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Crazy story
http://www.greensboro.com/news/trending/a-son-helped-plan-a-fake-robbery-of-his-father/article_30985f9b-fdc8-5154-9720-1050664b1071.amp.html
Matthew Lindquist was getting impatient waiting for the fake burglars to show up at his family home in Griswold, Connecticut, in the early morning hours of Dec. 20.
"U almost here or what," 21-year-old Lindquist wrote to the man running late, a little past midnight. "Don't pull in any drive way just go up road and turn lights off."
Lindquist and the man had a plan: The man was supposed to give him drugs in exchange for guns belonging to Lindquist's father after his dad went to sleep, according to court records containing text messages between them. Lindquist would be in the house. The fake burglar would tie Lindquist to a chair to make the scene look authentic, according to the affidavit.
And when police arrived, he would tell them that "two black guys" were responsible for robbing his dad's gun safe. It was bolted to the ground, so Lindquist asked the man via text, "Yo bro ... Can you pick the lock??"
But nothing went according to the plan.
By the end of the night, Lindquist would be dead, his parents would be dead, his house would be nearly burned to the ground and the guns would be missing from the safe. For months, Lindquist's body would be missing too, leading police to suspect him as a person of interest. But then police interviewed Ruth Correa, the woman who was in the car with the man who allegedly promised Lindquist drugs in exchange for the guns on Dec. 20.
She was arrested May 12 after telling police everything that happened after they pulled up on Lindquist's street. Her arrest affidavit, containing her interview with police, was unsealed Tuesday. Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. (The Washington Post is not identifying the man who allegedly plotted with Lindquist that night because he has not been charged.)
According to court documents, Correa and the man arrived just before 1 a.m. - hours later than Lindquist expected.
Lindquist hopped into the back seat of the car as it rolled up his street, its headlights off. He immediately asked the man if he brought the drugs, Correa later told police. The man - who Correa called her "brother" since they were raised together - said Lindquist wouldn't be getting any drugs until he got what he was promised: the guns.
They discussed the "fake robbery" plan further, Correa said.
But then, according to Correa, Lindquist became "panicky and fidgety" as they got out of the car. He tried to run away, Correa said, so her "brother" chased him with a machete and hit him in the back of the head.
The man told Lindquist he was "supposed to be his boy" but now he could not trust him. He threatened to tie Lindquist up for real, with zip ties and duct tape over his mouth.
That's when Lindquist started to "yell and freak out," Correa said. She told police her brother began stabbing him, and Correa said she also stabbed Lindquist in the chest "about 10 times."
They continued onto the house to get what her brother came for, Correa said, according to the affidavit, leaving Lindquist in the woods.
They knew the basement door would be unlocked because Lindquist had told them.
But they apparently didn't anticipate running into his dad.
When they did, Correa told police her brother started hitting Kenneth Lindquist with a baseball bat, while she fought off the family dog with a golf club she had taken from the car just in case.
When Janet Lindquist, Kenneth's wife, came out of another room, aghast at the scene, Correa said she grabbed Janet by the hand, pulled her into a bedroom and told her "she did not have to see this." She said she urged Janet to just give them the keys to the gun safe and they would go. Janet asked why this was happening.
"Ruth said she explained to her that the reason why this was happening was because her son had set her up," the police affidavit states.
Correa's brother had apparently already obtained the guns from the safe, Correa said, because he came into the room and pointed a rifle at Janet while Correa went snooping around the house for things to steal. She made three trips out to the car, she told police.
She returned to find her brother choking the woman to death when she tried to reach for a phone, Correa said. She said she saw Kenneth lying dead in the hallway, but didn't know what happened.
Before they left, she said, she poured flammable liquid all over the basement, and then her brother lit an exercise ball on fire. When they walked outside, she remembered hearing the birds chirping. It was still dark when they got in Matthew Lindquist's car and drove it away with all the stolen property in the trunk, she said.
By the time the Connecticut State Police and the Griswold Fire Department arrived at the Lindquist home - about 5:45 a.m. according to court records - it was engulfed in flames, reduced to its wooden frame as the roaring fire ate through the walls. Around the same time, roughly 40 miles away, police in Glastonbury, Connecticut, responded to a vehicle fire. The car was registered to Matthew Lindquist, and it didn't take police long to realize the two fires were connected.
But Lindquist was nowhere to be found.
His parents, Kenneth and Janet Lindquist, were soon pulled from the rubble of their home. Informed of what happened, Matthew Lindquist's older brother told police that he just talked to his dad the previous night, and Kenneth said they had been having problems with Matthew because he was abusing illegal and prescribed narcotics again. A neighbor also said that despite the drug issues everything seemed to be going better for Matthew - until he lost his job earlier that week.
By Dec. 28, the Connecticut State Police considered Matthew Lindquist the main person of interest in the deaths of his parents, which were ruled homicides by the medical examiner. The police asked the public for help locating him.
The whole time, he was lying in the woods 1,500 feet from his own home. A dog walker found him there on May 5.
Correa and her brother became targets of the investigation after police discovered the text messages on Lindquist's phone in January. Around the same time, an apartment security guard came forward to reveal that a woman named Ruth Correa told him a terrible story about how she and another man killed three family members while robbing their home before setting it on fire. Police interviewed her brother first.
Upon showing him a photo of Matthew Lindquist, the man paused, then he said he was not involved with "his business," according to the police affidavit. He then contacted his lawyer, who, according to the Hartford Courant, "maintains he had nothing to do with this."
Police arrested Correa on May 12, a day after her interview with police. She is charged with murder, first-degree arson, home invasion and first-degree robbery and has not entered a plea. She is being held on $2.5 million bond.
