And son found shot to death inside their home.
- It appeared to be more
Of an assassination than any sort of robbery.
- It was a whole community that could not believe
What had happened.
- I knew it was an act of terror, violence
Against them personally.
- [narrator] investigators expose a rift
In the close-knit family.
- Everyone that had any knowledge of the family dynamics
Said it was bad.
- You are no son of mine,
I hope this all comes back to haunt you.
Your ex-mother.
- [narrator] leaving the surviving brothers
To blame each other.
- His entire life was a lie.
- It was a problem in the family.
- We had to get him off the streets.
I was worried for anyone that might get in his way.
(bright dramatic music)
(bright upbeat music)
- [narrator] laceyville is a rural town of 400
That sits 30 miles northwest of scranton.
It's a warm August afternoon when a call comes in
From a concerned neighbour of joe and marlene colegrove.
- So amanda davis had become concerned
After she couldn't get in touch with marlene,
So she and her father went to that home and find two victims
And significant amount of blood at the scene as well.
After that call comes in to 911,
Troopers from the pennsylvania state police force
Go to the scene.
(sirens wailing)
- When we were responding to the scene,
I actually realised that it was the colegrove residence.
- Joe colegrove, 60 years old
And marlene colegrove, his wife, 56 years old,
Lived there for quite a few years
With their son michael, who's 36 years old,
And they are known quite well in the community as well.
- Joe colegrove and I were friends
For probably 40, 50 years.
My adrenaline was pumping so bad.
I was just fearful that joe was gone.
(bright upbeat music)
We entered the residence through the first story,
Proceeded up the stairway.
We checked the first bedroom
And we found a deceased young man.
He was shot in the head.
From the injuries,
It was obvious that he was killed by a shotgun.
I knew that it was michael.
- The whole room was just covered in blood.
- We entered an additional bedroom and we discovered joe.
He was still laying in bed
And he was dead from a shotgun blast.
We proceeded across the hallway to an additional bedroom,
We discovered the third victim.
Marlene was laying on the floor.
- It appeared that she had a hand wound
Where some of her fingers were actually blown off
From the shotgun blast and the second blast was to her head.
A shotgun blast had blown a hole in the side of the wall.
- [narrator] police see signs pointing to a triple homicide.
- There were a total of six rounds fired,
Two into each victim.
The second shot was a direct shot to the head
On all three victims.
- The scene was so horrific, it was the worst of my career.
They had a whiteboard on the wall in the kitchen,
It listed all the important phone numbers for them
And my name appeared at the top
With my personal cell phone number.
I was overwhelmed.
I'm sorry.
When it's close friends that are involved in serious crimes,
It's very difficult to deal with,
But you have to distance yourself from the horrors
And you go into an investigative mode.
- [narrator] detectives begin examining the colegrove house
For any clues as to what could have happened here.
- We did discover six 3.5 inch, 12 gauge shotgun casings
Laying on the floor in the bedrooms
Where the victims were located.
3.5 inch, 12 gauge is a unique gun.
- Marlene's purse was on the counter,
It had been opened but nothing was taken.
It didn't appear like anything was rifled through.
- The entry door on the north side of the kitchen
Had glass broken out.
- The glass was laying on the outside of the door.
If someone needed to gain entry,
The glass would've been on the inside of the house.
It appeared like this had to have been staged
To look like a burglary.
- On the exterior of the house,
We discovered cut telephone lines,
Which indicated that the killer
Did not want them to utilise the phone to call for help.
- It indicates it was a planned event.
- It appeared to be more of an assassination
Than any sort of robbery.
It was somebody that had a extreme beef
With the colegrove family.
- The matter in which they were killed was a very violent
And personal matter of death.
- [narrator] as investigators finish processing the scene,
State troopers are sent
To inform the colegrove's surviving children.
- Joe and marlene's middle son was robert.
We were personal friends.
- That night when the troopers went to inform robert
That this had happened,
He had absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
He just stood there in disbelief, shock I guess.
- [narrator] this chilly reception
Is reported back to investigators who take note,
But troopers find they can't immediately reach
The colegrove's third son.
- The youngest son was named steven colegrove,
And information about him was extremely limited at that time
Because he hadn't been back in the area for quite some time.
