By Chelsea Miller-
Best friends, lovers and even family can be lost if you’re willing to kill.
It’s not just enough that Pennsylvania citizens lived through local murders, but now they can relive what horror happened just a few years ago by reading books about these sensational crimes.
For example, 16-year-old, Alec Kreider, killed his best friend’s family.
Micheal W. Cuneo wrote a spine-chilling book about this crime, “A Need To Kill: Confessions of a Teen Killer.”
There are two sections to the book. The first section is titled “The Killings,” and is about what happened narrated in an omniscient narrative point of view. Each chapter holds a story within its own.
Lancaster resident Jan Roseboro was found dead in her pool, killed by her husband, Michael Roseboro.
M. William Phelps wrote the book on the Roseboro murder. Within this book titled “Love Her To Death” there are five different stories all linking together. (Book One: The Undertaker and The Po-Po, Book Two: The Mistress and Mortician, Book Three: Morbid Curiosity, Book Four: Where I’m Calling From, Book Five: Angie and The Rockstar) Just like the the book “A Need To Kill” it is written in a way where you get everyone’s side of the story; each chapter is written from a different view point.
“I didn’t seem like it was too long ago that this happened and it was very close, I’m surprised I didn’t hear about it,” said Penn Manor sophomore Casey Hurlburt.
A Manheim Township family was murdered in May of 2007 while sleeping soundly. With no force, Kreider entered the house of Kevin Haines, his best friend. Stabbing Kevin, his mother and father, Kreider experienced the feeling of being a cold blooded killer, according to the book about the experience. Luckily, the Haines’s daughter, Maggie, got away with no physical harm. She ran across the street to get help after being startled by screams and the smell of blood coming from her parent’s room. She saw her mother covered in blood, crying for help while her father was lying in their bed motionless.
The police were puzzled with the crime scene. They first suspected Maggie since no other person was obvious and there were no leads to follow. Kreider eventually confessed the homicide to his father in early June. His father, Tim Kreider, reported him to the police two days after the confession. Kreider was charged with three counts of first degree murder, on June 17, 2008.
The first chapter of “A Need to Kill,” is about the mind confusion that Haines went through that deadly night the family was killed. The second chapter is about Manheim Township officer, Steve Newman, who went through what he arrived to at the scene of the crime and his experience talking to Haines.
The second section is called “The Killer,” and is all about Kreider’s perspective on everything that went down the night of the killing to the day he was convicted.
“It’s unbelievable, it makes a good reference to go back on,” said Hurlburt. “In ten years from now if I see this book I’d be like -Oh my god, I remember this!- and totally read it again.”
In the summer of 2008 in Reinholds PA, Jan Roseboro was found dead in the bottom of her pool. Her husband, Micheal Roseboro, seemed emotionless to the loss of his wife so police thought he was in shock. Police guessed is was an accident that Jan drowned, but Roseboro’s autopsy showed she was beaten and strangled.
Not only did Micheal Roseboro inherit his family business, being a funeral director, it turns out he was having an affair. His mistress, Angela Funk, was also pregnant with his child.
There wasn’t an official motive stated by police why Roseboro did what he did. Many people think he wanted his wife out of the picture so he could have a new lover and keep all his money without divorcing, a easy way out. Roseboro was convicted for the death of Jan, sentenced for life, with no possibility of parole.
“I’m only on the ninth chapter, but the description was amazing, it makes me feel like I can see all the people and the pool,” Hurlburt said.
These two books can be found on Amazon.com or at a local book store. Love Her to Death can be purchased for about $7 and A Need to Kill for $8 on Amazon. These mind blowing, descriptive books will make you seem like you’re watching a movie. It will seem like you’re actually reliving what had happened all right in front of you.
“If I actually owned the book, I’d write my name in it and pass it along to anyone who would want to read it,” said Hurlburt. “I want to spread the word about this book