Announcing the breakthrough in the case in a news release, the Connecticut State Police said "detectives anticipate additional arrests
"U almost here or what," 21-year-old Lindquist wrote to the man running late, a little past midnight. "Don't pull in any drive way just go up road and turn lights off."
Lindquist and the man had a plan: The man was supposed to give him drugs in exchange for guns belonging to Lindquist's father after his dad went to sleep, according to court records containing text messages between them. Lindquist would be in the house. The fake burglar would tie Lindquist to a chair to make the scene look authentic, according to the affidavit.
And when police arrived, he would tell them that "two black guys" were responsible for robbing his dad's gun safe. It was bolted to the ground, so Lindquist asked the man via text, "Yo bro ... Can you pick the lock??"
But nothing went according to the plan.
By the end of the night, Lindquist would be dead, his parents would be dead, his house would be nearly burned to the ground and the guns would be missing from the safe. For months, Lindquist's body would be missing too, leading police to suspect him as a person of interest. But then police interviewed Ruth Correa, the woman who was in the car with the man who allegedly promised Lindquist drugs in exchange for the guns on Dec. 20.
She was arrested May 12 after telling police everything that happened after they pulled up on Lindquist's street. Her arrest affidavit, containing her interview with police, was unsealed Tuesday. Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. (The Washington Post is not identifying the man who allegedly plotted with Lindquist that night because he has not been charged.)
According to court documents, Correa and the man arrived just before 1 a.m. - hours later than Lindquist expected.
Lindquist hopped into the back seat of the car as it rolled up his street, its headlights off. He immediately asked the man if he brought the drugs, Correa later told police. The man - who Correa called her "brother" since they were raised together - said Lindquist wouldn't be getting any drugs until he got what he was promised: the guns.
They discussed the "fake robbery" plan further, Correa said.
But then, according to Correa, Lindquist became "panicky and fidgety" as they got out of the car. He tried to run away, Correa said, so her "brother" chased him with a machete and hit him in the back of the head.
The man told Lindquist he was "supposed to be his boy" but now he could not trust him. He threatened to tie Lindquist up for real, with zip ties and duct tape over his mouth.
That's when Lindquist started to "yell and freak out," Correa said. She told police her brother began stabbing him, and Correa said she also stabbed Lindquist in the chest "about 10 times."
They continued onto the house to get what her brother came for, Correa said, according to the affidavit, leaving Lindquist in the woods.
They knew the basement door would be unlocked because Lindquist had told them.
But they apparently didn't anticipate running into his dad.
When they did, Correa told police her brother started hitting Kenneth Lindquist with a baseball bat, while she fought off the family dog with a golf club she had taken from the car just in case.
When Janet Lindquist, Kenneth's wife, came out of another room, aghast at the scene, Correa said she grabbed Janet by the hand, pulled her into a bedroom and told her "she did not have to see this." She said she urged Janet to just give them the keys to the gun safe and they would go. Janet asked why this was happening.
"Ruth said she explained to her that the reason why this was happening was because her son had set her up," the police affidavit states.
Correa's brother had apparently already obtained the guns from the safe, Correa said, because he came into the room and pointed a rifle at Janet while Correa went snooping around the house for things to steal. She made three trips out to the car, she told police.
She returned to find her brother choking the woman to death when she tried to reach for a phone, Correa said. She said she saw Kenneth lying dead in the hallway, but didn't know what happened.
Before they left, she said, she poured flammable liquid all over the basement, and then her brother lit an exercise ball on fire. When they walked outside, she remembered hearing the birds chirping. It was still dark when they got in Matthew Lindquist's car and drove it away with all the stolen property in the trunk, she said.
By the time the Connecticut State Police and the Griswold Fire Department arrived at the Lindquist home - about 5:45 a.m. according to court records - it was engulfed in flames, reduced to its wooden frame as the roaring fire ate through the walls. Around the same time, roughly 40 miles away, police in Glastonbury, Connecticut, responded to a vehicle fire. The car was registered to Matthew Lindquist, and it didn't take police long to realize the two fires were connected.
But Lindquist was nowhere to be found.
His parents, Kenneth and Janet Lindquist, were soon pulled from the rubble of their home. Informed of what happened, Matthew Lindquist's older brother told police that he just talked to his dad the previous night, and Kenneth said they had been having problems with Matthew because he was abusing illegal and prescribed narcotics again. A neighbor also said that despite the drug issues everything seemed to be going better for Matthew - until he lost his job earlier that week.
By Dec. 28, the Connecticut State Police considered Matthew Lindquist the main person of interest in the deaths of his parents, which were ruled homicides by the medical examiner. The police asked the public for help locating him.
The whole time, he was lying in the woods 1,500 feet from his own home. A dog walker found him there on May 5.
Correa and her brother became targets of the investigation after police discovered the text messages on Lindquist's phone in January. Around the same time, an apartment security guard came forward to reveal that a woman named Ruth Correa told him a terrible story about how she and another man killed three family members while robbing their home before setting it on fire. Police interviewed her brother first.
Upon showing him a photo of Matthew Lindquist, the man paused, then he said he was not involved with "his business," according to the police affidavit. He then contacted his lawyer, who, according to the Hartford Courant, "maintains he had nothing to do with this."
Police arrested Correa on May 12, a day after her interview with police. She is charged with murder, first-degree arson, home invasion and first-degree robbery and has not entered a plea. She is being held on $2.5 million bond.
Announcing the breakthrough in the case in a news release, the Connecticut State Police said "detectives anticipate additional arrests
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