In the bever home in twenty fifteen. Everything seemed normal, the day was coming to an end, and everyone was getting ready for bed. Then suddenly, the quiet family home quickly turned into something straight out of a nightmare when one of the kids let out a blood curdling scream and made their way down the stairs of the home with blood pouring from their slashed throat behind her. She was quickly followed by her two older brothers, who had
just begun their vicious attack on the whole family. This is the Broken Arrow Killings.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast.
The following and material intended at your audience.
Listen, good morning, And I say good morning because we're actually recording this in the morning right now.
So you got coffee and hot chocolate.
Yeah, Nicole's not a coffee drinker.
So I'm not.
I'm very odd she rocks the hot chocolate while I got the coffee.
Yeah, I know, but I don't feel like hot chocolate wakes me up quite as much as a coffee.
Definitely not. Coffee's got the caffeine that kick, But I mean, even still, it doesn't wake me up a whole lot. It's more of well, I've said it on the show before, I don't drink coffee for the caffeine. I drink it for like the warm hug. That yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Something that's actually really cool about like like rituals is that if you sign up for a Patreon at the end of the month, every last day, you get an exclusive episode. And we have some patrons to thank who have signed up for Patreon. They get that episode and all the extra behind the scenes they sure do, so thank you too, Hannah Campbell, Bitter Unicorn, Cassie Wibblin, and Carolina Loanzo. Thank you so much for signing up and supporting the show.
We super freaking appreciate it.
Okay, do you like my transitions. I've been doing my second.
Now I've been on them. I was chuckling behind the scenes there because I was like, here we go again.
I've been trying to do these good like segues into the patreons.
You're doing good.
Okay, thank you, I appreciate it. I've been putting a lot of effort into it.
No, you're doing real good. But now there's this expectation, like you set the bar high here.
Maybe next episode, I will not have a segue if they're like, do as rough e a transition as I can. Just like we're talking about Teddy Bears and Unicorn and being like sign up for a Patreon. There's something just so drastic. Just throw one for a loop is what I should probably.
Do, maybe because it might be something that's hard to maintain, right, it might be Well.
I just realized we've got to play our little background screen here.
There we go.
Yeah, so that's for the video. Just so everyone's aware, we do have a video form of this podcast. You can head over to one of our YouTube channels, which is linked down below. We just recently started putting out the video content of it, so you can't go back in our whole library. But we do have about ten episodes put out. Yeah, you can go watch from here forward all the episodes we release in video form.
Yeah, that's awesome. So, yeah, I'm quite nervous for this case. Now.
It's it's a doozy.
I didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into.
No, No, it's a doozy one. That was quite the intro. I decided to give away a little bit of some of the brutality that immediately occurs in that intro, particularly because this is a very brutal case, so you ready for it, I think? So, okay, Well, this is called the Broken Arrow killings, the Broken Arrow massacre. Usually Broken Arrow Killings is what it's referred to, but of course there's other variations. So Broken Arrow is actually the town in which it took place.
Okay.
So it was a quiet Wednesday night on July twenty second, twenty fifteen, and Broken Arrow, the Bever family household, usually filled with commotion as the family was made up of nine individuals, two parents and seven children, was quieting down for the evening. Now in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the family's home is located in a suburban neighborhood. It seemed peaceful on the outside, but shortly after, sorry, shortly before nine thirty pm, everything would change. Thirteen year old Crystal Bever
was headed upstairs to her brother's bedroom. She was headed up there with a simple request from their mother, some chores. Their mother, April Bever, age forty four, had spent the week planning a birthday celebration for the youngest family member, Autumn, who was soon turning two years old. The house was filled with the usual pre birthday excitement, yet a bit of tension lingered, something that was going unnoticed. Cristel entered
her brother's bedroom. There, she found her brother eighteen year old Robert and seventeen year old Michael, who had shared a bedroom. They were dawning and assembling body armor on themselves. Now, this peculiar scene was not entirely new to her. It was something that they were recently diving into. The once quiet and introverted teens had developed this unsettling fascination with firearms, knives, body armors, and also serial killers in the recent months.