- [narrator] now, in the hours following the triple murder,
Police set out to speak to the colegrove's neighbours.
- It was a rural area,
So we didn't have much in the way of witnesses.
No one else had seen or heard anything.
We knew we were gonna have our hands full
Trying to figure this one out.
- [narrator] by dawn the next morning,
Word spreads through the small community
About the horrific murders.
- But joe colegrove was a member
Of the goodwill fire company here in laceyville
For, I'm pretty sure, over 40 years.
We were called downstairs of the fire department,
The whole crew, they said something terrible has happened
With the colegrove family.
The family has been murdered.
We were stunned.
I don't think there was a dry eye there.
(soft upbeat music)
- I knew joe and marlene for almost 30 years now.
I was devastated.
It was a whole community
That could not believe what had happened.
(soft upbeat music)
- The colegroves are known quite well in the community.
- Joe colegrove, he also owned his own barbershop
That was located in laceyville.
Everybody knew joe.
Joe and marlene were married for 40 years
And they were like two peas in a pod.
Marlene was more dominant than joe was.
Joe was more laid back.
Marlene was a school bus driver.
She was very outspoken.
- Marlene always took care of the kids on her bus.
She was like a mother hen to them.
- Joe and marlene have three sons;
Michael, robert and steven.
- Michael was the oldest, he was a very good person.
- Michael was living at home with his parents
Because of some unfortunate medical issues
That he was facing.
- He had developed heart disease,
He still tried to be involved with a fire company
Even with his health issues.
- Robbie, the middle one,
He married a girl by the name of heather.
They had two children and marlene adored those kids.
Marlene constantly talked about her grandchildren.
She was very, very proud of them.
Steven was the youngest one.
When steven graduated from school, he went into the military
And he would keep contact with joe and marlene.
- Steven was the golden child of the family.
- A lot of folks in town knew him
As a decorated air force veteran.
- He was successful, a good looking kid.
He had everything going for him.
- We're all in this state of shock.
You never think it could happen to this family.
It just didn't make any sense to us at all.
- [narrator] the autopsies the next morning confirm
That all three victims died as a result of gunshot wounds.
- Time of death for the victims was between midnight
And five in the morning.
- [narrator] as police expand their canvassing
To local businesses,
They find a witness that may have crucial information.
- One of our troopers interviewed a waitress at a restaurant
Quarter mile down the road from the crime scene.
She indicated that she was arriving to work
About 4:30 in the morning
And witnessed a light coloured pickup truck
Speeding off the area.
- They were coming down from the victim's house.
There's hardly any traffic out in this area at 4:30
In the morning, so it stuck with her in her head.
- This is significant because it corresponded
To the proximate time of death.
- We had a hunch that may be the vehicle used
In the commission of the crime.
- [narrator] that day, pennsylvania state police
Sets up a command post at the laceyville fire station.
- People in the town, they're coming up, offering us help.
It seemed to be that people knew
There was some public feuding going on
Between some family members
And was downright hostile at times.
Marlene had told some of these people
That if something bad happens, she knows who's gonna do it.
- After we found out about the family feud,
They were the prime suspects.
- We determined that anything he said,
We really couldn't put much faith in it.
- He was washing his pickup truck.
Why is he washing his truck?
- My instincts then telling me that we got our guy.
State police investigate pea
The brutal murders of joe, marlene and michael colegrove,
Community members informed them
That it may have been the result of a family conflict.
- In the case of a very brutal murder
With no obvious motive,
The first thing investigators would look for
Is who had hostility with marlene and joseph and michael.
- Marlene and robbie, he was the middle child,
Did not get along at that time.
And the thought came into my mind was,
"my goodness, could robbie had done that."
- [narrator] investigators learned that marlene colegrove
Was in a heated dispute with her middle son,
34-year-old robert and his wife heather.
- Robert colegrove worked at a meat packing plant
But they didn't have a lot of money.
- Marlene and joseph had been helping them out financially,
Giving 'em the place to stay, feeding them.
- Robert and heather, they had a mobile home established
On the colegrove property,
And they were living there for quite a while
Based on the financial issues that they were having.
- Marlene was able to see the grandchildren
Almost all the time, and she really adored that.
- But marlene really didn't care for heather.
They were too much same personalities,
They would frequently butt heads.
