He stated (via ABC News), "And at the base of those stairs is the dead body of Peter Porco. In 2012, when Porco learned Lifetime was producing "Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story," he filed a temporary restraining order to stop it from airing. She also answered in similar ways to other separate questions. Nothing was stolen from the house. My son was sick, so I gave him Motrin (dont even know how I measured this). Buddies no help. TheU.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Christopherscase in 2012. The events started in the early morning hours of November. Case 187: Peter & Joan Porco 21,138 views Sep 4, 2021 505 Dislike Share Save Casefile Presents 54.3K subscribers DESCRIPTION In the early hours of Monday, November 15 2004, husband and wife Peter. [5], In late November 2004, outgoing Albany County District Attorney Paul Clyne convened a grand jury to hear testimony implicating Christopher Porco in the murder. Christopher continued to claim his innocence and his mother later recanted her admission. He needed another $30,000 once Rochester let him back in. For example, Porco lied to obtain both a car and tuition payments. The police found Joan Porco, 54, in the bedroom. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. 518.439.4949, SPOTTED: CD Jets beats Saratoga 4-2 in sectional playoffs, SPOTTED: Bethlehem boys hoops beat Niskayuna in OT, move on to play Sunday, Bethlehem Area Weekly Police Blotter February 15th 22nd, SPOTTED: Albany vs Colonie boys basketball postponed due to medical emergency rescheduled for tonight, SPOTTED: Bethlehem swims past Albany in final dual meet, SPOTTED: Raiders win battle of Colonie over Shaker 55-33, SPOTTED: Bethlehem, Shaker and Saratoga gymnasts tumble for hunger. On 15 November 2004, Joan and Peter Porco had been found seemingly murdered. Christopher Porco is seen during his trial in the Orange County Courthouse in Goshen on July 20, 2006. Theres evidence that Peter walked outside to get the newspaper and locked himself out of the house, but remembered the hidden key under the potted plant to get himself back in. Think you have an interesting story? "We were doing everything we could think of and we were overcome by him," she said. Theme images by, Investigating the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 - 1981, The Murderous Assaults of Peter and Joan Porco, The Porco family in the 1980s; Christopher is on the left, Joan and Chris, heading into court together. On November 15, 2004, law clerk Peter Porco, 52, didntshow up for work, sohis colleagueMichael Hart stopped byhis house onBrockley Driveto check on him. I was always floored hearing this dude loaded a dishwasher after being bludgeoned with an axe. They found Joan in the blood drenched bedroom, lying in bed and, remarkably, still alive. AsForensic Filesexplained it, an injury can damagethe brains neocortex, which controls reasoning, but leave intact the underlying paleocortex, which guides second-nature habits. `I asked her if she had memories, but never specifically of the attack,` said Spurgas. A fireman's ax belonging to the Porcos and used in the attack was found in the couple's bedroom. Joan Porco wrote in an e-mail in October 2004 that she was angry with Christopher because he had not returned more than 40 telephone calls from his brother, a Naval officer who was trying to. [28], In 2023, WTEN reporter John Gray interviewed Christopher Porco in prison. The neurosurgeon who operated on Joan Porcos skull fractures after the ax attack inside the Porco familys Brockley Drive home in November 2004, said her severe injuries could cause memory lapses following recovery. But the manhad agoodalibi. "You shouldn't cry over spilled milk." `It is not uncommon for patients after neurosurgery to have changes or lapses in their memory,` Spurgas testified. Porco, who was convicted of murdering his father and maiming his mother with an ax 16 years ago. Investigatorshad a few leads on other suspects. "I'm concerned with these behaviors," Joan Porco wrote to her son. Joan and Peter Porco believed that Christopher had been accepted back at the University of Rochester because a professor had lost one of his exams the year before. Defense Attorney Laurie Shanks was quick to point out that Spurgas is a neurosurgeon and not a neurologist, and cannot testify as an expert witness with respect to cognitive functions. "[15], Porco's brother, Johnathan, testified at his trial. Change-of-venue requests are rarely granted but Terence L. Kindlon, who teamed with his wife, Laurie Shanks, to defend Porco, successfully convinced an appeals court that the trial needed to be moved from Albany County. You would absolutely be familiar with Scott P CASE STUDY: The Flawed Interview of a Psychopathic Killer: What Went Wrong? And I must say [she] along with most of his classmates, believe him to be guilty. `She was sedated before coming to the emergency room, and could not respond with a tube in her throat,` said Spurgas. She too suffered the same grievous injuries to her face and head that her husband had endured - - a portion of her brain was actually exposed - - but she was conscious. There was also a theory involving organized crime. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. Photo taken of Joan Porco after the attack Photo Source: Times Union (website) The amount of forensic and circumstantial evidence was over whelming. His face is pointed up the stairs. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Press J to jump to the feed. A bloody axe left at the scene belonged to the family.". Long before the tragedy: Joan and Peter Porco with their sons, Christopher on the left, in the 1980s A jury convicted Christopher, an academically derelict University of Rochester student from Bethlehem, New York, of attacking Joan and Peter Porco with an ax as they slept on November 15, 2004. Union leaders say New York state workforce could see mass exodus, Vincent Riggi suit seeks $27.1 million from brother's estate, Tour of Utica-area restaurants feels like trip around the world, Glenville Police ID pedestrian struck and killed Wednesday, DEC finds 14-foot python in New York suburb, Churchill: Antonio Brown partnership is a massive risk, Samantha Humphrey case being treated as homicide, It's weekends in jail for ex-guard who sexually abused prisoner, Ex-teacher in Schenectady gets prison for exploiting student. [21] Nine months later, she wrote a letter for publication in the Albany Times Union in which she urged authorities to leave Christopher alone and "to search for Peter's real killer or killers, so that he can rest in peace and my sons and I can live in safety. He suffered blows to the face, jaw, hands, arms, and forearms. CARMODY CONSTRUCTION FL INC. (Corporate #P20000060210) is a Domestic Profit in Naples, Florida registered with Florida Department of State (DOS). I suffered a major TBI some years ago after a major fall and spent a week in a coma, plus years regaining function. In fact, he even got out of bed and went about his morning routine in a macabre daze. But prosecutors said outside court they intend to call a telephone company official to the stand to refute the assertion that they had visited the house in September or that the line had been mysteriously cut then. Last weeks post recapped Family Ties, theForensic Filesepisode about Christopher Porco, whose flights of fancy and financial misdeeds compelled him to plot the murders of his parents. As a result, most of the kitchen, including dishes and the floor, was covered in Peter's blood (via ABC News). [20], Christopher Porco is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility. Brendan Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com. Though he claimed he never left campus, surveillance video discredited this alibi as Christopher's yellow Jeep was seen driving in the direction of his parents' home hours before the murder. [5], While away on a trip to England in March 2004, Christopher received an email from Joan Porco's account admonishing him for failing classes at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. He was perhaps oblivious to what had occurred and was running on adrenaline. They smiled and talked, looking every bit like a close-knit mother and son. [18], On December 12, 2006, Judge Jeffrey Berry sentenced Porco to 50years to life on each count, totaling a minimum of 50years in prison. A True Crime Blog of People Behaving Badly. According to CBS News, Christopher Porco was charged with his father's murder and the attempted murder of his mother in November 2005. The episode was produced in 2009, toward the end of Forensic Filesrun, anddelves into theax attack on Joan and Peter Porco, a couple from Bethlehem, New York. Peter once again wrote to his son, who had not answered his parents' phone calls in weeks: "I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability and that applies to the Citibank college loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan. she also initially claimed it was their son, then after getting out of coma, claimed it wasn't son who attacked them. Omg i can't imagine this, this is beyond sad. His frat brothers and male friends do not back him.. [13], Porco's employer, veterinarian John Kearney, testified at trial that Porco had been trained in cleaning up after animal surgeries. But jurors interviewed by 48 Hours Mystery said that they had dismissed the testimony about the nod for precisely that reason and had insteadrelied onthe prosecutions crime timeline as proof of guilt. He was able to remember the location of the spare key and made it back inside. Two toll collectors also recalled seeing a similar Jeep around the time prosecutors said Porco drove home on the NYS Thruway with a plan to kill his parents. "Your phone is temporarily suspended -- we can't get to you with important information and this SUCKS," Joan Porco wrote. It starred Lolita Davidovich as Joan Porco and Eric McCormackas Detective Sullivan presumably a composite character representing police who worked on the case. However, an extensive amount of blood was strewn across the home including the walls and doorways. Fixed: Release in which this issue/RFE has been fixed.The release containing this fix may be available for download as an Early Access Release or a General Availability Release. [11], Prior to the attack, there had been tension between Christopher Porco and his parents about money, including over loans Christopher had taken out to pay his tuition and to finance a new Jeep Wrangler. We were angry disappointed. All in all, Christopher was in the hole for at least$50,000 a lot of debt, butnotinsurmountable. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. [17] The police theory was that he drove more than three hours to Albany in early hours of November 15 to attack his parents. The Walkthrough of the CREEPIEST, CRAZIEST Crime Scene Ever. READ MORE: Pick up a copy of tomorrow's Times Union for full coverage of today's Porco trial testimony. [22][23] He also appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear his case without opinion.