Cristal had mentioned this to her her parents before, a little bit concerned about it, thinking like it's kind of odd, a little bit creepy. But the parents, April and David Bever, their fifty two year old father, dismissed it. You know, it's just kind of like it's just a new interest. They're just exploring things. You know, boys get into liking knives or playing Call of Duty on Xbox and guns and all this sort of stuff. It's just kind of
typical teenage behavior, is what they figured it was. So Crystal walks into the room and sees this familiar sight of them wearing armor, having knives spread out on the on the bed, and she talks to her brothers and say, Mom wants you to finish the dishes before you go to bed. Suddenly, one brother turns to the other and poses a bit of a question, something a little bit cryptic.
He says, should we do it now? Unaware of the impending horror behind that question, Crystal responded casually, well, I'm here, now, what do you want? Michael Bever signaled christ Crystal to check something on his computer screen. As she turned towards the illumination monitor, Robert, the other brother, quietly approached from behind, took a knife, wrapped it around her, and slashed her
throat with a knife in one swift motion. The brother's only exposure to sudden such violence had come from TV shows, and they imagine this would be a quick and silent kill, similar to action movies, you know, when someone's walking through halls, taking out people quickly and quietly to make their way into somewhere they're trying to navigate. However, the reality is vastly different. Crystal didn't immediately die and fall to the floor silently like they expected, She let out a blood
curdling scream and staggered backwards, blood gushing from her neck. Determined, Robert continued his attack, stabbing her multiple times in the chest, arms and shoulder, and stomach, trying to kill her. Crystal thought about running to her room, thought about trying to grab her phone, but decided instead to make her way downstairs and head for the door to go outside, hoping to find a neighbor and call for help that way.
She made her way outside and collapsed in the front yard, her throat deeply slashed, lungs filling with her own blood, and an organ even protruding from her stomach wound. Hearing the horrific noise, the mother, April, rushed upstairs and as Crystal was descending, April encountered Robert, who now launched an attack on his mother, inflicting at least forty eight knife wounds upon her. An investigator later remarked it was quote more wounds than I had ever seen in anybody ever.
Holy shit, you're really just starting us off here.
Yeah, I told you we are diving straight into this.
Wow. My eyes are just like bulging out of my face.
Your reactions so far or something else.
Yeah, holy shit.
So Robert now had returned to Crystal, who was still alive at this point and bleeding in the front yard. He kneeled beside her and he began to strangle her until he heard a final gurgle as blood filled her throat and lungs, and Crystal went limp. Robert dragged her back into the house. The brothers together moved on. The house had turned into a scene of absolute chaos, reminiscent of a horror movie, something right out of Hollywood's worst
production ever. The attacker's younger siblings, seven year old Christopher and five year old Victoria, were petrified. They were unaware of what was going on. All they knew was screams were happening. It was panic, and these two kids didn't know what to do. The only thing they could think to do was hide, So together they locked themselves in the bathroom, hysterical and seeking some sort of safety and sancty.
Well, they're in their safe place right now, like they're in their hon yep.
Holy now. The brothers together quickly found their younger siblings hiding in the bathroom, and one of them knocked on the door. Michael pretended to be panicked, and he whispered through the door, let me in, he's gonna kill me and wanting to help, their brother, Christopher opened the door.
Oh no, yes, okay, this is just getting worse and worse. Holy shit.
Yeah. So, now the two brothers, Michael and Robert had access into the bathroom that was previously locked where Victoria and Christopher were hiding. As they opened the door, the two brothers entered, and it was too late. The brothers swiftly continued their attack upon their younger siblings. Christopher was stabbed six times and Victoria was stabbed eighteen times in the neck, chest, back, in upper arms. Now, during this assault, their father, David, at some point tried to intervene, and
he lunged towards his two sons. His efforts, though, were unfortunately in vain. The boys were armed and he was not. He was stabbed twenty eight times and suffered blunt force injuries all over his body. Meanwhile, in the house, while everyone's screaming, dying, crying, you name it, twelve year old Daniel managed to lock himself in a room and dialed nine.
Nine one broken air nine one one, Hello, Hello, Hi, where are you at?
Broke it out.
Oklaholm some four one one whatever, rest doesn't know.
I'm okay, are you the only one there?
No, my dais attacking the family.
Your dad is attacking your family. No, my dude, Okay, who's attacking your family? Who's attacking your family?
Who is it?
They?
Are you there?
Little Hi?
What's going on there? What's going on there?
Hello?
Hello?
Oh?
Wow? Wow wow wow.
