A 14-year-old girl whose 18-year-old boyfriend allegedly fatally shot her parents left willingly with him after the slayings and was not kidnapped, prosecutors said in court papers filed Monday.
Kara Borden told detectives she left of her own free will, according to the filing. David Ludwig told detectives the two planned to get married and start a new life together.
Ludwig confessed to the slayings after his arrest and told police where to find the murder weapon in his car, according to court documents released Monday in Indiana.
In court documents filed in Pennsylvania, prosecutors said Kara Borden ran from her home to get into Ludwig’s car after the Nov. 13 shootings.
“(Kara) told the defendant that she wanted to stay with him, and they drove west with the intent to ‘get as far away as possible, get married, and start a new life,”’ Ludwig told detectives, according to the court papers.
Kidnapping charge to be dropped
District Attorney Donald Totaro said Monday the kidnapping charge against Ludwig, of Lititz, will be dropped at his preliminary hearing next month.
Earlier Monday, Indiana authorities released a search warrant affidavit for the car the couple drove nearly 600 miles from the murder scene in central Pennsylvania to Indiana.
Ludwig told Indiana State Police that a Glock semiautomatic pistol he used to kill Michael and Cathryn Borden was under the driver’s front seat of his parents’ car, according to the affidavit.
Police seized a .40-caliber Glock pistol, a .223-caliber rifle and several articles of black clothing under a search warrant executed Wednesday. Under a separate search warrant executed Friday, police said they found a .45-caliber Colt pistol, a screwdriver, several maps and two Indiana license plates.
Ludwig told police that there were several guns in the car.
“He certainly did make a statement and cooperated with police,” said Hendricks County (Ind.) prosecutor Patricia A. Baldwin. “They basically let him talk is what they did.”
Police have said the murder weapon was a .40-caliber handgun.
Hearing scheduled for Dec. 16
Ludwig is being held without bail, awaiting a Dec. 16 preliminary hearing on charges that he shot the Bordens in their home in Lititz on Nov. 13. Police allege the shootings occurred after an argument over Ludwig’s relationship with Kara Borden.
Police caught up to Ludwig and Borden Nov. 14 after a chase that ended with him crashing the car into a tree in Belleville, Ind.
James Gratton, a public defender representing Ludwig, said he was aware that his client had given a statement to Indiana authorities but did not know specifically what he told them.
Neither Ludwig nor the girl, who has not been charged, was injured in the crash.
Investigators said previously they were treating Kara Borden as a crime victim but that the investigation was continuing.
In a court filing Friday, Ludwig’s attorneys said they wanted investigators to preserve evidence in Ludwig’s wallet, such as receipts from their journey, so that surveillance video could be obtained. The video would show that he didn’t kidnap the girl, the attorneys said.