The Halloween Murders of the Liske Family

October 31, 2010, was supposed to be like any other day-like any other Halloween for Devon Griffin. After returning home from church, he played video games for a few hours. Noticing how quiet his home was, he attempted to search for his mother and stepfather, Susan and William Liske.

As he entered their bedroom, he found a blanket pulled over their heads. Believing it was a Halloween prank, he removed the blanket from their heads. His gruesome discovery would lead to his stepbrother, BJ’s, arrest for the brutal murders of Susan and William Liske, and Susan’s son Derek Griffin.

In his horror, Devon pulled the blanket off their faces and found them covered in blood. The last thing Devon remembered following his discovery was crying, screaming, and calling his aunt. His aunt would quickly call 911 for the distraught Devon. As police arrived and began investigating the scene, they determined William had been shot in the face and head five times. Susan was sexually assaulted before she was eventually shot three times at a close range.

Derek Griffin, Devon’s 23-year-old brother, had not been accounted for once he ran outside to call his aunt. The door to Derek’s bedroom was locked from the inside. Police forced their way in and found Derek curled up on his bed. His autopsy would reveal that he died from blunt force trauma. Investigators believe Derek was killed first with a hammer before William and Sarah were shot.

During their early investigation, police noted how there were no shell casings in the home. Whoever committed these heinous crimes covered their tracks by picking each one up from the floor. The home showed no signs of forced entry or robbery. Investigators also found a bloody hammer in a closet in the home. William’s son, also named William Liske, but given the nickname “BJ,” was no where to be found.

This led police to try and develop a timeline for the days leading up to the grisly murders.

The day before, William and BJ returned from a week-long hunting trip. Later the same evening, the family held a get-together at their home with a neighbor which ended around midnight. Since BJ had drank heavily during their get-together, his father allowed him to sleep on the couch. A neighbor told investigators she heard banging, which could have been gunshots, at about 6:30 a.m. the following morning.

Soon afterward, Susan’s sister-in-law Laurie Morse became concerned when Derek hadn’t came to work for her husband. Morse then attempted to reach out to Susan and William to no avail at 7 and 9 a.m. Out of options, she called Devon.

As detectives assembled their timeline, they looked to Devon initially as a suspect. Devon revealed to officers that when he’d quickly returned home to grab his choir robe before going to church, he saw his stepbrother BJ in his father’s white truck. Devon reportedly told BJ, who was loading something into the truck, that he would be back soon. Police ultimately cleared him as a suspect. With everyone else accounted for, they turned their eyes towards BJ.

BJ’s relationship with his stepmother, Susan, was rocky. The pair “did not get along whatsoever” and often argued according to police and witnesses. After a while, their arguments became physically violent. In 2004, BJ was charged with assault and robbery after he allegedly hit Susan with a coffee cup and took her keys. A plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was filed for him, but the state later dropped the case.

Police eventually tracked BJ 170 miles away to a cabin in Carroll County on the afternoon of October 31. This was the same cabin he stayed in with his father during their hunting trip. The cabin and surrounding property were searched for signs of any weapons. Evidence such as a .22 caliber gun and blood were found in William’s pick-up truck. BJ was swiftly arrested and charged with murder.

In August 2011, BJ pled guilty to three counts of aggravated murder. In accordance with his plea, prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty. He was sentenced the following month to life in prison without the possibility of parole on each charge.

On March 31, 2015, BJ was found dead in his prison cell at the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio, from a self-inflicted wound.