An Indiana man cracked his mother’s skull with a cast iron skillet and stabbed his father to death when he intervened early Sunday morning.
Jason Whitaker’s mother called 911 at about 2 a.m., saying that her son was stabbing her husband at their home in Merillville, the Chicago Tribune reported. When police arrived, Whitaker, 44, answered the door covered in blood and holding the bloody knife he’d used to kill his father, court documents say.
Police found the father, 74-year-old Orell Whitaker, dead at the scene. His mother had “extensive injuries,” including multiple stab wounds and a skull fracture.
She told police that the incident began when she told her son to stop turning the furnace off in the basement. This apparently upset him, and began to attack her, stabbing her multiple times and, and one point, hitting her over the head with a cast-iron skillet.
After he hit her over the head, the mother staggered upstairs to call 911. When she turned around, she saw her son dragging Orell Whitaker by the feet.
The enraged son came back upstairs and began trying to drag his mother back into the basement.
She was transferred to an Illinois hospital where she underwent surgery to install a metal plate in her head.
The woman told police that she and her husband had kicked their son out of the house but let him return when he ran up “hotel bills,” the court documents said.
Whitaker told police that his parents locked him in the basement, used crack and cocaine, and were sex traffickers. He said his father frequently walked around with a gun.
Investigators found no evidence of any of his claims, however. They did find a journal belonging to the suspect filled with “incoherent ramblings,” the affidavit says.
He said his mother was “belligerent” to him and claimed he “didn’t know what happened” until police arrived. Later he claimed he attacked his father in self-defence.
In addition to the knife he was carrying when he answered the door, police found two more bloody knives in the basement.
Whitaker has been charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery, two counts of domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, and two counts of battery resulting in serious bodily injury. He’s being held without bond.
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[Featured image: Jason Whitaker/Lake County Sheriff’s Office]