Wisconsin Boy Charged in 2 Slayings

A 14-year-old boy spent three days partying with friends after shooting his father and his father’s girlfriend to death and stashing their bodies in a barn, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

The youth told police he decided to kill his father because he had been arguing with him for several days before Saturday’s slayings. The father had been upset with his son because the boy was not doing chores, and he woke the boy early Saturday to do gardening and household cleaning, prosecutors said.

Police said the boy confessed to killing the couple with a rifle he kept in his bedroom, then dragging their bodies into a barn to hide them.

The youth is charged with two counts of intentional homicide. Under Wisconsin law, juveniles ages 10 to 14 who are accused of murder are first sent to adult court.

Circuit Judge Eugene Harrington ordered the boy held without bail Wednesday.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered the bodies of Wilber Lepley Jr., 38, and Amber Williams, 23, at Lepley’s rural home Monday. Lepley’s son was arrested hours later at a friend’s home 50 miles away.

Authorities were contacted after the couple had missed three days of work, the complaint said. Workers said the boy had called the company, saying his father and Williams were “very sick with the flu” and intended to see a doctor.

For three days, he stayed home and invited friends to the house, “partied and drank beer with them and lied to them about the whereabouts of his father and Ms. Williams,” the complaint said.

The complaint said it appeared the bodies had been dragged from the home to the barn by a rope tied around their ankles.

“There is no real issue here about what happened. The question is why and how it should be dealt with,” Bitney said.

Shell Lake is in northern Wisconsin, 270 miles northwest of Milwaukee.