Just like the two brothers had done before to their other siblings, Christopher and Victoria, Michael managed to convince his younger brother to open the door while he was on the phone with nine one one. The brothers came in, took the cell phone from him. As you heard him on the phone, he said hello, hello, and then he smashed the cell phone on the floor, and they proceeded to stab their brother nine times in the back, shoulder,
and chest. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, this initiated an immediate response, with the operator dispatching authorities to the home. At this point, though, the boys had one more sibling in the house and they needed to target
this person. Of course, they wanted to wipe out the whole family, but little did they know that the authorities were on their way, so they didn't have much time and police would arrive at eleven forty five pm, some fifteen minutes after the nine to one to one call was placed. The older brothers were just about to begin their final kill for the evening. They were headed to the room of their two year old sister, Autumn, and the plan was to decapitate Autumn.
Holy shit.
Thankfully, the police began banging on the front door of the home and it came just in time, and it scared the two boys and they bolted out the back door of the home. Detective Brett Burton of the Broken Arrow Police Department responded to the call, and as he walked up the front steps of the home, he could see blood trailing into the home where Crystal had laid
once and they had been drug back inside. As he and the other responding officers approached the front door of the home, they could hear a faint voice coming from inside, one that said, help me.
Oh my gosh, Ben, what the hell are you doing to us right now?
I'm just telling the story. It's a fucking horrible story, but that's all I'm doing.
Yeah, this is unbelievable. This is unbelievable.
It is so. And this is when they began banging on the door. The two brothers bolted. They couldn't get the door open. No one would respond, so the authorities, the officers that were responding, they forced their way into the home. And once they forced their entry, there laid thirteen year old Crystal, the one who was first attacked and had her neck slashed.
Is she alive?
She was alive?
Holy shit, I was thinking that the two years or it was the two year old Autumn.
Nope, Crystal was still alive. Her brother who knelt down and began strangling her, she went limp and played dead. Oh my word, so he let up and she was not strangled. He drug her back inside and there she was clinging to life, literally next slashed Americans hanging from her abdomen, and she was still alive, asking and crying for help.
I'm shook. I would I out of anyone, I would not have thought that she would have, I know, like, still been alive.
She was able to tell the officers that her brothers were the ones who were attacking the family and that they were in the house. So the officers got her to safety, got her medical attention, and they continued sweeping the house, bringing out some of the family members in the process in hopes that they would still be alive and still be able to be saved, and leaving others because it was clear they were deceased. Upstairs, they found two year old Autumn sleeping and unharmed.
Okay, just like such a little angel, just like so young and not like really having no idea what's going on and just sleeping, which is good, it.
Is, it is. I can't imagine the trauma would have put on on on her if she was aware of what was going on. Yeah, So Autumn and her older sister Crystal would be the only two members of the Bever family that would survive the attack from the brothers.
Wow, Crystal actually survived.
Hey, she would survive.
Yes, I just have to say too that like nine one one operator had no idea, like to the extent of what was going on really through that call.
Hey, I know you can hear the desperation in that operator though. Oh you hear how fast and how vivorous she's Oh she was honest, Yeah, typing like crazy, so good on that operator.
She knew something was going down, but like, man, the extent of what it was is was is mind blowing?
Yeah, And I kind of imagine the pit in that person's stomach when they would have heard another voice go hello and then the disconnected And then.
Also I'm I just have to say one more thing. I'm shocked that that. I'm almost shocked that this carried on because it seeming like these boys don't really have any experience and like the Crystal and Crystal like to the extent of, you know, not dying instantly. I'm almost surprised that they they were this vicious and this like I don't know the words, but to carry on, like to carry on through the whole thing like this is.
I'm not sure what you mean to carry on.
Well that they didn't they weren't them killing their sister like that, They just had so much brutality in them to like carry on after the initial shock of seeing how it affected Crystal and like, okay, so like her like getting away and the blood coming out and everything, Like, I'm shocked that they were able to just keep going go on to.
The next family member. Yeah.
No, I almost would think after listening to that, I'm like, okay, they're going to stop at this, Like this is shocking enough. Almost.
Well, we'll get into some of that here soon, a little bit. Actually, some of it in particular here is coming up almost immediately on their reaction, if you will, so we'll touch on that. So the officers went through the home, and the house is now cleared, and the police knew that the boys escaped out of the back of the home rather obviously, and on the back of the home there was some wooded property and that's where they would be. So it now turned into a manhunt.
