I had seen the Sierra Halseth case before, but I watched the American Monster version of it yesterday on a break from doing work. This video is not that version, but a similarly good version from Truly Criminal:
The short form of this case is that Daniel Halseth married pretty young. They popped out three kids in about four years. Sierra was the youngest. The couple, and the three kids, moved to Nevada (from Oregon) for his work. They were there a few years and the mom got involved in politics, then became a State Senator. This was a precipitating factor in the parents getting divorced. The dad, Daniel, even did a little jail time for harassing the mom. Eventually the mom took the kids and fled to Alaska, with a new dude, so Daniel moved to Texas and focused on his career.
Right around COVID, the kids and the mom were back in Nevada, and Daniel had to go out there for work and started reconnecting with the kids to the point that he was living in his client’s rental house by now. Sierra, the youngest, probably manipulated him and created an intense custody battle between her parents as she primarily lived with him. She was dating a dude named Aaron, who was 2–3 years older than her and apparently did LSD, and for various reasons that still don’t make sense, they killed Daniel and fled to Salt Lake City, where they were eventually caught on a tram.
The case is probably most famous because the killers made this video showing no remorse and discussing how much sex they were having post-murder:
I believe they both got life in prison with the chance for parole at 22 years, or something like that. If you’re into gory shit, they tried to cut up Daniel, and when that failed and her grandma was onto them and saying she was going to send cops to the house, they tried to burn his body in the garage. Sad end.
I’ve written about another daughter-kills-dad-with-help case, too.
That case (Ellie Friar) is perhaps most noted for some of the craziest interrogation video you’ll come across:
All this said:
Why would someone kill a parent?
The biggest buckets people turn to on this question are:
“They must be psychopaths.”
Abuse
Relationship is cruel and abusive in some way
Schizophrenia
Hostile, dependent, or tyrannical relationships
Parent stands in the way of something, often a romance
Drugs involved
Money
Those are the most logical reasons. If you look at some research on those who kill their parents, i.e. this — those are the big things that will pop, with “abuse” being the most common among younger offenders and “money” being the most common among older offenders. It should be noted that a lot of times, younger offenders will claim abuse in an interrogation or as something moves through the court system, but records of abuse won’t be found. Ellie Friar claimed her dad laid down next to her and masturbated, although that was never proven. Sierra Halseth has claimed abuse and that her dad forced her to drink underage, but that has also never been proven.
It’s interesting how “control” plays so deeply into this on both sides. Parents who kill children usually do it to control the other parent, or to “have the final say.” Children who kill parents usually want control of a relationship or a money spigot. In both directions, the core concept is about control, with various 1A/secondary concepts floating around that, including abuse, drugs, and true mental illness.
The Eric Koula case in LaCrosse, Wisconsin doesn’t get that much attention — it’s been on 48 Hours and a few other shows — but this is an interesting one:
In the Koula case, where this man Eric was eventually sentenced to life in prison for killing his parents, his dad legitimately seems to be his best friend throughout life. In the 48 Hours episode, Eric Koula cries about 12 times talking about his dad. You look at the dude and say: “There is no way he killed his parents.” He’s one of those guys who probably had his dad as the best man at his wedding. (I actually believe he did.) But then you learn that he had money problems as a “day trader,” his dad had cut off the money spigot, and things were getting desperate. I think we sometimes forget humans are animals. We can become trapped rats. If you read Heart of Darkness in high school, maybe you’ve asked yourself: “Is anyone capable of this?” Sadly, I think the answer is yes.
But 99.7% of people never do it. So what’s different has to be the bullets above: some external factor that’s impacting control, plus abuse, mental health, drugs, etc.
Ernie Scherer is another one who seemed to love his dad:
But it became a money issue, and I believe Scherer also tried to claim abuse later in the legal process. That might have been a cover.
In the grand scheme of “unimaginable stuff that can happen in life,” I’d say “losing a child” is №1, or maybe 1A to “causing the loss of that child.” Killing the people who brought you into the world has to be up there, though. But people do it, and have been doing it seemingly forever. It’s also probably your most intense and volatile relationship, give or take, so we can all see how the bedrock can not always be solid.
What’s your take on why this could ever happen?