- She didn't have much control over heather and robert,
And that was something that was getting her upset,
And she certainly let her irritation with heather and robert
Be known by anyone who would listen to her.
- Marlene colegrove was telling her friends
That robert and heather were taking advantage of them
By living on the property, eating their food,
Using their utilities, which they were more than willing
To help out with but hoping that there was gonna be a time
Where they could financially support themselves.
- [narrator] according to marlene's friends
In the community, her frustrations with the couple
Only worsened when in 2005,
Robert and heather decide to adopt another child.
- This really seemed to put marlene over the edge saying,
"how much more of this can we take?
"robert, you can't care for the two you have financially."
Marlene and joseph were thinking that they're just going
To have to take care of yet another mouth to feed.
- There was a lot of family strife,
So robert and heather ended up moving off of the property.
- Robert and heather chose to live
About seven or eight miles away.
- [narrator] but after robert and heather move away
From the family property, the animosity persists
In the two years leading up to the murders.
- Everyone that we interviewed that had any knowledge
Of the family dynamics said it was bad.
Marlene was telling everyone
The family's business about robert.
- [narrator] while it was a widely known secret to some,
Investigators that were close with the family
Are surprised by the revelations.
- I would bump into joe at our local grocery store,
He acted very distant.
He was upset and he wouldn't tell me why.
I inquired, I said,
"joe, you know if something's wrong, tell me."
And he's just like, "brad, I can't."
I knew that they were having issues
But I didn't believe that would've happened.
- [narrator] according to marlene's friends,
Things only escalated further,
And eventually heather had enough.
- Heather got upset with marlene
And she didn't want her to see the grand kids.
- Marlene was telling everyone
That basically robert's being disowned from the family
Because of this.
- [narrator] only a few weeks before the murders,
The colegrove family feud became a public spectacle.
- Marlene went to a ball game
Where the grandsons were playing
And heather told her to get off the property.
- She didn't want her present during the baseball games,
And they basically caused a scene between the two of them.
- It was hostile.
Robert was sticking up for his wife,
Which may have been considered betrayal
To marlene and joseph.
Everyone that was at the game seeing all this
Felt uncomfortable knowing what family they used to be,
How tight they were, and now it's come to almost blows.
- [narrator] in the days following the fight
At the little league game,
Marlene made it known that she was in fear for her life.
- She was actually in fear
That something might happen to her.
Marlene had told one of her friends
That anything ever happens to me or my family,
Robert is the one that did it.
- Marlene had a flare for being very verbal
And dramatic about her issues with other people.
When she told people, if something happens to me,
It'd be robert's fault.
Those words of marlene's would really not be evidence
But it certainly got the attention of the investigators.
- When we heard about the family feud going on,
We start looking at robert and heather.
- We were considering if they could have been the people
Responsible for this homicide.
- [narrator] investigators decide to follow up
With robert and heather at their home and are concerned
By what they find when they arrive.
- Robert, at that time, he was washing his pickup truck.
- It was a light coloured pickup truck.
- Why is he washing his truck?
When people are changing something after a homicide,
It's something that's worth looking at.
- [narrator] robert's cold demeanour when he's approached
Does little to curb their suspicions.
- Robert said, "okay."
He goes, "well, would you like to come in and talk to me?"
Just no emotion, didn't ask about how they were killed.
The only reason you wouldn't ask is you already know
Because you were there.
- [narrator] detectives asked robert his whereabouts
On the night of the murders.
- He advised that he was home with heather,
And then heather also indicated that she was with robert,
So that was not an airtight alibi.
- We asked him, do you have any guns?
And he said, "got a lot of guns."
Robert had shotguns as well as other long rifles.
- Some of them were 12 gauge, 3.5 inch magnums.
- They were all seized, sent down to the crime laboratory
To see if there was a ballistics match to the shell casings
Found at the scene,
- [narrator] police are almost certain
That one of robert colegrove's shotguns
May be the murder weapon.
- It was very clear that it was really funnelling down
To robert colegrove.
He had the means, the opportunity, the motive.
- [narrator] one day after the brutal murders of joe,
Marlene and michael colegrove,
Investigators zero in on the middle son,
Robert and his wife heather.
- At that point, I don't think there was anyone
Part of the task force that robert and/or heather
Wasn't their number one suspect.
