Mont Vernon is a small, affluent New Hampshire community only 60 miles or so away from Boston. The events that transpired there in the autumn of 2009 would not only shock the community, but they would shock the entirety of the United States.
Kimberly Cates was a 42-year-old nurse who was an avid runner and gardener. She and her husband David lived in a beautiful ranch-style home in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, where they were raising their 11-year-old daughter Jaimie.
On Sunday, October 4th, 2009, police received a 911 call. The dispatcher who answered could barely hear anyone speaking on the other line. Then, there was silence. When police arrived at the house, they found all the lights turned on. When the responding officers peered through the window, they saw the body of a child in the kitchen. The child was moving.
Officers broke down the front door in order to gain entry into the house. The found 11-year-old Jaimie on the kitchen floor, she was barely able to speak, but she managed to whisper: “They killed my mommy”. While one officer stayed with Jaimie, the other cleared the house. When he got to the master bedroom, he found Kimberly Cates, hacked to death on her bed.
Jaimie was able to tell police that she had heard people breaking into the house, and heard them say something to the effect of: “Quick, grab the jewelry”. Jaimie was then taken to Boston Children’s Hospital. Her injuries were extensive, and required several surgeries. She remained in the hospital, recovering, for several weeks.
Jaimie managed to tell police that she and her mom had fallen asleep in her mother’s bed at around 8:30 PM the night of Saturday, October 3rd, 2009. Sometime later, her mom woke her up and asked: “Did you hear that?” Then, her mom got out of the bed, and went to the bedroom door. There, Jaimie said she saw a man attack her mom with a sword.
Another man came into the room, picked Jaimie up, and threw her against a glass door. As she fell, she lay still, pretending to be dead. She told police that she remembered two men – one was bald, and one was wearing a blud hoodie. Then, when she was sure that the men had left the house, she dragged herself to the kitchen, where she attempted to call 911 at around 4:00 AM.
As police began investigating the home invasion, they determined that a third person was living in the home – Kimberly’s husband, and Jaimie’s father, David. Statistically, police figured that David may very well have committed the attack in an attempt at family annihilation. However, they tracked him down on a business trip in Maryland.
David was a contract engineer for the government, and often travelled for work, often being gone for long weeks at a time. This seemed to be completely normal for the Cates household. The moment he was informed of the home invasion, David rushed to Boston in order to be by Jaimie’s bedside. As quickly as he was considered, David Cates was cleared of any involvement.
Further investigation showed that the intruders had two points of entry into the house. A basement window was broken, and a chest was placed under the window, possibly indicating that this was how the intruders got in and out of the house. Police also noticed that the AC unit had been taken out of the porch window, indicating a second point of entry for the intruders.
Police further noticed that the at some point the power to the house had been shut off. The circuit breaker in the hallway had blood smears around it, showing that it had most likely been tampered with before and after the attack. Police surmized that the breaker had been turned off before the attack, then turned back on afterwards, as the house lights had been on when police first arrived on the scene.
After the gruesome discovery had been made, a police officer was in pursuit of a suspicious vehicle that had sped away as soon as they’d seen the cruise on Sunday, October 4th, 2009.
The car was pulled over, and two teens were identified inside – 19-year-old Christopher Gribble, and 17-year-old Steven Spader. They were questioned briefly, and then let go.
That same evening, Carole Fenton, mother of teenager Kyle Fenton, called the police, and informed them that her son had something he needed to talk to them about. An investigator was sent to the Fenton home.
Kyle told the investigator who arrived at the home that two of his friends had stopped by his house earlier in the day, as he was hanging out with another friend. The two friends told Kyle and his other friend that they had broken into a house in Mont Vernon the knight before, and had killed two people. Then, they said that they’d stolen some things from the house.
Kyle told police that his friends showed him two knives that they had said were used on the victims, and they also stated that they’d used a machete. Kyle, quite frankly, thought his friends were full of shit. Until later, when he saw the news report about the Mont Vernon home invasion.
When Kyle identified the two friends, police were a little shocked. They already knew who they were. Kyle identified his visiting friends as Christopher Gribble and Steven Spader, the two who had been pulled over earlier that afternoon. Kyle also gave the police two more names – names of two other boys that Spader and Gribble had told him were involved. Those two were Billy Marks, and Quinn Glover.
Police began searching for Gribble’s vehicle. They also looked for him at home, but he wasn’t there.
On Monday, October 5th, 2009, police went to the Spader family home, where Steven lived with his parents. Upon arrivale, police found Gribble, Spader, and another boy, Autumn Savoy, coming out of the house. Police brought them into the station. They took four pocket knives off of Gribble’s person. Glover and Marks were at school when the other three were being brought in.
At the school, a teenage boy gave a detailed, horrifying account of being threatened by the four boys to the school’s resource officer.
The student stated that the day before, on Sunday, he’d taken a lot of drugs, and was hanging out with Spader, Gribble, Glover, and Marks. The four were bragging and boasting about the attack. At first, the student didn’t think they were being serious, until Gribble stated: “It was awesome”, as he detailed stabbing Kimberly and Jaimie. Spader followed up by stating that he wanted to do it again.
After the confessions and bragging, the teens all went to the mall to pawn off the items that Glover, Marks, Spader, and Gribble had stolen from the Cates home. They were able to pawn off rings, bracelets, and various other jewelry items, which matched what Jaimie had heard them say when they’d broken into the house.
