The Conman

Christopher Hightower worked in Barrington, Rhode Island, as a commodities trading adviser. By 1991 his money and his marriage were both in trouble, and a client, Ernest Brendel, had complained to commodities regulators about how Hightower had handled his investment accounts. The complaint threatened Hightower’s ability to keep working.

On September 19, 1991, Hightower bought a crossbow and arrows. Within days Ernest had been shot with arrows and beaten, and his wife, Alice, had been strangled. On September 20, Hightower picked up the couple’s young daughter, Emily, from the YMCA, and she was killed as well. Police arrested Hightower in Barrington on September 23, but the Brendels were still missing. On November 7, a woman walking her dogs near St. Andrew’s School noticed two sunken patches of ground dusted with lime. All three family members were buried there.

Hightower went on trial in Rhode Island Superior Court in March 1993 and was convicted on all 11 counts, including the three murders, kidnapping, forgery, and unlawful disposal of the bodies. He received several consecutive life sentences, two of them without parole. The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the convictions in August 1995.