But the man hunt would not last very long itself. With a canine unit brought in. The two were quickly located hiding in the bushes not far from the home, and neither really resisted too much when they were found. Now, the photos of the two boys that were taken as they were arrested for evidence purposes that night show the boys wearing their body armor underneath their t shirts, one with his shirt tore up from the canine attack. But both of them were covered in mud and covered in
blood of their family members. But the worst part of it all was their demeanor. A quote from an officer officer, I sorry, Corporal Leon Colin goes quote, they weren't upset. They weren't distropped. It's almost like they had a sense of cawkiness. It looked to me like one of the boys had a smirk on his face and very much.
So you look at the photos, one of them, like neither of them were were crying or upset, but one of them is just kind of like stone cold, and the other boy is one hundred percent smiling.
Seriously. Yeah, holy shit. They must just have some sort of like just huge hatred towards their family or something that they've just like developed this wall or something.
You're not going to like the answer to that. But before we dive too much into that or any sort of aftermath, we're going to rewind a bit and we're gonna talk about the events that led up to it all, which might give you some ideas somewhere that might head. Okay, So, in the years before that fateful night, the Bever family led a secluded and quiet life in the Indian Springs neighborhood south of Broken Arrow. So they're not quite in Broken Arrow, just you know, on the outskirts by the
sounds of it. Now known for its serene residential vibe, if you will, it's well kept Parks middle class demographic. Broken Arrow is the largest suburb of Tulsa and the fourth largest city in the state. Despite having one of the larger homes in the area and a household bustling with seven children, the Bevers maintained minimal contact with those in their community. They kept to themselves, The children were rarely seen playing outside the parents. They kept to themselves,
and little was really known about the famili's everyday activities. Now, this deliberate isolation was by design of the parents. April homeschooled their children and did not engage with local homeschooling groups like many others did you know, maybe feeding off each other educational wise or layout wise on how they're going to go about things, or structure whatever it was. April kind of headed it on her own. Now. April, however, was an active Reddit user, where she frequently discussed topics
related to homeschooling. There you know, upbringing children and even premature births as well. The youngest child, Autumn, was born prematurely, which prompted April to establish a nonprofit organization called Autumn Hope, Inc. And this was done to establish Families with sorry to assist families with premature babies, which freaking love that.
That's awesome.
Now. David worked as a technology consultant, and he and April encouraged their kids, particularly their two eldest Robert and Michael, to pursue their interest in computer technology. Now Robert and micro Michael were especially drawn to this, spending extensive amount of time online watching YouTube videos, which led them to
creating their own YouTube videos. Even being online, the boys began to dive into some more taboo topics, some things that were otherwise not really talked about in the home, and things that the boys were somewhat shielded from as well, which led to them developing a fascination with some more violent type content. April and David were both devoutly religious individuals, and they wanted to protect their children from aspects of
the outside world, you know, evil or harmful people. However, their tendency or sorry, their leniency with technology had unforeseen repercussions. The two brothers became obsessed with this destructive ideology as they watched these horrible things unfold online and you know, things that they really couldn't fully comprehend because of their limited real world experience and being shielded and staying at home teenagers, the two boys developed a particular interest in
school shooters, ones like Columbine, for example. They found these thrilling and began to almost see this as an achievable goal, something they could do.
Wow.
Now, one can only speculate really on how this obsession came to be, and we can say for sure that it was because of being shielded from the or sorry, we can't say for sure that it was because of being shielded from the real world or the violence that they had allegedly endured at home as well, because you see, the boys were not brought up in the perfect home
or atmosphere. Crystal, the surviving sister, later recounted that their father, David, frequently subjected the two brothers to verbal and physical abuse. During trial, Robert quoted his father and mother and told the courtroom quote, they told us the world was full of people who wanted to hurt us. He also claimed their father would threaten them by saying, quote, you any
time I want now. If true, this, Mary very well may have played a key role in Robert's deepening obsession with violence and notorious killers like the Columbine shooters, James Holmes and An obsession with the two thousand and nine movie Rampage. But in the summer of twenty fifteen, Robert Bevertt actually worked at a religious call center called Make a Tech, where he answered calls from individuals seeking prayer
and spiritual guidance. Now, this situation is early reminiscent of Ted Bundy's stint where he worked at a suicide hotline. And perhaps if Robert was aware that tud Bed tud Bendy Ted Bundy there we go worked at a hotline, he may very well have felt some sort of connection in some way. But that's hearsay, I kind of digress. Wow, but his obsession with these killings, he very well might have.
Had that knowledge, Yeah, very much so.
