Man ‘shot my mommy,’ boy told couple

updated 4:57 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2009

DAYTON, Ohio - The 4-year-old boy's explanation was even more startling than the sight of him, barefoot and clad in pajamas, standing alone in the lobby of a highway rest stop.

Judith and Michael McConnell had pulled into the rest stop on Interstate 70 about 50 miles outside of Dayton just after 9 p.m. on Jan. 2.

The boy was by himself, staring out a window. Judith McConnell waved at him as they walked in. What he said next was chilling: "A man came into my house without knocking and shot my mommy."

The man then left him alone at the rest stop, the boy said.

The couple, driving home to Maryland after Christmas in Colorado, took the boy into their car to warm up and called police.

"He's been abandoned here by a man with a gun," Michael McConnell told police. "He's quite disturbed."

As they waited for deputies to arrive, the boy recited the information his mother had drilled into him — his address, his parents' names, two phone numbers.

When Montgomery County sheriff's deputies arrived at his family's small white bungalow in Dayton later that night, they found the body of his 29-year-old mother, shot to death.

The woman died after struggling with her attacker, said Sheriff Phil Plummer. The killer also sexually assaulted the boy before taking him to the rest stop and abandoning him, police said.

The Associated Press is not naming the family so as not to identify the victim of an alleged sexual offense.

Police say a man under arrest has confessed to the crimes. Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck is considering whether to seek the death penalty.

Family car stolen at concert
The chilling story began about a week before Christmas, when the 4-year-old's parents' car was stolen while they celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary at a rock concert in Columbus.

Police say the car, and the information inside it, led the killer directly to the family's home, about 75 miles away.

The young couple were struggling to make ends meet in a working-class Dayton neighborhood. She had left her job at a grocery store to stay home with her son. Her husband held down assorted jobs to support the family, working as an exterminator, a grocery store manager, a trainee at a bar-restaurant.

Neighbor Steve Hopkins, 41, described the boy as a precocious kid quick to make friends, even with adults.

"When he met you, he knew you," Hopkins said, saying the boy greeted him on the street with "How you doing, Steve?"

On Dec. 16, 10 days after their fourth anniversary, the couple drove to Columbus to see the rock band Duran Duran, Hopkins said.

Their Honda was reported stolen in from an Ohio State parking garage on Dec. 17. The husband told police the car was unlocked and the keys had been left inside along with his wallet, which contained three credit cards and his Social Security card, according to a police report.

MORE FROM PEOPLE

People Section Front

NYT: Suspect ‘mortified’ about deployment Victims relieved ‘Ether Man’ may be in custody   Robbery suspect is Matt Lauer look-alike   Were red flags about shooting suspect ignored? Dad lost his job, so this family lives on the road Living on the road full-time: Is it right for you? Woman in wrong-embryo case plans to see baby   Parents remember N.D. softball players   Serial killer suspect held without bond   Jail inmates save guard from attack People Section Front   Add People headlines to your news reader: