Wichita Massacre: Part 1

Reginald and Jonathan Carr were brothers with a shared evil streak. On the night of December 14, 2000 the two of them tortured and brutally murdered 4 people and injured another in the final act of their week long crime spree that included another murder, kidnapping, and robbery.

December 15th, 2000

On Friday, December 15th, 2000, a couple was trying to sleep in their home when suddenly there was frantic banging on their front door at around 1:45 am. What was on the other side was a young woman who was bloody and naked and screaming that 2 men had shot her and her friends. The couple brought the young woman into their home and began to call 911. While the man of the house was calling 911, the young woman took the phone from him wanting desperately to tell her story. She was sure she was going to die and knew that if she didn’t tell her story, her friends would be dead and the killers may never get caught.

The woman told the 911 dispatcher as much as she could and once at the hospital she told the police everything. The woman, known only as H.G. had told everyone that she and her friends had just been through a torturous night where they were robbed, beaten, raped, and eventually shot by 2 men. The men would turn out to be Reginald and Jonathan Carr. Brothers who had spent the week committing other robberies, kidnappings, and shootings all culminating in the attack on H.G. and her friends.

Reginald and Jonathan Carr

Reginald Carr was born on November 14, 1977 and less than 3 years later, on March 30, 1980, his younger brother Jonathan was born. The boys were born in Dodge City and into a volatile family where their mom and dad both had hair trigger tempers and fought frequently. According to the Killer Siblings episode on the brothers, Dodge City at this time was known for its crime and violence. The show said that the crime rate in Dodge City at this time was 28% higher than other parts of the country.

This violence was also present in the Carr household. Reginald and Jonathan grew up with alcoholic parents who were verbally and physically abusive. It was also mentioned that their parents weren’t very empathetic and, in fact, their mother would later testify to this. Their mother frequently used electrical cords to hit the children. Their parent’s marriage collapsed and they divorced. After the divorce, Reginald and Jonathan’s dad vanished from their lives immediately. Their mother, Janice Harding would eventually remarry. This marriage was just as tumultuous as the first and once this husband even put a gun to Janice’s head. This husband and later boyfriends of Janice abused the boys and their sister. Verbally, physically and sexually. It was also said that their father abused their sister sexually as well. With the instability in their mother’s house, Reginald and Jonathan often stayed with their maternal grandmother, but like her daughter, this grandmother was easily angered.

The brother’s dealt with the turmoil in their lives in different ways. Jonathan attempted suicide at age 7 and again at age 16 by drinking anti-freeze. Meanwhile, Reginald went with the “I’ve got nothing to lose” approach. Reginald had been exposed to drugs and sex by the age of six and had a terrible school record academically as well as for constantly getting in fights. He was in and out of prison from a young age for burglary, drugs (possession and distribution), and fighting. Leaving Jonathan to sit and wait for his beloved big brother to get out of prison so they could get into trouble together.

Jonathan adored Reginald and looked up to him and Reginald loved that Jonathan loved him so much. Reginald was reportedly protective of Jonathan and used Jonathan’s adoration in order to have the partner in crime. In 1995, Reginald was sentenced to 13 months in prison for theft. He was also ordered to serve 6 months for aggravated assault and “subverting the legal process.” In 1996, he was sentenced to another 28 months on drug charges. Reginald, like his mother, racked up a couple marriages as well as multiple children.

By 2000, Reginald and Jonathan decided to step up their criminal game. Up to this point they were doing a lot of small time things, but they were ready to get into bigger things like armed robbery. In March of 2000, Reginald had been on parole and in November he had been arrested for drunk driving. And days later he was back in court for forgery and parole violation. But then days before they left for Wichita on December 5th, 2000, Reginald was released from parole….

Beginning Their Week of Horror

By the time Reginald was 22 and Jonathan was 20, they had decided that their new plan was to leave Dodge City and take their shenanigans on the road to Wichita. The brothers had it in their heads that Wichita was full of wealthy people, and they were going to rob as many as they could. Their plan was to focus on people with expensive cars they could either rob right there or follow home.

