Within the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2021, Benjamin Elliott, then 17 years outdated, walked into his twin sister Meghan’s bed room. It was one thing he had accomplished tons of of occasions. However on this morning, he had a knife in his hand and stabbed her within the neck whereas she was asleep. He would later say he was sleepwalking. When he realized what he had accomplished, he instantly known as 911.
“I simply killed my sister,” Benjamin informed the emergency operator. “Oh my God … I believed it was a dream.”
Benjamin’s dad and mom Kathy and Michael Elliott confronted a heartbreaking and unimaginable actuality: their beloved daughter, Meghan, was lifeless, and her adoring twin brother — their son — was accused of deliberately murdering her. They might not think about why, and neither may investigators. Correspondent Erin Moriarty investigates the extraordinary case of “The Boy Who Killed His Twin,” for the thirty eighth season premiere of “48 Hours,” airing Saturday, Sept. 27 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
“What makes you so positive that you simply stabbed your sister whilst you have been sleepwalking?” Moriarty requested Benjamin Elliott in a jailhouse interview earlier this yr.
“I’d by no means have accomplished that,” he replied. “I liked her. … She was my finest and closest buddy.”
Benjamin’s household, kinfolk and closest buddies agreed. “He and Meghan are so shut, you may by no means image something dangerous taking place between them,” Drue Whittecar, a longtime household buddy of the Elliotts, informed Moriarty.
“And the way did she really feel about Ben?” Moriarty requested.
“She liked him,” Whittecar replied. “She seemed as much as him. … You’d see her stroll up subsequent to him when she would really feel uncomfortable and simply kinda stand by him.”
Moriarty additionally interviewed the prosecutors, Megan Lengthy and Maroun Koutani.
“Have been you capable of finding any proof that there was an issue with … these twins?” Moriarty requested. “No,” Lengthy replied. “We positively seemed into it and tried.”
So how may such a seemingly loving relationship between the twins finish in an unfathomable tragedy?
That is what Benjamin’s dad and mom — Kathy, a senior supervisor with the Woman Scouts of America, and Michael, a stay-at-home dad — and their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, wished to know.
The Elliotts initially feared {that a} psychological well being disaster was the trigger. However it turned out that Benjamin, and a few shut kinfolk of the Elliotts, had a historical past of sleepwalking. Actually, a boyhood buddy of the Elliott twins informed their dad and mom a few slumber occasion years earlier, once they discovered Benjamin consuming a donut on a sofa — whereas he was asleep.
Benjamin’s protection attorneys, Cary Hart and Wes Rucker, requested Dr. Jerald Simmons, a neurologist and sleep problem skilled, to look at Benjamin. Simmons was initially skeptical. However after interviewing Benjamin, and listening to about his and his household’s historical past of sleepwalking, Simmons carried out two sleep research on him, with {the teenager} hooked as much as units that monitored his each motion. Simmons went from skeptic to believer.
He decided that Benjamin fell shortly into what is called slow-wave sleep, or when individuals can sleepwalk. That is essential as a result of on the evening Meghan was killed, Benjamin spent hours scrolling the online on his mobile phone, apart from a 24-minute interval when his cellphone was inactive. Simmons believes that Benjamin was sleepwalking throughout that interval, and unintentionally stabbed Meghan to dying.
“Do you consider Ben killed his sister with out even realizing he was doing it in his sleep?” Moriarty requested Simmons.
“Sure,” he replied. “Ben positively killed his sister. He did it, there is not any query, he is the one which had the knife and he stabbed her. However … he did not do that voluntarily. There was no motivation.”
Surprisingly, sleepwalking has proved to be a profitable — albeit uncommon — felony protection. For instance, a Canadian man, Kenneth Parks, was accused of driving 14 miles to his mother-in-law’s residence, the place he killed her. He claimed he was sleepwalking the whole time and was acquitted. And North Carolina father Joseph Mitchell, accused of strangling one in all his kids, mentioned he was sleepwalking throughout the killing. He was additionally discovered not responsible.
The Elliotts have been relieved, and frightened, at lastly having an evidence. “It is scary as hell,” Kathy Elliott mentioned, including, “if that may occur to us, then that would occur to anyone with a sleep downside.”
They hoped Simmons’ findings would finish the investigation into Benjamin. In spite of everything, prosecutors admitted they may discover no cause for the deadly stabbing.
However prosecutors have been nonetheless not satisfied. They questioned Benjamin’s account of that evening, his demeanor throughout an interrogation with a murder detective and that he mentioned he stabbed his sister as soon as. That was essential as a result of the medical expert decided Meghan had two wounds to her neck — and one was 4 inches deep and severed key arteries, which prosecutors believed ought to have left blood spatter on the scene.
Regardless of receiving Simmons’ findings, prosecutors charged Benjamin with deliberately murdering his twin, and earlier this yr, Benjamin stood trial.
The Elliotts had misplaced their daughter. Nobody knew why. Now, they confronted dropping their son.
