Missouri Executes Man for Killing Woman, 2 Kids

'It was a heinous crime'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 1, 2017 12:34 AM CST
Missouri Executes Man for Killing Woman, 2 Kids
This April 21, 2014, file photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Mark Christeson, who was convicted of killing a woman and her two children nearly 20 years ago.   (Missouri Department of Corrections)

Nearly 19 years to the day that Susan Brouk and her two children were taken to a Missouri pond and killed, one of the men responsible for the crime was put to death Tuesday. Mark Christeson was given a lethal injection—Missouri's first execution since May, the AP reports. Christeson, 37, was hours away from execution in 2014 when the US Supreme Court granted a temporary stay. This time, though, the court allowed the execution to proceed, and Gov. Eric Greitens declined a clemency request for Christeson, the first inmate to be put to death since the Republican took office. Christeson was pronounced dead at 7:05pm CST, eight minutes after the lethal injection, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.

The killings of 36-year-old Brouk, her 12-year-old daughter, Adrian, and 9-year-old son, Kyle, traumatized the rural area around the south-central Missouri town of Vichy. Christeson, then 18, was running away from home with a cousin in 1998 and planned to steal Brouk's vehicle. Christeson raped Brouk and decided to murder the family after Adrian recognized him and said his name, according to court records. "It was a heinous crime. I'm just happy to see justice finally served," said Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman after Christeson's execution, which he witnessed. "I have regrets for the family that it took so long, but I hope it provides closure to them." (Last week, Texas executed a man for killing two former colleagues at a Subway.)

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