By December of 2000, the brothers had made their way to Wichita and on December 7th, they committed their first known attack in their spree.

On that December 7th, Andrew Schreiber was a 23-year-old assistant baseball coach and had stopped at a local convenience store called…Kum & Go. He was a 6-foot tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes who loved the outdoors. He said he had loved baseball, “since I could walk. I usually play catcher so I can be involved in every play, every pitch.” This night after baseball, Andrew needed some Skoal and after picking up his can, he headed back to his car.

As Andrew – “Andy” reached his car, he suddenly had 2 men approach him and put a gun to his head. The men forced him into his car and then forced him to drive around to ATMs to withdraw as much money from his accounts as they could until his card stopped working. They got $800 off Andy. He said later, “I was just hoping that if I did what they said, they’d let me live.” After robbing Andy of his money, they forced him to go to a parking lot. Andrew was pistol whipped and shoved out of the car. The two men got out and shot out the tires to Andy’s truck before driving off in their own car.

The brothers were on the prowl again 3 nights later on December 11th when they followed the car of 55-year-old Ann Walenta, a wife and mother to 2 children.

Ann was a cellist and the symphony librarian for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. She was on her way home from symphony practice around 9:30 pm when she noticed a car that seemed to be following her. They followed her into a nice neighborhood and when Ann pulled into her driveway, the car drove past her and down to the cul-de-sac. Then it came back up to her driveway.

Ann was still in her car when an African American man came up to her window claiming to need help. Ann rolled down her window just a little so she could hear him, but when she did, he put a gun into the opening. Ann threw her car into reverse in an attempt to escape. The man fired off 7 shots, 3 of which hit Ann. Her car hit the curb on the other side of the street and Ann fell forward onto her car horn. While the men escaped, Ann’s neighbors were calling the police. Not only had they heard gunshots, but someone’s car horn was blaring. Ann Walenta was taken to the hospital and gave her story to the police officers.

December 14th, 2000

The night of December 14th, H.G. and her friends were having a regular Thursday night. H.G. had gotten there around 8:30 pm with her dog Nikki and was grading papers while waiting for her boyfriend Jason Befort to get home from coaching basketball. Jason and his college friends, 27-year-old Brad Heyka and 29-year-old Aaron Sander lived in this triplex together. All 3 men were doing great things in their lives.

Jason was a “bespectacled” science teacher at Augusta High School and he coached the boy’s junior varsity basketball team. It was also said that he had a “flamboyant streak” and loved to wear these bright blue shoes he had.

Brad Heyka was the director of finance at the Koch Institute (“a petroleum and chemical conglomerate”). Brad was considered a “valued employee” with a “bright future.” He had been promoted 3 times in 3 years. He was described as “chubby” with a “winning smile” and a great sense of humor.

Aaron Sander was the other roommate and had recently made a big life change. He had previously worked as a financial analyst at Koch Institute as well, but quit so that he could go into the priesthood. He had always been a devout Roman Catholic and had felt the call to become a priest. To do this, he had had to break up with his girlfriend, Heather Muller. Heather was still a dear friend to him, and she too was a devout Roman Catholic. Heather and Aaron didn’t have any ill feelings toward each other and, in fact Heather had also felt like she might be being called to become a nun.

25-year-old Heather Muller was a pretty young woman with light brown hair and was currently a graduate student at Wichita State University. She was a preschool teacher at this time and worked at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School. She had joined the men and H.G. for the evening. H.G. had her own key and let herself in.

Jason arrived home around 9:15 pm and not long after arriving home he and H.G. went to bed. At this time (around 10 pm), Jason checked all the lights and locks and headed to bed himself. Aaron was asleep on the couch in the living room and Heather was asleep in his bedroom. Brad had also already headed to bed in his basement bedroom. The friends were settled in for the night when around 11 pm the porch light came on and H.G. and Jason heard a knock on the door. Then they heard voices and shouting.

That’s about the time Jason’s bedroom door burst open. H.G. would later recall that “a tall black male” was standing in the doorway. Nikki had her teeth bared and was growling at the unknown intruders. The man demanded that they get the dog or they’d shoot her.

The friends in the house didn’t know these men were the Carr brothers and H.G. would refer to them as the tall one (Reginald) and the shorter one (Jonathan). H.G. would later tell police that the tall one (Reginald) had on a black coat and black leather gloves and the shorter one (Jonathan) had “poofy” hair that was styled in clumps and wearing a leather jacket and an orange and black FUBU sweater, jeans and tan hiking boots.

Jonathan ripped the covers off of Jason and H.G. and Reginald forced Aaron into the bedroom with a gun aimed at him. Aaron was thrown on the bed and the Carrs demanded to know if anyone else was in the house. Out of sheer terror, the 3 friends told the Carrs about Heather and Brad in the other rooms. One of the brothers gathered them as well.

Now that all five of them were in the same room, the Carrs demanded that they all strip naked. The brothers asked their terrified hostages if they had any money. The hostages told them to take the money and take anything they want. The men asked where the safe was, but they were told there wasn’t a safe. One of the men said, “In a house this nice there has to be a safe!”

However, money wasn’t the Carr brothers’ only motive tonight. It’s not known if the rest of the events were part of some kind of plan or something they decided on the fly, but once the hostages were naked, the brothers forced them into the bedroom closet and told them not to talk. The brothers began to pull the hostages out in pairs to perform sex acts on each other. First was Heather and H.G. who the Carrs directed to perform digital and oral sex acts on each other.

Then Heather was returned to the closet and Brad was brought out. The brothers ordered him to have sex with H.G., but Brad couldn’t get an erection. He tried to make it happen, but couldn’t. The men got angry that Brad couldn’t get an erection and took him back to the closet. Jason was brought out after the Carrs got annoyed with Brad’s inability to perform, but Jason couldn’t get an erection either so he also tried to force himself inside H.G. so the men wouldn’t hurt them. But, when the brothers found out they were dating, they made him stop. They didn’t want the legitimate couple to be together.

Jason was taken back to the closet and Aaron was brought out and also forced to have intercourse with H.G. However, Aaron stood strong with his religious convictions and told the men that he couldn’t do it. They responded by clocking him in the back of the head with the butt of a pistol.

H.G. was taken back to the closet and Heather was taken out. The hostages in the closet could hear what was going on just 12 feet away. They could hear that Aaron was once again being forced to have intercourse, but this time with Heather. Not only does he not want to do this to his friend/former girlfriend, he doesn’t want to have sex at all becasue of his religious convictions, and it’s an especially stressful and scary situation – Aaron wasn’t able to get an erection. The Carrs didn’t care about Aaron’s religion. One of them hit him over the head with a golf club and told him that he “had until 11:54 to get hard.” It was 11:52.

According to one source no punishment was enforced when he didn’t, but another said he was beaten with a golf club and then he was ushered back to the closet. Jason was then forced to have intercourse with Heather. Brad was next with Heather. H.G. remembered being able to hear Heather moan in pain.

After their torturous sex show, the Carrs asked which of the 5 friends had ATM cards. One brother was going to take them to the ATMs. However, because they were stressed, Heather, H.G. and Brad couldn’t find their keys. The Carrs threatened to “pop” someone. The keys were found to Jason’s truck. Then they were taken 1-by-1 out to the pick-up and Reginald would force them to drive to an ATM. First up was Brad.

While Reginald was out with Brad, Jonathan brought H.G. back out and raped her before throwing her back in the closet. Brad and Reginald returned and Jason was next to go with Reginald. Back in the closet, Brad told his friends nothing about the ATM trip. Even when Aaron asked him if they should try to resist, Brad didn’t respond.

