Pregnant Woman Shot by an 11 Year Old?

This is a horrifying story that is just so hard to believe. Kenzie Marie Houk, eight months pregnant, was found in bed shot to death by her 4-year old daughter on Friday in western Pennsylvania. The killer? Her boyfriend’s 11-year-old son. Authorities, whom will not release the name of the son since he is a juvenile, say that an accidental shooting is very unlikely and that the case is being treated as a homicide.

Kenzie, age 26, was shot at point-blank range by a 20-gauge youth model shotgun, designed specifically for a child’s hands. Such guns do not have to be registered, and the boy often went hunting with his father. The boy was charged with one charge of criminal homicide, and one charge of homicide of an unborn child, according to Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.

“This is something that you wouldn’t even think of in your worst nightmare, that you’d have to charge an 11-year-old with homicide,” Bongivengo said, according to news reports, “It’s heinous, the whole situation.”

Anyone over the age of 10 years implicated in a homicide or murder will be indicted as an adult, according to Pennsylvania statutes, and if sentenced, the child will be faced with a maximum sentence of life in jail, says Bongivengo.

The attorney general informed reporters that there was no previous history with child abuse, but that authorities were mounting an investigation into the matter.

The victim’s family and friends told the Associated Press that their had been issues in the past with the boy.

“He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her,” Houk’s brother-in-law, Jason Kraner said. “There was an issue with jealousy.” An 11-year-old kid — what would give him the motive to shoot someone?” Houk’s father Jack said. “Maybe he was just jealous of my daughter and the baby and thought he would be overpowered.”

Houk’s body was found by the Pennsylvania State Police after her 4-year old daughter informed tree cutters on the property that she thought her mother was dead, says Bongivengo.

The boy told authorities there had been a black truck around the house that morning, leading investigators to search for a false lead for five hours. It wasn’t until Houk’s daughter implicated the boy in the murder that the authorities pulled the boy out of school.

“She didn’t actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang,” Bongivengo said. The gun was found in a “location we believe to be in the defendant’s bedroom.”

The boy’s court-appointed defense attorney, Dennis Elisco, says his plans are to ask for bail for the boy and have the case moved to juvenile court, where he says it belongs.

“I don’t think he knows what’s going on,” he said. “I walked out of there thinking he was innocent. I believe Jordan did not do this.”