In 1989, Vidar married Delfina Zelaya, a first-generation Honduran-American from New York City, whom he had met through their common involvement in the Jehovah's Witnesses.
On April 6, 1997, six young people, ages 14 to 20, from Pikeville, Kentucky—Jason Bryant, Natasha Cornett, Dean Mullins, Joseph Risner, Crystal Sturgill, and Karen Howell—were travelling to New Orleans, Louisiana.
At a rest stop along Interstate 81 outside Baileyton, in rural Greene County, Tennessee, eyewitnesses observed six youths in conversation with the Lillelid family, who were returning from a religious convention.
[3] They stopped at a Waffle House while traveling through Georgia, but left the restaurant when a group of police officers arrived.
When they reached the border, they were initially denied admittance because they did not have the proper forms of identification, but eventually found a way into the country.
When they claimed they were lost, the officers ordered the group out of the van and conducted a search, finding a knife, as well as a photo album belonging to the Lillelid family.
They ordered the group to re-enter the United States, where American border patrol officers searched them and subsequently took them to an Arizona jail.
Cleland Blake, a forensic pathologist, testified that Vidar's body had six gunshot wounds, one to the right side of his head and five to his chest.
A final 9 mm entry wound was located at the midsection of Delfina's abdomen just above her navel, and the bullet was recovered from her spine.
Delfina's wounds were not immediately fatal, and she could have been conscious for as long as 25 minutes, including while her body was driven over by the van.
Six-year-old Tabitha was shot once in the head with a small-caliber weapon, with the bullet entering the left side of her skull, traveling downward, and exiting behind her right ear.
Hospitalized, she remained on life support until her uncle, who had been named her custodian, gave permission for several of her organs to be donated.
He was transported by a Lifestar helicopter to the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Tennessee Memorial Hospital in Knoxville, where he was listed in critical condition.
All six of the perpetrators were from Kentucky, were known to have had troubled backgrounds, struggled academically or with substance abuse, and—with the exception of Bryant—had attended Betsy Layne High School.
At the age of 14, she was arrested for forgery due to the theft of a box of checks, and sentenced by the juvenile court to one year of probation.
However, she performed well on standardized tests, including a total score of 28 on her ACT, and had applied for admission to several colleges.
Observers commented on the amount of emotional neglect Sturgill suffered in her home; in December 1996, she accused her stepfather of repeated sexual abuse.
She lived in approximately thirteen different places from the time she made the allegations in December until the shootings occurred in April.
Jason Blake Bryant, 14, was born July 18, 1982, in Hellier, Kentucky, had an IQ of 85, and the emotional and social skills of an 11-year-old.
[4] He had a history of alcohol and drug abuse, beginning as early as age 3, and was in the eighth grade at Millard High School in Pike County, Kentucky.
Howell had a history of resistance to rules and regulations, dysfunction in school, illegal drug usage, runaway behavior, and an interest in witchcraft, which began with a ouija board and "automatic writing".
She claimed to have had a bad trip where she "half-heartedly" tried to chew her friend's arm off, but otherwise had no history of violence nor a criminal record prior to the murders.
Therefore, before jury selection was completed, a plea bargain was drawn up in which the death penalty was taken off the table if the six pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
However, Bell stipulated that all six defendants had to accept the deal and do so within a very short time period, or the death penalty would be pursued.
Court testimony by the other defendants was that the youngest, Bryant, had fired the shots, but the judge opined that another undetermined member of the group might also have done so.
[10] Soon after Peter Lillelid's medical condition stabilized at the end of April 1997, a custody battle began between his maternal grandmother, Lydia Selaya, in Miami, Florida, and his paternal aunt, Randi Heier, in Sweden.
Citing Heier's pledge to raise Peter in the faith and teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses as the deciding factor, local Judge Fred McDonald awarded her custody on July 1, 1997.
Bell, the district attorney, has stated in several interviews that the six youths had planned a "killing spree" inspired by the popular film Natural Born Killers.
Considering that the killing began and ended with the Lillelid family at Payne Hollow Road, this theory is highly unlikely.
Bell also insists that the bodies were "arranged in the shape of a cross," a statement refuted by Sheriff David Davenport, who investigated the scene.