This time while Reginald was away, Jonathan raped Heather.

When Reginald returned, H.G. volunteered to be next to go to the ATMs. Reginald only let her put on a sweater because he “liked seeing [her] without underwear.” She was instructed to drive Jason’s truck to the banks and not to look at Reginald who was crouched in the backseat. The man talked to H.G. on their trip. He asked her what his partner had done with her while he was gone. She told him the man had raped her.

Reginald laughed and asked, “Did you like it?” H.G. didn’t want to make him angry so she told him that she had. He asked her if she had ever been with a black man before and she admitted that she hadn’t. Reginald asked her if the man that had raped her was better than her boyfriend and she, again, didn’t want to anger him so she said yes again.

He asked her if she had liked being with a girl, and she told him no because this seemed like a slightly less inflammatory question. Reginald said, “Baby, that’s all right. You ain’t gotta lie to me.” H.G. took the opportunity to find out what the men were going to do. She asked Reginald if they were going to shoot them. He told her no. She asked, “Do you promise you’re not going to kill us?” He said they weren’t.

While they were at the ATM, Reginald put his gloved hand on her privates and rubbed. H.G. was surprised and slammed into the window. After H.G. took out the money, on the way back to the house, Reginald said that “he wished we could have met under different circumstances.” He said she was “cute and we probably would have hit it off.” She told him “Yeah, me too.” When he asked her what she meant, H.G. told him, “Well, I’m not really having a good time.” H.G. would be the last of the friends to be taken to the ATMs and by then the Carrs had taken over $1,800 in cash from them.

Back at the house, the torture continued. The men asked their captives if anyone wanted a drink, but all said no. The men also found Nikki’s muzzle and threw it in the closet. H.G. put it on Nikki hoping to keep her quiet and safe. Reginald raped H.G. and forced her to swallow his…spunk…. Jonathan raped Heather again and then H.G. again.

It would later be wondered why the three male hostages never tried to rise up and overtake their captors. There were times when Reginald was out and at least 2 of the men were there with Jonathan and there were times that the women were being raped when all three men could have gotten the jump on Reginald and Jonathan. However, it was noted that there was not a single solitary weapon in that house.

None of the hostages were familiar with guns. H.G. would later testify that there was a time when she was on her hands and knees while one of the brothers was unzipping his pants and preparing to assault her again that he laid the pistol on the floor only 2 feet away from H.G.’s hand. She said she thought about grabbing it, but then she realized that she had no idea how to use a gun. They all assumed these men were there for money and valuables and thought that if they just did what these men said, they’d be fine.

The brothers destroyed the house looking for money and valuables when they found a popcorn tin. When they opened it, there was an engagement ring inside. Jason told H.G., “That’s for you. I was going to ask you to marry me.” Jason and H.G. had been dating for several years and his friends and family had been teasing him about when he was going to propose. He decided that he was going to do it. He bought her a ring about a week before this night and had planned to ask her the following Friday on December 22nd. He’d even bought a book on how to propose.

By this time it was about midnight and the Carrs were ready to move to the next phase of their nightmare. The 5 hostages were led at gunpoint out to the Honda Accord that belonged to Aaron. It was less than 18 degrees Fahrenheit and there was at least a couple inches of snow on the ground, but the Carrs didn’t let them get dressed. The 2 women were only allowed to wear a sweater or sweatshirt, but the men were completely naked. All were barefoot.

The Carrs tried to shove all 5 hostages into the trunk, but when they figured out that all 5 grown adults wouldn’t fit into the sedan’s trunk, they regrouped and only the 3 men were shoved into the trunk. Reginald had taken to H.G. and demanded that she join him in Jason’s truck again. Jonathan drove Aaron’s Honda with Heather in the backseat. H.G. made a mental note of the time, 12:07 am. This had been going on for 3 hours.