Now with his earnings from this job, Robert began purchasing supplies such as body armor, knives, and even a small crossbow. His sister Crystal noticed the accumulating arsenal in her brother's bedroom brought it up to her parents, but as I mentioned earlier, they just kind of brushed it off basically as boys being boys. Little did anyone know that this would become something much more and what the brothers were really capable of?
Well, who would ever imagine something like this happening.
Yeah. Well, the biggest part of it is they were aspiring to be famous and they were trying to do so on YouTube as well and being unsuccessful. The boys saw how successful these murderers were in becoming famous with these horrible acts that they were committing. They soon began talking about how they too could go kill people, and how they could do it even better and how famous they would become as a result. They spent countless hours studying the actions, outcomes, and everything to do with the
spree killers and school shooters. Robert and Michael decided to that they too were going to find their fame the same way, but they aimed to get an even higher body count than the rest.
Jeez, this is unbelievable.
Yeah it is. These two they just wanted.
To kill and this is just their ticket to fame. Yep, what they're thinking.
Yeah, they wanted to stalk up on weapons and their plan was to drive across America, unloading and killing anyone they pleased. As they did so. Oh yep, with their imaginations leading them through the scenario over and over and over again, they were confident. They were confident that they could easily rack up a body count of over fifty individuals, giving them the fame that they desired.
What a fucking goal to have.
Right, No shit good, It's disgusting, disgusting the that someone goes that way. I could be famous if I just kill enough people, like fuck.
You, no kidding.
Well, they began to stalk up and Robert started orring guns and ammunition online. And allegedly I didn't research this one so much, especially considering it's a bit of a taboo topic. It's kind of hard to really find out for sure unless you really go through application processes, and I'm not about to apply, especially not being a resident of the United States of America. But allegedly Robert was
able to order these things online without a license. Okay, but in late July he received a notification that a large shipment of ammunition would be delivered to their home on July twenty third. He quickly realized their parents would be wondering why exactly he had ordered so much ammunition, which was over one thousand rounds of forty five caliber bullets and two hundred and fifty twelve gaue shotgun shells. And that is when he came up with the plan.
He was going to get rid of his family. So he accept the shipment and get ready for his assault across the country. And so he did, which brings us right up to where we left off, with an absolute massacre occurring inside their home and the boys being arrested in the woods.
You good, I okay, I would not have even ever guessed that, Like, this is just getting more and more and more fucked.
Yeah, it is. The reasoning is absurd. Oh, I got a package coming. My parents are gonna ask questions.
Maybe no, not, let me expect kill the whole family.
Yeah, I'm gonna kill everyone.
Wow. And then they were so they were planning to kill them probably like just keep the bodies in the house and then go on their little adventure.
I'll tell you about that here soon.
Oh thank goodness that one boy was able to phone the police. Hey, like, thank goodness.
Yep. Now, the Bever brothers were arrested and taken to the Broken Arrow City Jail, where they were interviewed in the morning of July twenty third. Now, while the Broken Arrow Police Department released footage of Michael's interrogation, which is available on YouTube to watch, and I have watched it. It is unsettling. Good job in that interrogator because I
can't imagine being him. He did a very good job of playing buddy buddy with him, okay, And you could see on his face that a few times it's like fucking hurting him because the cell phone was allegedly it was Robert's cell phone that was like used in the call and smashed, and so he's describing like how he took the phone and he smashed it, and the interviewers like, oh, well, whose phone was it? And Robert's like, it was mine, and the interviewer's like, oh, well, now you don't have
a phone. He's like having to like joke about it, like oh huh, and you could see like he does like he does not want to be laughing right now, but he's like making light of the situation to try and buddy him up and get more information.
Yeah, he's just trying to like do his job.
The best he can, and he did phenomenal, but you can tell it was killing him on the inside for him. Yeah, yeah, So sorry, that was Michael, sorry, not Robert. There was Michael during the interview and doing that, but Robert, his interview was allegedly sealed by court order and has not been released to public. Allegedly, during his interview, Robert reportedly glorified and boasted about the murders, vivorously revealing his desire for fame and media attention.
Okay, so they're like hiding that for to kind of keep some sort of goodness in humanity.
Yeah, it's like, well, you want fame and you're boasting like this, yet you're not going to get it.
Then yeah, fuck you, we're closing this.
So.
