Parents are supposed to love and support their children unconditionally and protect them from harm at all costs. And when parents fail to do those things, it can have disastrous effects.
When a teenager was charged with the murder of both his parents, no one could understand what drove him to kill his own mother and father. However, in the wake of his arrest, the teen has made various accusations about what his parents did that made him snap.
The 911 Call
In the early hours of October 31, 2016, 911 dispatchers in Maine received a call from a fairly calm sounding teenager. The boy, Andrew Balcer, told the dispatcher that both his parents were dead and that he was the one who had killed them about 30 minutes before.
Confessing To The Crime
“I took my Ka-Bar (knife) and drove it straight into my mother’s back,” Balcer told the dispatcher. “My father came up because he heard her screams and I stabbed the f**k out of him,” he added. During the phone call, the 17-year-old explained he had just snapped.
‘There’s No Helping Them’
During the 911 call, Balcer claimed he hadn’t had any arguments with his parents earlier that night. And when the 911 dispatcher asked Balcer if he was sure his parents were actually dead, the 17-year-old just laughed. “Yeah, there’s no helping them,” Balcer replied.
Another Innocent Victim
“Oh, I stabbed the dog too,” Balcer was recorded saying during the chilling 911 call. “He was barking.” The dispatcher immediately sent police to the teenager’s home to assess the situation. According to the police, officers arrived shortly after the call at about 1:30 am.
The Arrest
The responding officers arrested Balcer, who was covered in his parents’ blood. After entering the home, the officers found the bodies of Balcer’s parents, Alice and Antonio Balcer. According to the police, 47-year-old Antonio was found dead on the kitchen floor. A military-style knife was reportedly found next to the retired member of the Coast Guard.
A Sickening Crime Scene
Alice, also 47 years old, was found dead in a back bedroom. The family’s Chihuahua was also found dead inside the home. According to the police, the only thing more disturbing than the crime scene was what Balcer started doing after he was arrested and loaded into the police cruiser.
Disturbing Behavior
Once in the cruiser, the 17-year-old reportedly started singing an opera. While Balcer was shaking, he showed little emotion. According to the police, Balcer was “also smiling and chuckling and… he had a ‘matter of fact’ demeanor,” as he was taken into custody.
The Autopsy
Alice and Antonio’s bodies were then examined to determine their official cause of death. According to the autopsy report, Alice had been seriously stabbed nine times. Antonio had 13 ‘major’ stab wounds all over his body. The couple both had stab wounds that actually went through their chests and out their backsides.
The Only Survivor
According to Balcer, his older brother, who was 25 years old at the time, had also been home when he attacked and killed his parents. During his rampage, he asked his brother if he wanted to die. When the 25-year-old begged for his life, Balcer let him live and allowed him to run from the home.
The Interview
During an interview with police after his arrest, Balcer explained it had been a normal night before he snapped and killed nearly his entire family. He explained he had dinner with his family and then watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian. “Andrew said ‘everything was good,’” the police report said.
The Last Normal Moments
At about 9 pm, Balcer went to his room and went online. Then at 1:30 in the morning, he explained that he decided to kill his parents and got a large hunting knife from the kitchen: “Andrew couldn’t remember what he was thinking but he heard a ‘tone’ going off in his head, as it had done in the past,” authorities noted in documents.
The Last Straw
Balcer then went into his parents’ room and reached out to his mother. “Are you having a rough night? Come on, we’ll go to your room and sleep in there,” Alice told her son before he killed her. “She hugged me,” Balcer told officers, “and she whispered in my ear, ‘Do you want me to make everything better?’ And I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I must have been having a nightmare of all the things that had happened to me up ’til then.”
A Disturbing Confession
Balcer then stabbed his mother in the back multiple times. Antonio rushed into the room when he heard his wife’s screams. At that point, Balcer stabbed his father 12 times as he tried to fight him off. “I just straight up murdered both of my parents there. I know I should have been having some sort of guilt or remorse, but I just didn’t feel much of anything,” Balcer told detectives.
Complete Apathy
“Throughout this lengthy interview with police, Andrew showed almost no emotion and a totally flat affect aside from occasional laughter,” a judge involved in the case explained in court documents. “Andrew described the bloody slaughter of his parents and the family dog with the tone of a person going to the store to get groceries.”
The Motive
After that initial interview with police, where Balcer confessed to killing his parents and the family’s dog, Bacler opened up and revealed the reason for the attack was because he was transgender. At that point, Balcer requested to be referred to as Andrea instead of Andrew. Because Balcer’s parents’ didn’t accept his transition from male to female, she explained, she snapped and killed them.
An Unacceptable Identity
“I couldn’t be as flamboyant as I wanted. I couldn’t dress the way I wanted,” Dr. Debra Baeder, Maine’s chief forensic psychiatrist, testified Balcer told her. “He [Andrew] disclosed to the state forensic service psychologist that his identity was a challenge and that given his parents … he fully expected and knew they would never accept him identifying as female,” Defense attorney Walter McKee told People. “Just living with them for his entire life, they had a certain attitude and way that became very clear to him that this would simply not be accepted without question.”
An Adult Punishment
“The only possible motive for the murders appears to be Andrew’s perception that his parents were unwilling or unable to deal with his transgender issues,” Maine District Court Judge Eric J. Walker wrote in a ruling to have Balcer tried as an adult even though he was a minor at the time of the murders. “We will never know if Antonio or Alice Balcer would have been accepting because they were ambushed and murdered by Andrew.”
Abuse Accusations
Balcer has since revealed she was the victim of parental abuse, which also triggered the attack. According to Balcer, she was sexually abused by her mother between the ages of 14 and 16 and was the victim of emotional abuse from her father. Balcer never told anyone about the abuse before and claimed that the night she killed her parents, she snapped because her mother offered to make her ‘feel better’ and she feared it meant enduring more abuse. Balcer’s brother, Christopher, however, has denied all of Balcer’s claims about their parents.
A Brother’s Denial
“No. No. No. No. No. That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life. The man never would have laid a hand on either of us,” Christopher said after hearing the accusations. “I remember the foul things you accused her of, and the looks of horror upon the family’s faces as they heard about them. You are an inhuman creature and the fact that you continue to pretend otherwise sickens me,” Christopher wrote in a letter to Balcer.
The Plea Agreement
Balcer has since pleaded guilty to the murder of both his parents as well as a count of aggravated cruelty to animals as part of a plea agreement. Balcer has yet to be sentenced, but as part of the plea agreement, Balcer’s sentence will be between 25 years and 55 years. According to Balcer’s attorney, the 19-year-old has also started using male pronouns again since being transferred to an adult facility as protection from abuse. “The juvenile facility allowed him to identify as female and made accommodations for him to identify as a female. He has decided to set that aside, as challenging as that may be, in recognition that transgender individuals may have greater difficulties in adult correctional facilities,” McKee said.
Editor’s update December 5, 2018: On December 4, 2018, the defendant Andrew “Andrea” Balcer was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