After we spoke to robert at his house,
We asked him if he would come in for a formal interview.
He agreed to do so.
He and his wife heather,
Both came into the firehouse in laceyville.
- We're at the fire hall,
And robbie came in and we're looking at him
And robbie is looking at us
With this bewilderment look on his face,
And now the word was they were implicating robbie
As the culprit, and it's like, no way.
- We asked them to undergo polygraph examinations
To prove their innocence.
- Polygraph, it's not bulletproof or foolproof,
But it does give police an idea
Of where the suspect is thinking.
- Robert agreed to take the exam.
He was very confident that he wasn't involved in this.
First question I asked was, "did you kill any of them?"
And he said, "no."
I asked him directly,
"robert, you just were informed that your family was killed.
"you never asked why."
He goes, "I figured if you wanted me to know,
"you would've told me right away."
I'm like, "robert, you didn't even show any emotion."
And he said, "if you asked if I like my parents,
"I tell you no, I didn't really like,
"I loved them, but I didn't like 'em."
"did I want dead? No.
"but I'm not about to shed tears
"just because that's not me."
Robert colegrove was the most matter of fact person
I've ever interviewed.
My instincts were saying robert did it
And the charts were saying he didn't do it.
- [narrator] robert colegrove passes his polygraph
But police continue pushing for other proof
Of his involvement.
- Whoever did this killing didn't just shoot a shotgun,
They shot a shotgun with very powerful shells six times.
You can get a bruise from shooting a shotgun.
- I said, "robert, do you ever get bruising from shotguns?"
He goes, "well, I shoot quite a bit,
"I can't say I never do."
I said, "do you mind if I look at your shoulder?"
And he pulled down his shirt on both sides.
I could see there was absolutely no bruising
Anywhere on his shoulders.
- So that was another thing that cuts into the theory
That robert might have done it.
- [narrator] detectives turned their attention
To the other person embroiled in the colegrove family feud,
Robert's wife, heather.
- Heather willingly took the polygraph examination.
- I asked, "do you know who committed these crimes?"
If she knew robert did it, she would react,
But she didn't react to that question.
- When the police talked to heather about this feud,
Heather claims she wasn't as angry at marlene
As marlene was at heather.
- Heather didn't make it seem
Like it was ever gonna come to violence.
She downplayed it quite a bit.
- That raises with the police that she being evasive
Or was it just that marlene was the one that was upset
With the situation and heather wasn't?
- [narrator] heather colegrove passes her polygraph
And provides no incriminating evidence against her husband.
- They were the only two suspects we had
But we had no concrete evidence to say that either of them
Committed the crime at this point,
But still we were waiting for the results
Of the forensic examination of robert's guns.
(soft upbeat music)
- [narrator] later that afternoon,
Less than 24 hours after the bodies are discovered,
Investigators receive a call
From the youngest colegrove's son, steven.
- When all of this happens,
Steven is living in deposit, new york,
Which is about an hour and a half drive from laceyville.
- The people that he lived with in deposit, new york
Had seen his family on the news
And they told him he should call us
And we had arranged for him to come down for the interview.
- [narrator] a few hours later,
Steven colegrove arrives to speak with police.
- We took him back to the interview room to talk with him,
Explained what had happened.
- He was distraught, he was emotional.
- He told us he hadn't been back in the area
For quite some time.
- He said he's active military.
He goes, "I'm undercover on special ops."
- But at that time that he was being treated for cancer
In new york.
- He had colon cancer
And he was going through treatments and radiation.
- We ask him about his relationship with his family
And he said he contacts them every week
And he has a very good relationship with his mother
And his father and his brother,
And everything is good except for robert.
He said robert was the problem in the family.
- Steven said he would try to solve all the issues
And bring marlene and joseph along with heather and robert
Back together.
- He said, "listen, I love my family
"and I don't wanna turn on robert but you know,
"I tried to mend fences but he wouldn't have any of it.
"he was at wit's end."
And then he mentioned, "did you find that note?"
I'm like, "what note?"
"the note that wrote robert out of the will.
"did you find that?
"I think it's in the lockbox.
"my mom said she was gonna put it there."
- [narrator] police end the interview
And contact their forensics team
Who are still processing the evidence from the scene.