Michael recounted that the planning began two months prior to the actual murder, when Robert discovered that the you know, purchase of guns and ammunition online with or sorry, that he could do that without needing a permit, and their original plan involved killing their family, dismembering the bodies, and storing them in the attic oh. Afterwards, he intended to take the family's GMC yukon on a cross country killing spree towards Washington State, randomly shooting people at gas stations
and restaurants along the way. Michael eventually disclosed that their ultimate goal was to achieve notoriety and quote set a record, although he insisted that these ambitions primarily belonged to Robert. Michael claimed that he hadn't directly killed anyone and only participated under Robert's threat of death.
Do you recall if Robert was is he the older brother? I know that wasn't much aged.
Robert is the older. Robert is eighteen, and Michael is. I saw some reports of him saying seventeen or sixteen, so he's either sixteen or seventeen. So Robert is an adult. Michael is a juvenile, okay, which we talk about later. Now. However, detectives confronted Michael with Robert's statement that he hadn't really participated or sorry that he had participated. So they're like, Robert says he didn't participate, and it's like, oh, but he did, so yeah, and then Michael then sorry, I
keep getting the boys mixed up. Robert's the older, Michael's younger. So they approached Robert. Michael said he didn't really participate, okay, and then Robert is like, well, no, he did, and so they went back to Robert and started to Michael, and Michael admitted to stabbing his mother from behind, and it would later be proven with you know, forensic evidence that he did actively stab others as well as well.
Yes, okay, so he is playing light on what on his involvement.
He is trying to definitely do that. And I mean even still despite his claims of like, you know, I didn't really participate, which was proven wrong, and his claims of you know, being coerced like or whatever it is, is brother's going to hold above him. He the evidence clearly shows premeditation and an active involvement in the murders. Like not only did he participate in the planning part of the killing and stabbing his family members, he didn't
report it, He didn't do anything. He planned ahead with his brother brother, and he took part with his brother.
Yes, one hundred percent. I guess I'm just thinking, like there's a teeny tiny bit maybe of remorse coming out a little bit with him, as opposed to Robert, who is just like, Yeah.
In my opinion, I think the remorse may not so much be remorseful about what he did. It's remorseful of being caught and.
Like the actions he has to face now, I think.
So, okay, I think so. I mean, there are some some interviews later on down the like in a couple of years after, which I did not include in my write up for this because I was like, fuck you, I'm not going to talk about that. But since we're on the topic, I might as well. Where he like, he's talking about how he expects to like just wake up in the morning and go like talk to one of his brothers or sisters, but it's like, oh, yeah,
I killed them. H yeah. He's like, I can't believe, like it actually happened, like we actually went through with that. I feel like I should just be able to go talk with my family, but they're gone, I killed them.
Oh okay. It's almost like he just has he's like compartmentalized.
Or something compartmentalized.
Yet yeah, it in his head.
I think it's it does come down to the fact that their upbringing and being a bit shielded, so it's like they're like, yeah, we can go do this thing. We can kill people, and it's like they're not really understanding the repercussions. They fully knew they were killing someone, but they never thought about, oh, thirty years down the road, they're still gone. Thirty years down the road, I still
killed them. Thirty years down the road, I'm still going to be serving rather than like they're probably like, oh, we're going to be famous. People are going to fucking be talking about us. That's all they were thinking about down the road, not what it actually means to do something so fucking vile.
Okay, that's really interesting, hey, holy so.
On July thirty first, the brothers were formally charged with five counts of first degree murder and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill for attacking Crystal. By the Friday, Crystal was in stable condition, but required multiple surgeries over the following months, and as I already mentioned earlier, she did survive.
It's incredible.
Both brothers pleaded not guilty to the charges. Despite Michael being a minor, he was charged as an adult.
Good okay.
His defense team filed a motion to have him tried as juvenile, but the appeal failed. In October twenty fifteen, a Tulsa County judge ruled that Michael would be tried as an adult officially due to the severity of his crimes, which I can wholeheartedly appreciate and agree makes sense. On June seventeenth, twenty sixteen, the oldest brother, Robert Bever, attempted to hang himself in jail by tying a sheet around his neck and sleeping boat, which is kind of like
this like basket bed sort of situation. I think they do that to avoid like materials or things it could use for other purposes. I don't know, but it's this specific thing for prison anyways, propping this boat up against the toilet and then like hanging himself off it. But he was unsuccessful. By September, Robert's defense strategy shifted from his original not guilty and he accepted a plea deal in order to avoid the death penalty. Being that he
was eighteen, he was up for the death penalty. Okay, so this had an upside to it as well that we are going to like this meant that it spared Crystal from being showing up in court. She would avoid any sort of testifying against her brother in trial, and of course preventing a lot of trauma that would potentially go.
