Police Search for Youth Wanted in Parents’ Slaying

Police searched Friday for a 16-year-old boy suspected of killing his parents and fleeing in the family car, just days after two skinheads were arrested for killing their parents in a nearby town.

Jeffrey Howorth was missing with a car belonging to his parents, George Howorth, 46, and Sue Howorth, 48. They were found shot to death Thursday in their home in this suburb of Allentown in eastern Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey Howorth, a member of the swim team at Emmaus High School, was last seen at 4 p.m. EST Thursday. Police estimated the couple were killed at 5 p.m.

“First the thing with the skinheads and now this,” said neighbor William Burgess, referring to the arrest on Wednesday of Bryan and David Freeman, brothers accused of murdering their parents and younger brother at the family’s home near Allentown.

“There’s absolutely nothing I can think to understand it,” said Ken Nicholson, a Lower Macungie Township official who knew the Howorth family. “Everybody is just (shocked) that it happened and is looking for an explanation why, if it ever comes out.”

Nicholson described the Howorths as an “average, all-American family--absolutely.”

State Police Capt. Robert Werts said Jeffrey Howorth had no connection to skinheads. Dist. Atty. Robert Steinberg said the youth’s room contained anti-racism posters.

“What we have here are separate, distinct incidents that have no relation to one another,” Werts said. “We have no information that this suspect--and he is a suspect--has any connection with any type of skinhead group.”

Police allege the Freemans stabbed and bludgeoned their parents and 11-year-old brother, Eric, to death, then fled in the family car. The brothers were captured in Michigan.

The Howorths were shot multiple times, police said. Another son, Steve, 20, found his mother’s body in a dining area and his father in the kitchen.