MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin doctor had an underlying health condition and was worried about coronavirus. As a result, she and her husband moved their daughter and her boyfriend to a separate residence for which the parents paid, prosecutors said Tuesday in court documents.
Then in late March the boyfriend allegedly shot both parents in the head in an apparent robbery and left them for dead in a ditch, according to the filing.
The bodies of Dr. Beth Potter, 52, and Robin Carre, 57, were found the morning of March 31 by a jogger near the entrance to the University of Wisconsin’s arboretum, which is several miles from the Madison campus. According to the prosecutor, they were each shot in the back of the head.
Carre was dead when they were discovered, but Potter died after being transported to a hospital, investigators said.
We've just lost another front-line hero — this time, to America's other plague.
Dr. Beth Potter and her husband were shot to death and found in a ditch at the UW Arboretum. ? #EndGunViolence https://t.co/WawN1Kt0wP via @WiStateJournal— WIAntiViolenceEffort (@WAVE_EdFund) April 4, 2020
“This was a brutal execution,” Dane County assistant district attorney William Brown said, according to the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison.
The boyfriend, identified as Khari Sanford, 18, was charged with two counts of party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide, use of a dangerous weapon. The second suspect, Ali’jah Larrue, 18, was charged as an accomplice, facing two counts of party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide, reported the Journal.
Potter was wearing pajamas and socks, while Carre was wearing only underwear, authorities said.
Investigators believe Sanford and Larrue planned to rob the parents after learning from the daughter that the couple was wealthy, The Associated Press reported.
After the murders, a high school classmate reportedly told investigators that Sanford stopped by his house and frantically called Larrue, saying he learned via social media that one of the parents may have survived the shootings and could possibly implicate them.
"This was a brutal execution": Prosecutor outlines an alleged burglary, kidnapping and point-blank shooting of couple at UW Arboretum.https://t.co/y2Q5lhzfjS
— Phil Brinkman (@PhilBrinkmanWSJ) April 7, 2020
The daughter told police Sanford was with her the night he reportedly took the parents to the arboretum. However, investigators say text messages retrieved from her phone contradicted her story, the State Journal reported.
It was unclear whether the daughter was facing charges in connection with the case, FOX News reported.
Authorities arrested Sanford and Larrue after piecing together surveillance video from numerous sources and examining GPS data from Larrue’s phone, the newspaper reported.
Bail for each defendant was set at $1 million Tuesday at an initial hearing related to the homicides.