[24]. Both parents wrote emails to Christopher discussing their concerns. On November 15, 2004, Peter Porco, a 52-year-old state Appellate Division court clerk, was found dead of massive head injuries in his home in Delmar, New York. You know what they say, 'Three strikes and you're out.' It was snipped about two hours and 45 minutes after the home's alarm was deactivated by someone who used the master code, according to earlier testimony. His father did not die immediately but rather livedfor a few hours after the assault, and his mothersurvived her wounds and is alive today. A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which one kills multiple close family members in quick succession, most often children, spouses, siblings, or parents. Joan argued that she was unable to remember what happened the night of the attack but knew that her son could have never killed her husband. The reality is that everybody knows about this case, and the fact is that everybodys been hearing about this case in Albany County for the past 20 months, Kindlon said. It was a cold November night in 2004 when police responded to a disturbance at a suburban home in Delmar, New York. He had his eye on their$1 million life insurance payout, authorities believe. The video evidence came from the university. GOSHEN -- Less than two weeks before she and her husband were brutally attacked in their Delmar home, Joan Porco briefly lost her composure in an e-mail she wrote to her younger son, Christopher. The Jeep is pictured here outside an Orange County courthouse a couple of hours after Porco was convicted. At the sentencing, Orange County Judge Jeffrey G. Berry cast aside Porcos request for leniency and also his plea for police to find the real killers, telling Porco he had violated one of lifes most sacred bondsby attacking his parents with an ax as they slept in the bedroom of their suburban home. I feel bad for her that this whole thing is being brought back up.. There is no doubt in my mind, Porco told correspondent Peter Van Sant in an Albany County jail interview conducted after Porcos August conviction. Heres the heart-breaking aspect of the trial: Joan Porco stood by her son througheverything. In the yearsleading up to the assault on his mother and father, Christopher Porco had told his school friends tall tales about having a wealthyfamily with extensive real estate holdingsand vacationhomes. Police contended that eight months earlier, on November 28, 2002, Christopher staged a burglary at his parents' home in which he stole a Macintosh laptop computer and a Dell laptop computer. And the plot twist: The mother survived and was in total denial, believing her son was innocent of the charges despite the overwhelming evidence. She maintained that while Christophers financial misdeeds angered her and Peter, theyall loved one another and wanted to workon their relationship. Her answers were mostly clear and lucid, although occasionally she lost her train of thought and asked attorneys to restate their questions. Spotlight News, The Spot 518 and Capital District Family Now are divisions of Community Media Group, LLC. For one,someone had burglarized the Porcos house in 2002 and 2003, and Christopher was the No. He told an investment professional he was coming into some money, investigators discovered. During breaks in the trial Monday, and after the jury had cleared from the courtroom, Joan Porco walked over to her son at the defense table. Then I finally quit breathing. According to All That's Interesting, Christopher was 21 and a student at the University of Rochester. The trial took place in July of 2006withChief Assistant District Attorney Michael P. McDermott leading the prosecution and lawyers Terence Kindlon and Laurie Shanksdefending the accused. In August, Christopher Porco was convicted by an Orange County jury of murdering his father Peter Porco with an ax and attempting to murder his mother Joan Porco during the overnight hours of Nov. 14 and 15, 2004, at their Brockley Drive home.Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 25, three days before the CBS show's air date. Porcos injuries, which prosecutors believe were inflicted by her son Christopher Porco, were so severe that 4 to 5 inches of bone had to be replaced. As a result of her poor eyesight, Shanks asked to read a series of e-mails to the jury that Joan had exchanged with her son in the 11 months preceding the attack. Heres one: Benny1311: I was a year above Porco in school. A jury convicted Christopher, an academically derelictUniversity of Rochesterstudent from Bethlehem, New York, of attacking Joan and Peter Porcowith an ax as they slept on November 15,2004. 01:18:45 - We hear almost daily about mothers and fathers killing their children, sometimes their entire family. He stumbled through the house before he collapsed in his foyer and died. He was also a troubled young man with a pension for burglarizing and lying. That means he was standing in front of a mirror and his brain still couldn't process something was wrong. "What are you hiding. In 2005, Bethlehem Police detectives traveled to San Diego, California, to retrieve a laptop computer that Christopher Porco had stolen from his parents in a break-in on July 21, 2003. 1 suspect. Bowdish has maintained that when he asked her whether it had been her older son Johnathan, a Naval officer stationed in South Carolina, she shook her head to indicate "no". 2022 Community Media Group, LLC - 341 Delaware Ave. Delmar, NY 12054. An Albany County medical examiner would determine that Peter, 52, had sustained massive head injuries causing his death. He got 50 years to life and is at theClinton Correction Facility inDannemora, New York. We can take the truth," she wrote. Until next Thursday, cheers.RR, A College Kid Turns Homicidal Joan lost her left eye, a portion of her skull and was disfigured. `You are not a doctor,` said . [17], On the morning of August 10, 2006, the jury began deliberations. Update: Read Part 2of the Christopher Porco story. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Peter sustained 16 devastating blows from the ax, only one of which, surprisingly, actually penetrated his skull. I think all of that means its possible Peter Porco had a little help from the reasoning part of his mind post-trauma, but the subsectionthat enables people to self-identify as injured and in need of help was destroyed. She survived but lost the left eye, a portion of the skull and her face was left disfigured. Despite Joan telling first responders that her son Christopher was the one who attacked them,CBS News states that he denied all involvement and was asleep at the University of Rochester, 200 miles away at the time of the attack. Porcos trial ended up in Orange County after an appeals court ruled pretrial publicity in Albany had been intensive, localized, continuing and prejudicial.. And it's so poignant that the dad wrote out a check for his parking tickets as he was dying from the axe wound to the head. Surveillance cameras captured the Jeep leaving a Rochester college the night of the attacks. He had re-enrolled there using forged transcripts from Hudson Valley college that showed he scored very high marks that spring. In half the cases, the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder-suicide. I had some classes with him and knew one of his girlfriends well. Joan Porco nodded "yes." The mother suffered brain damage and other major injuries, but has strongly supported her son and attested to his innocence. [16] The trial was held in Orange County because of intense media coverage in the Albany area. ATimes Union blog postinviting readers to weigh in on Christopher Porcos guilt or innocence yielded much praise for the jury and prosecutors who convicted him as well assome refutation ofclaims that Christopherwas well-liked. At this point, I have little confidence that they will ever be caught.. I grew up in the small town of Delmar, NY and the guy was a clown., Josh: I live [in]Delmar and go to Bethlehem High School [and] teachers who had him said he was insane. All That's Interesting reports that he tried to pack his lunch and wrote a check to his son, Christopher. The lawyeralso noted that Peter Porco sometimes deactivated the burglar alarm whenletting the dog out at night and then forgot to turn it back on another challenge to the prosecutions assertionthat Christopher punched in the code the night of the murder and attempted murder. Porco has said little publicly in the years since his conviction, though he did an interview with the CBS News show 48 Hours Mystery shortly after his conviction. ABC News goes on to say that Peter attempted to get ready for work and make breakfast. After the trial, jurors commented that this testimony helped to explain the fact that police did not find blood in Porco's vehicle after the attack. The was blood everywhere - a medical examiner later determined that 52-year-old Peter sustained massive head injuries causing his death. [8], Christopher Porco told investigators that on the night of November 14, he retired to a dormitory lounge to sleep and awoke the following morning. Peter, per ABC News, was in a pool of his own blood near the home's entrance. (Family Ties, Forensic Files). Albert grows up thinking that his father died fighting for France in World War I. In the message, Joan and Peter complained to their son, "You just left and (we) can't believe (our) eyes as I look at your interim grade report. By September, the relationship was growing more troubled and she confronted him after learning he'd apparently used a Mobil gasoline credit card she'd given him for emergencies to buy snacks. So, apparently he did have at least some girlfriends but wasnt necessarily a full-onJFK (Jr. or Sr.) with the ladies. He spent some time at his bathroom sink, loaded the dishwasher, packed a lunch, and wrote a check before collapsing at the front door. Callan was soon after med-flighted to Boston Children's Hospital. Earlier in the fall, he falsely told his parents that the University of Rochester was covering his tuition because a professor had misplaced his final exam from the previous fall semester. `There is no notation that ever indicated Joan Porco was given a mental status exam when she came to the emergency room,` Shanks said. Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael P. McDermott apologized to Joan Porco before posing his first question, telling her: "I promise I'll be brief.". Peter's wife, Joan, was found on a bed that was completely covered in blood. WTEN anchor John Gray recently interviewed Porco in prison. He has been a journalist since 1995 and the Times Union has been his home since 2002. He alsocommitted a number of financial crimes against his parents. His appeals have been exhausted. Still, therewere noeyewitnesses placing Christopher directly at the crime scene inside the house. One morning in late 2004, Peter and Joan Porco were discovered in their quiet suburban home with massive head injuries inflicted by an axe. Founded in 2010, Thought Catalog is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, Inc. For over a decade, we've been at the bleeding edge of media, pioneering an infrastructure for creatives to flourish both artistically and financially. One, an unhappy litigant in a custody case, had vowed revenge against Peter. Wounds or other injury may sometimes destroy a [neo]cortical region without damaging deeper brain structures.. [19][11], A neighbor of the Porco family later testified at trial that he saw Porco's yellow Jeep in the family's driveway on the evening of the attack.