Along, right. Well, yeah, and like she's already facing just immense trauma.
Yeah. So on September seventh, twenty sixteenth, Robert Bever was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional life sentence for the attack on Crystal Okay total six life sentences. Michael, being a minor, was not eligible for the death penalty, so his case proceeded to trial. As he pled not guilty on May ninth, twenty eighteen, Michael Bever was found guilty on all accounts.
On August ninth, Judge Holmes sentenced him to five consecutive life sentences and an additional twenty eight years for assaulting Crystal, so essentially the exact same as his brother.
Wow.
Yeah.
During the trial, Michael expressed his reluctancy to carry out the attack on that day. He stated he only went through with the plan because Robert threatened him and he said, quote, he was going to do it no matter what he said. If I didn't, he would kill me two. Although his exact role in the attack was debated, he was ultimately a willing participant in the murders on that night, As it was revealed the planning had occurred for two months.
It's a long time to bring that up to someone or confess.
Right, Yeah, So he took part for two months in the planning and actually took part that night. There's a lot you can do in two months, and he didn't do any of it, so a lot of people speculate whether he really was, whether it was an actual threat or not. Is that actually there? Did he actually threaten?
You?
Are you making this up? You're trying to cover your tracks. So in July of twenty nineteen, Robert Bever attempted to attack two prison staff members with a shive while behind bars, but was quickly and easily taken down. As a result, he received an additional life sentence in twenty twenty for the assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. So he is now serving seven consecutive life sentences and he's.
Just obviously continuing to thrive in prison. Hey gosh, wow, this, I'm that's shocking so correct. I don't know why. Actually, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be shocking and all that he did that.
Yeah, Currently Robert is serving his sentence at Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington, Oklahoma, while Michael is incarcerated at Lexington Correctional Center. The two were purposely separated and will not be seeing the inside of the same prison ever.
Okay, that's probably a good.
Idea, Hey, yeah, I think so, especially considering their history of banning shit together, you know.
And I mean so yeah, just never. They're never going to see a family member ever again, I feel like I.
Don't think so. I highly doubt that either of their sisters are going to come visit them.
Wow, huh, Yeah, this is this is just mind blowing this case.
Yeah, I know when I when I discovered it, I was like, what the fuck? No, shit, Like, not only are these two shitty for like what they did, every fucking reason and excuse that they have is shittier. Yeah, it's absurd. It blows my mind.
Yeah, I think that one who phoned nine to one one is a hero. I agree because just imagine, like he's he he potentially saved like numerous other people.
Right. Oh yeah, No, they were gonna hopefully get over to fifty and I don't know if I don't know, it's hard to say because they intended on staying in the house a little bit getting their shit together, right, because they had to take a shipment.
Too, wig wait for the arrival of the shipment, yeah.
The ammunition and stuff. Yeah, so okay, say they had to wait for the shipment. Would that shipment be arrived or arriving at the front door would they have cleaned up the blood? Yeah, would someone have noticed something? I'm not saying that, you know, it wouldn't have gone unnoticed, or it would have him just saying like they were
clearly idiots. Obviously they're fucking idiots. Would they have actually managed to get us, get their shit together to get the shipment, get their stuff, pack it into the family vehicle and gone before someone notices.
Yeah, I mean that's really hard to say for sure if they would, but you think, yeah, you think like a neighbor or something or someone would notice something.
Right well, And the thing is, it doesn't sound like there was like like the neighborhood was like house house house house. It sounds like there's like some trees and like lawns and a bit of property. Like I'm assuming like probably each house is at least half an acre property or something like that, which hell, yeah, love that. So like I don't think it's like immediate vicinity of like people maybe even being able to see the front door of your home.
Okay, So.
Now this family murder, the Bever family murder, were of course one of the most grim crimes in the history of Broken Arrow. The Bever home after this all occurred set abandoned for several years, no one was interested in purchasing the property. With its dark past, it became an eyesore or for everyone in the community, was only a reminder of the horrors every time they went past it. Eventually, under mysterious circumstances, the house burned down suddenly, likely of arson.
Probably yeah, and that occurred on March eighteenth, twenty seventeen.
Huh.