- We called the guys at the scene
And they said they found the note in the lockbox
At the colegrove home.
- Marlene had written a letter to robert
Expressing how upset she was
And how heartbroken she was with him.
- It starts out, "robert, first thank you for two grandsons.
"too bad you had to listen to your wife so much
"and we're not allowed near them.
"why didn't you get backbone
"and stand up to that wife of yours?
"you'll be finding out from the lawyer, you'll receive $1.
"you are no son of mine.
"you have made life hell for your dad, mike and me,
"and I hope this all comes back to haunt you.
"and if in my powers, I will.
"your ex-mother."
(bright upbeat music)
- [narrator] after two days
Police investigating the triple homicide of joe, marlene
And michael colegrove discover a letter written by marlene
To her son robert.
In it, she plans to disinherit him.
- Marlene had written in there
That she did not want robert attending her funeral
If she had passed.
She didn't want him to get anything except a dollar.
We learned that a few months prior to the murders,
Marlene had taken out $100,000 life insurance policy
For the family.
- Robert could have known it was a possibility.
Marlene was changing her will.
- At that point, the two had a huge financial motive.
A lot of things were pointing us in the direction of robert
But you don't get tunnel vision,
You gotta keep your eyes open.
- [narrator] when investigators hear back
From the state crime lab about robert's guns,
They receive another blow to their theory
That robert and heather are involved.
- Robert's shotguns were specifically examined
To see if there was a ballistics match
To the shell casings found at the scene
And none of them matched up to robert's.
The only suspects that we had
Were robert and heather colegrove,
But we didn't have any evidence whatsoever.
- If robert wasn't the person,
Who else would have a benefit?
Well, that left steven
Because michael certainly wasn't gonna inherit, he was dead.
So the time had come to start giving steven a harder look.
- [narrator] investigators contact the friends
That steven is currently living with in deposit, new york.
- Steven colegrove had been living with robert ryanerson
And his wife for at least six months at that point.
- Leslie ryanerson had suffered cancer
And it was a common thing they had together,
So they allowed steven to stay with them.
- [narrator] the ryanersons provide detectives
Some interesting new information about steven.
- Interviewing robert ryanerson and leslie,
We learned steven colegrove's financial situation
Was terrible.
- He had no source of financial earnings whatsoever.
He was basically living off of the ryanersons.
- Steven took money from them all the time.
He told 'em that he was estranged from his family.
They also said he had a light colour truck at the time.
(bright upbeat music)
They said that steven had secured a loan to get that truck
Through his father and that he sent the payment book
To his father.
And his father was kinda pretty angry about that
And sent it back and said, "I'm not paying for your truck."
So steven's truck was about to be repossessed.
- [narrator] however, the ryanersons tell police
That steven expected his fortunes to soon change.
- Made promises to them
That he was gonna be falling into some money very shortly.
- [narrator] suspicious that steven told them
A very different story of his relationship with his family,
Police pulled the colegrove's home phone records
To check how often he kept in touch.
- We discovered on the home phone
There was a series of phone calls a week prior from steven
To the colegrove family.
We could see there was like a half an hour conversation
And then there was a 15-minute conversation
And then a couple times steven had called
And was hung up on.
It looked like there was some sort of argument going on.
We don't know what it was
But it was obvious that whoever he was calling
Didn't want to talk to him anymore
'cause they kept hanging up on him.
- [narrator] investigators dig further
Into steven's background
To piece together the details of his life.
- We contacted an investigative division in the air force.
- We said, "is steven colegrove still in military?"
"no."
"what happened?"
"he was discharged."
"why?"
"because he lied."
- The military records indicated that he had been discharged
For forging a driver's permit.
We were also able to disprove that he was ever
In any kind of branch that was special forces related.
- [narrator] detectives also obtain steven's medical records
And are stunned by what they find.
- We learned that he had not been receiving
Cancer treatments, was not a cancer patient,
Didn't have cancer.
- Medical records showed steven colegrove was healthy.
- For him to fake the colon cancer,
All the pieces of the puzzle just fell together for me.
- It showed that his entire life was a lie.
- Steven colegrove was using colon cancer
To get sympathy from people.
We determined that anything steven said,
We really couldn't put much faith in it.
- The cat was out of the bag.
