New Jersey man brutally beats parents with baseball bat, stabs them to death before stealing car and credit card
50-year-old New Jersey man wanted for questioning in the murder of his parents was found and arrested at a casino in Bethlehem on Monday, October 28, officials said.
Todd Warner of Washington Township faces first-degree murder charges for the death of his 73-year-old parents who were killed in their home in Warren County on Sunday. Warner was taken into custody at a casino in Pennsylvania. He had fled his parents' home with a 2019 Kia Soul and a credit card.
Surveillance footage showed him arriving at their home about 10 am that morning. Warner was allegedly driving his mother's car and using their credit card for a cash advance of several thousand dollars before leaving at noon.
When police officers forced their way into his parents' home on Sunday, they found Frank Warner dead in a chair and his wife of 50 years Joyanne Warner on a bedroom floor nearby. The couple was beaten and stabbed to death. Their heads were covered by plastic bags.
A father of two, Warner lived with his parents and had been missing since the bodies were found. It was on Sunday afternoon that the Warners' daughter and her husband found the dead bodies when they rushed home worried about their whereabouts and called the police.
According to LehighValleyLive.com, Warner confessed to the crimes. He struck his parents with baseball bats, allegedly using two on his mother after one broke.
He said that he then tried to suffocate them before grabbing a kitchen knife and stabbing them, according to the court records obtained Thursday from the Warren County Prosecutor's Office.
73-year-old Joyanne and Frank were high school sweethearts and were happily married for five decades, according to the daughter. The couple owned a hair salon in Chester, Morris Countr called Frank Anthony and were two months away from retiring.
Even as officials wait for the autopsy report, Warren County prosecutor Richard Burke told NJ.com that there was blunt force trauma indicating that they were beaten.
Warner was arraigned on Tuesday on charges of stolen property and is being held in lieu of 10 percent of $250,000 bail and is awaiting extradition proceedings that would return him to New Jersey.