The following month, city Councilor Mike Lester raised enough money to purchase the property from the city or sorry for the city, and two years later, on March twenty seventh, two thousand and nine, Broken Arrow opened Reflection Park in memory of the victims and the first responders who reported to the scene where the house once stood.
Oh okay, twenty nineteen.
Yep. Yeah, And so, to quote that city councilor, he said, quote, we can never erase the tragedy that occurred here, but we are making a statement with Reflection Park that we will not allow evil to define who we are and the high standards we hold as a community.
Oh that's really nice. Actually, hey, so props to that city councilor no kidding.
And that is the case of the Broken Arrow killings.
Huh wow, my heart just feels like so heavy right now, like this is this is brutal. I feel like we haven't done this brutal of one in a while. Yeah, like I could just solve right now. It's unbelievable. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
It is. Everything about it is so fucking heavy, everything right down to their reaction of should we do it now? Like at the very beginning, like it's so casual, which I believe it was the younger brother turning to the older brother like should we do it now? And he's like yeah, And then there's they clearly planned like how they're going to do this. They probably planned on calling someone in like hey, check us out in the computer,
because that's what they just went into. They probably fucking rehearsed it, choreographed it or some shit.
Oh. I mean I am thankful that like or Autumn has crystal right so do but still well.
And one of the details about this that is so fucked up is that they plan to decapitate Autumn, the two year old sister, the youngest sister. Why why that's not just killing someone there there's pleasure in that. Yeah, there is a sick, twisted, fucked up kind of pleasure in doing that.
Well, like, because what did the siblings exactly do to them? You know, like you said that the dad, you know, was a little bit abusive, right, Yeah, so it makes sense. But like or I'm also thinking maybe they were super jealous potentially of like autumn or the younger kids. Maybe they felt like the parents gave them more attention or they got more or something.
None of that came up. Huh, none of it came up.
Yeah, because yeah, there's like so much hatred. A lot of them got stabbed like so many times, right, which is.
I don't think it was hatred. I personally don't think it was hatred. I don't think any abuse that they may have had from their father played any part in this. I think if it did, all it did was feed them to be a little bit aggressive. But I don't think any of it played out in hatred. If anything was hatred, it was they probably only did it to their father.
Gosh, well, it's just it's unfathomable to me though that this, Like it's just yeah, I'm trying to like come up with reasons, but there's just there's.
No well, That's why I think it's so fucked up that they're just going to decapitate a two year old's head, because why would there be hatred at a two year old And you're going to do the most grotesque thing to them? What the fuck?
Well, they maybe thought they could like easily more easily, right, because.
They're to me, it's to me, it's a statement of their legacy. They wanted to get so many kills, and they probably pictured what people are going to say when they find their family members in the home.
Yeah.
I think they did it with a specific intention of leaving behind a legacy. We stabbed them so many times. It was so brutal. We'd cut off a two year old's head, and they fucking loved it.
Yeah, Oh my gosh, holy shit.
I think it had everything to do with they were striving.
To Yeah, this I don't know. This case to me is just it's just something I just can't understand.
No, no, yeah, yeah, so that's the case. Hopefully you got through it. Hopefully you're able to stomach this one. It is fucked up. These two are going to be behind barsh the rest of their fucking life, and good riddance, and like you said, hopefully they never do see another family member's face for the rest of their life. Yeah, because they don't deserve it.
No, no, no.
And I hope so much that Autumn Crystal live amazing lives and they're there to support each other.
I know, I really hope that their lives are good.
Yeah.
Oh, that would be my one wish for sure. So wow.
Anyways, thank you for being here. If you want to check out some of our links, links are down below. If you want to give us a rating, we appreciate ratings. You want to sign up for Patreon, that's available. You get some behind the scenes content, you get an extra episode at the end of the month, and we've built up a bit of a library now over there, so you can go ahead and check that out. And yeah, that's all I really got.
Yeah, I'm still okay processing like presenting and just having to listen, right, there's a big difference because you know what's going to be said, ye, and I'm over here just being like, what the fuck just happened?
Yeah, for the most part, I've already processed all that what the fuck because I've been researching for days, right, so I've already gone through it. And you're sitting here gob smacked at this point, just like, yeah, oh very.
Much so this episode. So I feel like sorry if I'm just in the clouds right now. But anyway, that was good. I mean, you did a good job. You did a good job. Sorry, that came out really fucked up.
That was horrific. Yeah and uh that and we will see you next time.
Yeah, So until next time, stay wicked.