was bored and not performing well because of that. He’s now a 4.0 student at a university, enrolled in the Honors program, and going into graduate school next Fall to get into a PhD program. He’s not a wild ‘n crazy party guy, but he’s not a psycho anti-social nerd, either. He’s an academically-serious guy with a great sense of humor and a good number of friends.

And btw, homeschooled kids aren’t all locked in the back meth lab trailer… some, like our son, had a lot of social interaction. He was advantaged in that he interacted with a large number of adults (he did his schoolwork, and hung out, at our place of business) and that enabled him to more successfully and more comfortably relate to professors and other adults when he first hit college.

Homeschooling isn’t the heartwarming ittsy-cute experience that some parents and sites try to portray it as (always an image of smiling small child and a beaming mother) — there were a lot of evenings when I wanted to hurl my son through the window because he was being a total asshole who wouldn’t cooperate — so it’s not for everyone, for sure. Spending that much time with your teenage son is a real test of love, I’m tellin’ ya.

So, yeah, there are some homeschooling success stories out there. And it really isn’t necessary for your kid to be bullied in a 10th grade gym class in order to develop fully as an adult… life “lessons” don’t have to be learned that way.

Thers “parents” look and seemed like gross pigs. That wedding photo is disgusting. Hopefully the kid will be aquitted. He did a public service.

Matt was my friend in middle school untill his father pulled him out of the school. I can’t begin to believe he did such a thing. But I understand. I met his father and so did my mom, my mom was kind of scared of his father when she met him. I miss matt, it’s sad that I feel like I could have stopped this. A few months before this happened he messaged me on facebook asking if I moved back to north carolina, which I did… I never replied…

I’m a little late posting this, but I’m sure there’s nothing you could have done. If you had replied, it may have just brought you in closer to the situation and made you feel even worse yet.

Have you heard where Matt is now, or what’s happening with the case?