Hours before she killed her two sons, her ex-husband and her stepmother and tried to frame it on one of the slain children, Susan Hendricks gathered her family together to pray. She said she was worried about her older son, Matthew, because he seemed so down after several people forgot his birthday the day before.
"I know it sounds pretty fricking bizarre, but we pray a lot as a family," Hendricks told investigators in a room at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, just hours after authorities discovered the bodies.
They all got on their knees and held hands, Hendricks said. Less than 12 hours later, she said, she found Matthew, 23, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. When paramedics who rushed to the home found the bodies of her other family members, Hendricks claimed Matthew had first killed them before turning the gun on himself.
In April, Hendricks pleaded guilty but mentally ill to all four of the Oct. 14, 2011, slayings and will spend the rest of her life in prison with no possibility of parole.
The audio of her three-hour interview with investigators, as well as 324 pages of documents and more than 600 crime scene photos, were released for the first time in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press.
The documents include details on Hendricks' suicide attempt behind bars nine months after her arrest, as well as the fact that her younger son, 20-year-old Marshall, had just moved back home two days before the shootings. They also revealed that Hendricks had papers from insurance policies and wills spread throughout her motel room at the time she was taken into custody.
Hendricks' acquaintances, whose statements are contained in the documents, said she kept large insurance policies on all the victims, fired gunshots at her sons' feet when she was angry, and would often remind people that she shot and killed a man who broke into her home in 2006. She claimed self-defense and was never charged in that killing.
The ballistics and other crime scene reports contained in the documents detail a quick, brutal ambush. Matthew and Hendricks' 64-year-old stepmother, Linda Burns, were killed in the Liberty home they shared with Hendricks, while Marshall and Hendricks' 52-year-old ex-husband and the father of her sons, Mark Hendricks, were killed in their own home next door.
Blood stains and three cartridge cases show Hendricks cornered Marshall in a hallway between his bedroom and a bathroom. He eventually got around her but she managed to fire one more shot that took him down. He died on the front porch, where he was covered with a sheet. Mark Hendricks was killed lying on the couch.
A report from the crime scene said Burns' body was covered up in her bed as if she were sleeping. Five cartridge cases were found in and around a closet in her room. Matthew Hendricks was found in his bed with one gunshot wound to his head. His body had also been covered up.
Hendricks' sister Evelyn Burns told police it was she who dialed 911 after Hendricks called her and casually remarked during what started as a routine chat that her son had shot himself.
In her interview at the sheriff's office, when she still was claiming Matthew committed suicide, Hendricks explained why she didn't call authorities immediately.
Punishment: Hendricks pleaded guilty but mentally ill to four counts of murder and accepted a life sentence in a plea bargain
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