Steven was totally in focus as the suspect at that point.
(bright upbeat music)
- [narrator] three days
After the colegrove family triple homicide,
Detectives have caught the family's youngest son,
Formerly their golden boy in a series of lies.
- The discovery that steven colegrove
Was not suffering from cancer
But instead had lied about that only fueled the fire
For investigators more to zero in on him
As a prime suspect in his homicide.
- [narrator] investigators bring steven colegrove in
For a second more serious interview.
- Right away he started pointing kinda the fingers
At robert, which is interesting
Because robert had not done the same for steven.
- I tried to get a history of where steven was at
During the time these murders were committed.
He said, "I was in deposit, new york."
- The night of the murders, steven had gone to bed
At around 11:30 and was in bed all night.
- Steven colegrove had no alibi at that point in time.
- [narrator] troopers confront steven
About some of the inconsistencies they've discovered.
- I'm like, "so you have cancer?"
"yep, I had to go to so many times for treatments."
I said,
"okay, these are things we're gonna be able to verify."
He goes, "well, you might not be able to verify
"some of these things or some of the stuff
"is covered under military
"and you may not have access to the records.
"I'm just letting you know."
I said,
"well, it doesn't look like you're in the military anymore."
And he said, "well, you know, they had to say that,
"I'm still working for them."
We knew that he was lying.
He was certainly not likely to admit to anything
Being involved with this crime.
I gave him the exact same polygraph test,
Word for word that I gave robert,
And after the first question,
It didn't even stand on the computer screen,
The reactions went so high
And they continued to go high over and over every time.
- The polygraph indicated that steven was being deceptive.
- He was really getting hostile, he was getting angry.
He started feeling like, I think he was getting cornered in.
- Trooper pelachick asked steven, just out of the blue,
"can you show us your shoulder?"
Colegrove instantly grabbed his left t-shirt shoulder
And pulled it up and showed this perfectly normal shoulder.
- I said, "okay, just for the heck of it,
"can I see your right shoulder?"
And when he pulled it down, right there was that purple,
Yellow bruising right in the crook of his shoulder.
- As soon as that shoulder was shown,
The whole atmosphere of the room changed.
The shoulder talked awfully loud.
- When you come face to face
With someone that is the murderer of an entire family
In a violent, ruthless fashion
Who's trying to set his brother up
That he knows didn't do it, you get little angry.
I said, "look at it, steven,
"that's where that shotgun sat when you pulled that trigger
"over and over and over and over,
"killing and mutilating your family."
I said, "steven, tell me about how tough you are.
"tell me what happened."
But he just kept denying it, denying it.
- It wasn't long before colegrove said
That he wanted to talk to a lawyer.
- At this point, I knew we had our guy.
That was the good news,
The bad news was we had no evidence.
None.
Can we get anything to prove it?
- [narrator] without a confession,
Police don't have enough to arrest steven,
And they know they have less than 48 hours
To find a smoking gun.
- What's he gonna do when he walks outta here
After he just killed three people?
We had to get him off the streets.
I was worried for our community, for citizens,
For anyone that might get his way.
- [narrator] investigators quickly head
To steven's residence in deposit, new york
To conduct a search warrant.
- Ryanerson shows us the vehicle
That steven drives regularly,
And it was with a light coloured pickup truck.
- The pickup truck matched the description
Given by the waitress in laceyville.
- We didn't find any blood inside that vehicle.
There was none.
So that didn't give us any additional evidence
That we were hoping for.
- [narrator] when investigators ask if the ryanersons
Knew anything about the murder weapon,
They get a surprising answer.
- Ryanerson did tell us that they had a vehicle
That was up there that they kept a 12 gauge shotgun in.
- It was a 3.5 inch, 12 gauge shotgun,
Which would've matched the murder weapon.
- Ryanerson told us steven had borrowed that truck
On at least one occasion to run errands
And so he knew where the keys were
And he knew that the shotgun was in there.
So at that point,
We decided that we should look at that shotgun.
- The shotgun itself appeared to be wiped clean.
- But we found what we appear to be blood
On the inside of the barrel, just with the naked eye.
And I'm like, "oh, thank god.
"he wiped down the entire gun
"but he forgot to wipe down the inside of the barrel."
