A 22-year-old man with a history of mental health issues is charged with brutally murdering his father, his father's new bride and her son in the middle of the night.
A Vermont woman who was shot dead alongside her son and husband of two months said that she feared for her life days before her brutal murder.
Erica Crossman, 41, told a family friend that she feared being alone in her home with her stepson, Brian Crossman Jr., and voiced concerns about whether or not she would be able to use the pistol she owned should a situation arise, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
Two days later, Brian Crossman Jr. called the Vermont State Police (VSP) to report that he returned to his father's home after taking a long walk to look for deer in the middle of the night to find Erica, his father, Brian Crossman Sr., and his 13-year-old stepbrother, Colin Taft Jr. dead, according to the affidavit.
On Friday, police in New York arrested Brian Crossman Jr. on the charge of being a fugitive from justice following the issuance of a warrant in Vermont charging him with three counts of aggravated murder.
The affidavit filed in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Rutland says that police arrived at the residence to find "several shotguns" upon entering the home, "several additional shotguns in a downstairs bedroom," a bloody chainsaw, "several 20-gauge spent cartridge casings" and " a significant amount of blood and bodily fluid throughout the residence."
Brian Crossman Sr. was "lying on his back directly in front of the mudroom entrance door" with "a gunshot injury to his head and other gunshot injuries to his body," according to the affidavit.
Erica "was completely nude and her legs were spread apart. Her head was positioned facing to her left side. She appeared to have a gunshot wound to the left side of her head," according to the affidavit.
The bed had "no bedsheets or comforter" and police said that the body appeared to have been moved, according to the affidavit.
Colin, the youngest victim, was found dead in his room after sustaining gunshot wounds to the head and calf, according to the affidavit.
Police also arrived to find Crossman Jr. covered in blood and allegedly claiming he had tried to drag his father's body out of the home to transport him to his grandmother's house across the street but ultimately gave up and instead called 911, according to the affidavit.
He also allegedly said that he had changed into the bloody clothes he was wearing upon the arrival of police and that there was "additional bloody clothing at the residence," according to the affidavit. Those clothes were discovered by police in the same room as Erica's body, according to the affidavit.
Once he finished speaking with police on the scene, the affidavit says that Crossman asked: "So, what's gonna happen, am I gonna like go to the hospital or go to jail or am I gonna go with my aunt or just go home?"
He did go in for questioning but did not speak with detectives after invoking his Fifth Amendment right to an attorney, and later that same day he was hospitalized in New York due to mental health issues, according to the affidavit.
VSP interviewed multiple family members who said that Crossman Jr. struggled with mental health issues his entire life, and his mother told police that the condition had worsened in recent years, according to the affidavit.
Crossman Jr.'s mental health issues were the main reason he was staying with his father at the time, said his mother, who explained that she and her husband were away that weekend and she did not want to leave her son alone at her residence, according to the affidavit,
Family friend Robert Taylor saw Crossman Jr. at his father's home for the first time in years that weekend and told police that he "seemed different and mentioned that Crossman Jr. was tipping his head sideways and laughing (which he had never seen before)," according to the affidavit.
It was also Taylor who informed police about his conversation with Erica that evening, who had just married Crossman Sr. in July.
Taylor said that while at the residence, E. Crossman confided in him that she didn't feel safe with Crossman Jr. at the residence and that she was afraid to be there alone when Crossman Sr. wasn't around. She told Taylor that she was scared because Crossman Sr. was on-call that weekend for Green Mountain Power, and could be called out leaving her alone with Crossman Jr. E. Crossman said she had a pistol, but that she never carried it, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to use it if she needed to. Taylor told E. Crossman to have Crossman Sr. lock up all the guns and Taylor told Crossman Sr. that Erica was uncomfortable with Crossman Jr. being at the residence and the possibility of being alone with him.
That conversation happened around 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says that the following day, Crossman Sr. was called in on four occasions.
Then, in the early morning hours of Sunday, police arrived at the Crossman home to find the gun cabinet unlocked, firearms scattered throughout the residence, and Erica, her new husband and her son dead.
Crossman Jr. is still in a New York jail awaiting extradition and has yet to enter a plea.
