A Florida man is accused of murdering his parents before traveling to another state and threatening to kill others.
Nicholas Steven Kirchner, 37, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in his parents’ deaths in Largo, according to a press release from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation began shortly after 12:30 p.m. Friday, during a welfare check at a home on Saunders Avenue for an employee who failed to arrive for work.
Police entered the home and discovered 53-year-old Elizabeth Lee Kirchner and 64-year-old Steven Eric Kirchner dead in the living room from gunshot wounds.
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Approximately three hours later and 460 miles away, deputies with the Taliaferro County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia received a 911 call from a motorist reporting a suspicious man in the highway shoulder.
According to a press release from the agency, he was dressed entirely in white and wore a red baseball hat while kneeling and raising one hand.
A deputy approached the man who identified himself as Nicholas Kirchner and stated that he was armed. Investigators discovered that he was not only a homicide suspect, but had also pointed a gun at someone earlier Friday in Sumter, South Carolina.
During that incident, he allegedly said to someone, “I’ve already killed two people—I’ll kill some more.”
WACH, a Fox affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina, reported that the suspect threatened several people at gunpoint and ordered them to enter a home to retrieve an item. According to the TV station, he stated that if his demands were not met, he would fire the person.
After being apprehended in Georgia, he confessed to killing his parents several times, according to authorities.
According to Pinellas deputies, he described the murders as a “righteous kill.” He also claimed to have abandoned a stolen Nissan Pathfinder near where he was arrested, according to police.
The suspect was then transported to the McDuffie County Sheriff’s Office jail, where he is awaiting extradition back to Florida.
A probable cause arrest affidavit, which could lay out a motive for killing his parents as well as a timeframe for when he may have done so, was not immediately available.