- [narrator] while searching steven colegrove's residence
In upstate new york, police believed they found the shotgun
That was used to kill joe, marlene and michael colegrove.
- There was a speck or two of blood inside the barrel.
- The lab dna tested the blood that they found
In the barrel, we also had blood samples from the victims.
They compared all those blood samples
And it ended up being michael's blood
In the the barrel of the shotgun.
- The shotgun was established as the gun
That murdered the colegrove family.
- Based on that, we had enough to arrest steven colegrove.
- I told him, "you're under arrest
"for the murder of your mother, your father,
"and your older brother."
Never denied it.
I put the handcuffs on him.
He went into the holding cell and he laid down
And he looked like he went to sleep.
- For the first time in three days,
I actually felt a sense of calm.
- The formal charge against steven colegrove
Was three counts of first degree murder.
- [narrator] steven pleads not guilty.
Without a confession, police pieced together the events
That led to the triple homicide.
- We believed steven had been planning this
Since he had learned that marlene had taken out
$100,000 life insurance policy for the family.
- The way the colegroves had left their will
Would have led to michael being the first inheritance.
But of course, if something happened to michael,
It would skip over robert
And go to steven, the youngest son.
- It was clear that steven felt slighted
That michael lives for free,
Robert had lived on the property with his family for free.
They were getting free food.
Meanwhile, steven is living with relative strangers
In new york.
However, steven had no one to blame but himself
Because he portrayed a life of glory and financial success.
- He wanted people to think he was more than he was.
- This is what we think occurred
In the evening of this homicide.
Steven entered his pickup truck in the new york area,
Proceeded to the residence of his family members.
- Steven had been waiting for a night
That there was going to be some severe thunderstorms
So the neighbours wouldn't hear gunshots.
- The phone lines were cut,
The time spent to make it look like a burglary.
- No doubt that this was a premeditated act.
- The evidence strongly suggested
That michael had been shot first
And then his father twice in the head.
Probably his mother woke up at that point
And she was shot through the hand
And killed by a shot to the head.
- And then the last person that he shot was michael,
Again, on his way out.
(bright dramatic music)
And we know that because blood that was found
In the murder weapon was michael's blood.
- His blood all over, all four walls of the room
And the shotgun recoiling back,
Tipped it upwards a little bit and that led a spec or two
Of that blood land inside the barrel.
- It would've been pretty much vaporised
If another shot had been fired from that shotgun.
- Isn't that the justice of the thing?
It was just the pure meanness of shooting his brother
In the face one more time
Is what put that blood in the barrel.
And that's what gave us the dna evidence.
- When I found out that they arrested steven,
I felt very, very sick to my stomach.
I wondered if marlene knew that that was steven
Or if she had seen him, the terror that was in her.
It just was killing the inside of me.
- [narrator] as investigators prepare for trial,
The people of laceyville lay the colegrove family to rest.
- They brought the caskets out
And we placed them on top of the fire trucks
And we all stood at attention, all of us,
And all of a sudden, all of our pagers went off.
Dispatch from the county calls out the last call for joe
And marlene and michael
And says, "they don't need to respond."
But this is the sendoff that is given to fallen firemen.
It wasn't, I don't think, until that moment
That we realised they're gone.
- [narrator] a year and a half after the triple homicide,
On January 22nd, 2009, steven colegrove stands trial
For the murder of his mother, father and brother.
- The defence argued
No fingerprints putting steven in the home.
Nobody seen him there.
That other people might have done this.
What the defence couldn't lay a glove on was the bruises,
The gun and the dna.
And of course, the lies.
- [narrator] on January 27th, 2009,
Closing arguments are made
And the case is handed to the jury.
- The jury returns a verdict for three counts guilty
Of first degree murder.
(bright dramatic music)
- Steven colegrove was sentenced
To three consecutive life sentences.
And steven colegrove did the absolute
Most inhumane act I could imagine.
Nothing justifies it.
He sure did awful lot of evil.
He thought he'd get away with it and he's in jail forever.
- I'm happy he'll stay there for a very, very long time.
And then after that,
He'll be judged again and found wanting.
(soft upbeat music)
- The laceyville community lost a lot
With the death of the colegrove family.
We were just thankful for the fact that we were able
To ensure justice was done for these people
That were trying to serve their community.
(soft sombre music)