Man Murders His Twin Girls In Bitter Custody Battle

A devastated mother of twin girls who were murdered by their father and laid out for her to find has spoken for the first time of her heartbreak.

Grieving Kristina Hooper, 42, screamed “he’s a monster” when she discovered her ex-husband, Robert King, had slit the throats of their three-year-old children, Caroline and Madison.

King had also gassed the defenceless tots, then laid them out on his bed with him in the middle after killing himself.

The children died from a combination of blood loss and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Kristina first knew something was wrong when King, with whom she had started divorce proceedings, did not answer his phone during a weekend visit for the girls. She went to his house and saw his car parked near the back door and a hose pipe running into the house.

“I ran into the bedroom and screamed, ‘Caroline, Madison’. Then I froze. On the bed were three lifeless bodies. Robert lay in the middle with Caroline and Madison on either side. As I moved closer I could see that each one had a deep cut under their chin. I tried picking Madison up, but her body was floppy and limp, and her skin ice cold. I remember screaming, ‘My husband killed my babies.’ I ran outside and fell to my knees. I was on the front lawn in tears. Neighbours heard me crying – I was surrounded by people and an ambulance pulled up. I pointed at the bedroom and said, ‘he killed them’.”

Kristina, of Virginia, USA, went to her mother’s home where she sobbed on the floor. She had married King in March 2008, a few months before their children were born.

“I already had a son Ray, then 10, from a previous relationship. Robert was great with him. He treated him like his own. I had no reason to doubt he’d be a brilliant dad to our precious girls too. I was wrong. Just before they turned two, Robert dropped a bombshell over dinner. He said he’d quit his job. I’d given up my job as a waitress when the girls were born and we relied on Robert’s income to get by. He told me he would stay at home with the girls and I would work. I couldn’t believe how selfish he was being.”

Ms Hooper got shifts waitressing and hoped being a stay-at-home father would help the situation and King would be happier.

Instead King started shoplifting.

“I said it was over,” Ms Hooper said. “I took the kids to my mum’s house. But over the next few weeks, Robert bombarded me with texts. He told me he would get the kids taken off me. I was happy when we finally began divorce proceedings.”

The situation soon calmed down and King was allowed to look after the twins at the weekend.

But, in November 2011, he demanded custody and Kristina fought to keep her twins.

She added:“There was no way I could live without them. They were adorable. Madison liked making cakes and Caroline loved doing jigsaw puzzles.”

The twins were killed in June 2012 and a policeman told Kristina Robert had killed the girls before killing himself.

Kristina said: “He’d pumped carbon monoxide into the house to choke them, then slit their throats. They’d died from a combination of both. He didn’t want me to have custody of the girls. So he’d taken them from me in the cruelest way possible. Kristina is now moving on with her life. I long to see Caroline and Madison run through the front door with their cheeky smiles,” she said.

“’Look at our finger paintings, Mummy,’ I can hear them saying. I can’t get what Robert has done out of my head. I remember when the girls had just been born, how happy we’d all been. After they died I’d fall asleep surrounded by their toys. Ray was just as devastated. He missed his little sisters terribly. I’ve tried to be strong for him. I won’t let Robert have my happy memories. I’ll never forget my darlings.”

Source: Mirror