Several gunshots and his mother’s heartbreaking screams abruptly woke up Robin, barely ten years old, who was sleeping in his room. The little girl got up and crouched by the door to see what was happening. Then, a young man armed with a rifle went to her bedroom. Robin went back to bed and covered her head with blankets; The shooter pulled the trigger and the girl grunted and fell to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, the murderer entered the last room, murdering the older brother. Hours later, the little girl, who had faked her death, called the emergency room to ask for help. As luck would have it, the shot went wide and hit a pillow. Thanks to that call, the authorities discovered that a dangerous itinerant murderer was on the loose. His name was Levi King.
Born on September 4, 1982 in Arkansas, our protagonist lived in a large family whose parents divorced when he was only five years old. That would mark his destiny and his personality forever, because Levi’s father, Scott, took him by the hand to hell itself. Not only for keeping his home in the most absolute dirt and unsanitary conditions, but for introducing him to the consumption of alcohol and narcotics from a very young age.
At twelve years old, Levi was already an alcoholic, at thirteen he was using pills and methamphetamines, and at fifteen he became hooked on marijuana and heroin. A time in which he already demonstrated somewhat disturbing behavior. Like, for example, setting fire to her sister’s room because he was angry with her.
Added to this was his fascination with weapons, also inherited from his father. They were both obsessed with them and had all kinds of guns, swords, knives and axes at home. With this history on the table, Levi decided to abandon his studies, although at the age of seventeen he had to be committed to a mental institution due to his psychotic breaks.
From there, things only got worse: one of his brothers died when his father’s gun accidentally went off and, at the age of twenty, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That same year, Levi was convicted of arson and robbery after breaking into a neighbor’s house and setting it on fire. For this he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
After being released on parole seventeen months later, he was sent to live in a rehabilitation center, from which he escaped on September 23, 2005, but no one reported him. Here Levi decided to ask for help from his mother, with whom he spent five days, but she ended up taking him back to his father in Pineville (Missouri). Coexistence with him was impossible for her. He was 23 years old. However, things did not get better with Scott.
The two got into a heated argument and, on September 29, the father took his son to the bus stop promising that he had to return to the rehabilitation center. It was seven in the morning. He never fulfilled it.
Instead, he waited for Scott to take his little brothers to school, entered their father’s room and took several weapons. Among them, a 9mm rifle with a telescopic sight and an AK-47 assault rifle, and plenty of ammunition.
Without an established plan, although armed to the teeth and ready for anything, Levi undertook a cruel and inexplicable massacre that would last twenty-four hours. The young man walked towards the forest and observed the house of some neighbors in the distance, who were leaving at that moment. They were Orlie McCool, 70, and his daughter-in-law Dawn, 47. They went out to do the shopping.
The boy decided to break into the home to steal, but a few minutes later he heard them returning and hid in a closet. As soon as the old man approached, he shot him in the temple and, immediately afterwards, did the same with the woman. When he verified that they were dead, he took the keys to Orlie’s truck and fled.
For more than thirteen hours, Levi drove aimlessly from Anderson to the small town of Pampa on the Texas peninsula. There he saw a farm at the end of a rural road and decided to continue the slaughter. It was the Conrad family home. After forcing the back door, the young man went to the main room. There he shot the couple up to eight times.
He then walked down the hallway and did the same in the bedrooms of the children, Robin and Zach, whom he shot several times. Once the massacre was over, Levi opened the refrigerator, grabbed something to eat and fled in Orlie’s truck. His new destination: El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Meanwhile, Robin, the Conrads’ youngest daughter, remained lying on the floor until seven in the morning. She was alive. The bullet had actually hit her pillow, but she played dead, managing to fool the shooter. With dawn emerging on the horizon, the little girl called the emergency services and told what happened.
“I’m afraid . . . I hope my mom is not dead. I want my mommy. I love my mom,” Robin said at the end of that shocking 911 call. A few minutes later, several police patrols arrived at the farm and observed the terrifying carnage. They sealed off the house and collected all possible evidence, including fifteen bullet casings.
On the other hand, hundreds of kilometers away, another family mourned the death of two other people: they had been riddled with bullets. But, at that time, the authorities had not yet linked these massacres as they were different states. Thanks to a neighbor of Orlie McCool, who testified having seen a young man very similar to a local resident, Scott King, they were able to discover that he was the shooter’s father.
The Sheriff’s Office found that Scott was missing guns and ammunition from his home and that his son was also missing. White and bottled. Furthermore, when checking the boy’s background they realized his violent history. Then, they issued a search and arrest warrant against him.
What authorities could not imagine is that, on September 30, less than 36 hours after beginning the investigation, Levi would try to return to the United States. The reason is unknown. The young man, driving Orlie’s car, tried to cross the border crossing when the police stopped him: Levi was visibly nervous and uneasy.
After searching the car and discovering several weapons, they found out the following: the car was registered to someone else and his fingerprints had jumped into the system. He was a fugitive.
On October 6, Levi testified before McDonald County, Missouri, Sheriff’s detectives to answer for the deaths of Orlie and Dawn. The young man told them what happened and was sent to prison. But he didn’t mention the Texas massacre. Fifteen days later, Levi finally confessed to these latest deaths after telling a cellmate.
On April 18, 2008, Pulaski County Court began the trial of Levi King for the murders of Orlie and Dawn. When the defendant took the stand he pleaded guilty and said: “I’m not going to blame anything, I did it, I’m guilty, I’m responsible.” He was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Eight months later, the killer faced a new trial. This time for the deaths of the Conrad family. During the hearing held in the Lubbock County Courthouse, Texas, the testimony of the only survivor, little Robin, warmed the hearts of those present.
The girl explained in detail the events and how she escaped death, but she also gave a life lesson by forgiving the murderer of her parents and her brother that day. The murderer was unable to look at the teenager and remained with his head bowed the entire time.
“I don’t know why I said what I said. Maybe I just wanted him to know that I wasn’t going to let him ruin my life, that he wasn’t going to let him take the best of me away,” Robin assured years later. “I wanted him to know that my life would still be good, no matter what horrible things he had done to me and my family,” he explained.
On October 6, 2009, Levi King received three life sentences without the possibility of parole. A dissenting vote of the jury prevented him from being sentenced to capital punishment. After the conviction, Robin rebuilt his life as best he could, although he still has to deal with nightmares, with his mother’s screams, with fear… And with guilt falling like a stone on his back: “Should I have gone to wake up “Zach?”