They were all shuttled to an empty soccer field and Reginald ordered H.G. to get in the Honda next to Heather. The men were taken out of the trunk and lined up in front of the silver sedan. H.G. said she turned to Heather and said, “They’re going to shoot us.” H.G. and Heather were then brought out to stand beside the men. Heather stood by Aaron and H.G. by Jason when all were ordered to turn away from the men and kneel.

H.G. remembered “As I was kneeling, a gun went off. [Then] I heard Aaron. I could distinguish Aaron’s voice. He said, ‘Please, no sir, please.’ The gun went off.” She heard 3 shots before she felt a bullet hit her in the back of the head. She remembered everything went gray with white like stars. She said she didn’t lose consciousness or fall forward so one of the men kicked her forward. H.G. played dead. She lay in the freezing snow in nothing but a sweater. The brothers got in Jason’s truck and ran over the bodies. H.G. felt the truck hit her, too, but she stayed still and quiet.

She said, “I waited until I couldn’t hear anymore, Then I turned my head and saw lights going. I looked at everyone. Everyone was face down. Jason was next to me. I rolled him over. There was blood squirting everywhere. So I took my sweater off and tied it around his head to try and stop it. He had blood coming out of his eyes.”

Thinking that since there was active bleeding, Jason was still alive at the moment. H.G. knew she needed to get help. She was either going to die out there with a head wound or by freezing to death if she didn’t do something. She saw Christmas lights in the distance and decided she was going to live. She ran naked through the snow – across a field, climbed over a barbed wire fence, and the main road. Every time she saw car lights, she dropped to the ground thinking it was her attackers.

When she finally reached the house with the Christmas lights, she beat on the door to the house and rang the bell trying to get the people inside to help her. “Help me. Help me. Help me. We’ve all been shot! Three of my friends are dead.” (She thought Jason was alive.) The couple answered their door and brought H.G. in. They wrapped her in blankets and put a compress to her head. She was panicked thinking that she was going to die before she could tell her story and say everything she needed to say. When the man called 911, H.G. took the phone to tell her own story…

“Help me, please. I’ve been shot in the head. Two men broke into our house. And they held us and they took everything. And they executed my 4 friends and I’ve been shot in the head.” H.G. was taken to the hospital and gave the police as much information as she could before she went to surgery including descriptions of the men and Jason’s truck. It turned out that the reason H.G. was still alive was that the metal hair clip she’d been wearing had deflected the bullet. No one was sure if it had fully saved her life yet, but they knew that it was the reason she was still alive now and the Carrs hadn’t counted on her living. With H.G.’s description of Jason’s Dodge truck, the officers got the license plate and registration and put out a BOLO.

After the 911 call, units were dispatched to the soccer field. It was around 2 am. When the first officer arrived on the scene. He thought that the shooters were still there so he approached the silver Honda with his gun drawn. But then he saw bodies in front of the car. He said it was like a movie. There were 2 bodies face down in the snow with another lying on top of them with a sweater around his head. Then there was a gap with a blood spot in the snow before there was one more body. It was described by the people that saw the scene as like something out of a movie.

There were shoe impressions, tire tracks, bullet casings, fingerprints, and hairs – all needing to be processed and quickly. The officers were being encouraged to do this expeditiously because these men were out there. One of the detectives said it best when he said that killing the first person is hard, but everyone after that is easier. The police went back to the triplex and found out that the Carrs had returned as well and cleaned out the house of as many valuables as they could. Also on their return trip, the Carrs killed H.G.’s dog, Nikki.

Heather Muller’s mom came to the house and stopped an officer. She told him that her daughter hadn’t come home and they were worried. He remembered that all he could say is, “I’m sorry.” Her mom asked about Aaron, is Aaron okay. He told her that no, Aaron was not okay. Media outlets picked up on the story and showed up at the house quickly. The police decided to use the media to their advantage and release certain clues to get a lead on where their suspects might be. They release the information about Jason Befort’s truck and the engagement ring along with the description of the suspects.

That’s how they found out that the truck was at an apartment complex in Wichita.

For part two, click here!