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By Steve Huff

Accounts found in multiple news stories indicate that this is what happened: David Ludwig had kept Kara Beth Borden out past her curfew. Kara's parents, Michael and Cathryn, asked David over to discuss this infraction. The tall 18 year-old apparently argued with either one or both Bordens for an hour before Michael Borden, age 50, turned to usher David out of the house. It was then that David Ludwig allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot Mr. Borden in the back of the head. He then went to the Borden's bedroom and shot Cathryn Borden. David Ludwig then ran through the house shouting for Kara Beth, and together the young couple fled in David's red Volkswagen Jetta.

The murders were allegedly witnessed by Kara Beth's younger sister Katelyn, age 13, and overheard by her brother David, age 9. It was David Borden's frantic run to a neighbor's home that prompted the first call to Lititz, PA Emergency Services.

The Amber Alert system was activated, a system put in place nationwide to provide real-time alerts when children are abducted under dangerous circumstances. By the afternoon of Sunday the 13th, the story of the murder of the Bordens and the flight by David Ludwig and Kara Beth Borden was national news.

David Ludwig had pages at a free image-hosting site — http://www.picturetrail.com/haydren. There he had photos posted of himself, mostly, as well as pictures taken on a hunting trip he made with friends in 2004. In the online album of hunting photographs could be found images of Ludwig dressing a deer carcass, smiling broadly. Several photos in another album showed Ludwig in a hooded sweatshirt, posing with what appeared to be a sword. He struck various combat poses, his gaze somber, the hood on the sweatshirt pulled up.

The question that seemed to be asked over and over as the story played out was this — if Borden and Ludwig, both home-schooled teens from deeply religious homes who themselves expressed an ardent Christian faith had killed Kara Beth's parents together, how had such a thing come to pass?

In the afternoon on Monday, November 14, 2005, Indiana State Troopers chased a red Volkswagen Jetta across the flat Indiana heartland. After a chase where speeds reached nearly 100 mph, the Jetta didn't make a curve on a country road near Belleville, IN, and ended up accordioned against a tree just off the road, airbags exploded. Troopers pulled David Ludwig from the driver's seat and Kara Beth Borden from the passenger side. Ludwig resisted mildly before being cuffed, and Kara Beth was in hysterics. The 14-year-old was treated like a victim, and due to state laws she was not interrogated. In Indiana, state law requires a parent or guardian be present when interrogating a juvenile. As of November 14, Kara Beth had no living parents or official guardian. Thirty hours after Michael and Cathryn Borden were shot dead in their Lititz, PA home, their alleged killer was in custody 600 miles to the west.

Many who follow such cases in the news read all the mainstream media accounts, but turned to blogs for further discussions, explorations. Bloggers dug into both Ludwig's and Kara Beth Borden's weblogs and webpages searching for some sign of how two young people so seemingly committed to a life in Christ could be part of something as brutal as the murder of Kara Beth Borden's parents. In a way, the absences in the teens' blogs were more telling than what was written there. While both Ludwig and Borden made comments at each others' myspace.com and Xanga sites, there was otherwise very little mention of one another. To some, this indicated that Kara Beth might not be a victim so much as an accomplice.

But perhaps the truth was embedded somewhere in a kind of unintentional code left by David Ludwig. The Christian rock song that had Ludwig enthused enough to post on his weblog on October 7, 2005, ended with these words:

You'll never take me in the fire

You'll never take my own desire...

Though the band "Pillar" meant "Fireproof" as an song of praise and worship, a rocking expression of their faith in being saved from the fires of hell, perhaps David Ludwig found another message entirely in those words. In Kara Beth, perhaps he found his desire, and to be with her as he wished, he would make a bloody journey, begun early on a Sunday, with gunfire.

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Feature Story - Kara Beth Borden and David Ludwig

Steve Huff can be reached via email at, steve.huff@gmail.com .