Next, the boys showed the student the machete from the trunk of Gribble’s car. They told him that the machete had recently been covered in blood, but they’d cleaned it up using ammonia and bleach.
As the group were making plans on what to do next, the student received a call from his girlfriend. His girlfriend told him that she’d been hearing rumours, and wondered if it was true that Billy Marks had been involved in a crime. Shocked, the student had told her that yes, he had been, that the group had been bragging about committing murder.
As the rumour mill ramped up – which begs the question of how much bragging this group of teens did – Quinn Glover’s girlfriend called Spader, and yelled at him for killing someone. Enraged, Spader threatened the student with a knife “for snitching”. Gribble then pulled out two knives, and both of them began advancing on the student. The student managed to get away from them, and Glover stood in front of him to protect him. Marks then took the student home.
The next day, the student was riddled with anxiety, and stressed out. He wasn’t sure how much of what he’d been told was true. He wasn’t sure if Spader and Gribble would follow through on their threats. The resource office saw the student in a panic, and the student told him everything he knew.
Billy Marks and Quinn Glover were then brought into the station, and interviewed separately.
Glover stated that he’d been asleep on the night of October 3rd and 4th, but then admitted that he’d been with Marks, Spader, and Gribble driving around Mont Vernon. Following the small concession, Glover then refused to say another word without an attorney present.
Billy Marks, however, agreed to answer police questions. He stated that while on the way to the house, he heard Spader say: “We are about to do the most evil thing this town has ever seen”. As Marks himself was the smallest of the boys, the lowered him through the basement window, but he couldn’t get upstairs, as the basement door was locked.
Next, the boys found a way inside the house by taking out the AC unit in the porch window, and climbing inside the house. Someone then unlocked the basement door, and let Marks inside. Next, someone cut the power to the house by turning off he circuit breaker in the hallway.
The boys then began going through the house, stealing things, until they heard a woman’s voice call out. Next, Marks heard the same woman say: “You don’t have to do this”. Marks was called into the room, but he didn’t want to move as he couldn’t see well in the dark. When the circuit breaker was switched back on, Marks entered the bedroom where he’d been called. There, saw a woman and a child, covered in blood.
Police weren’t quite sure that this was exactly what had happened. After being pressed, Marks admitted that the four teens had entered the master bedroom prior to the attack. It was dark, and they were using the light of an iPod that they’d found as a light source. Then, the woman on the bed asked: “Jaimie, is that you?”
Marks then stated that as soon as the woman spoke, Spader attacked her with the machete he’d brought with him. Gribble then stabbed at Jaimie, grabbed her, and threw her into the glass door. The following day, believing they’d murdered two people and stolen a lot of pawnable items, the group met up and began bragging about what they’d done to each other.
Marks further admitted that he’d helped Spader scout out the location at first. Spader had wanted a good location for a break-in. At first, they’d cased out the house next to the Cates home. However, on the night of the attack, they changed their minds, and broke into the Cates home instead, as it didn’t have a security system.
Marks stated to police that after the attack had taken place, they went back to where Gribble had parked his car, changed clothes, and left.
A week prior to the attack, as Marks, Spader, Gribble, and Glover were discussing the location for the break-in, they had a discussion as a group. They decided that, should they come across anyone in the house they broke into, they’d have no choice but to kill them.
Next, police interviewed Autumn Savoy. Savoy told them that Spader and Gribble couldn’t possibly have committed the murder, as they showed up at his house around 2:00 AM on Sunday morning, they smoked some pot, and then went to sleep. Police did not believe him for a single second. Savoy proceeded to fall completely apart under police pressure.
He admitted that very late on the night of Saturday, October 3rd, Spader and Gribble had left his home. Their parting words were that they were going to kill someone. At first, Savoy thought they were joking. Later on, he texted Spader and asked if he was “doing a job” – meaning, were they committing a burglary. Around 1:30 AM, Spader responded with: “busy will hit you when I can”.
Gribble and Spader next arrived at Savoy’s home around 5:30 AM, after calling him to wake him up. They told him that they’d broken into a house without a security system, and had murdered two people. They showed Savoy the machete. He saw blood on it, as well as blood on a filet knife.
Savoy noticed that they were wearing different clothing. Gribble and Spader said that that they still had the clothes they’d been wearing during the attack, and had placed them in a black trash bag. Next, they asked if they could burn the bag at Savoy’s home. He declined, but instead talked them into throwing the bag in the river.
The trio drove down to the river, where Savoy took the bag – which held clothing, knives, and a few other items – and threw it in the river. Next, they went to a convenience store at around 7:00 AM, and they got a snack.
Savoy led police to the location where he threw the bag in the river. They found it caught up in a tree, just a bit down river. Police also seized two jewelry boxes, sneakers, and a wallet containing the name David Cates from the river. The bag contained clothing items. On the tags of the clothing where the names Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble.
At around 1:00 PM on Monday, Ofctober 5th, 2009, Christopher Gribble was Mirandized. He was informed that he wasn’t under arrest. He agreed to be interviewed, and consented to having the interview be recorded.
Initially, Gribble denied any involvement in the burglary and murder. He told police a story about going to Walmart, buying cheap jewelry, and then meeting up with his friends to pawn it off later. Police knew he was full of shit – and they let him sit in it. The informed him that he would need to stay put a while as they began the process of obtaining a warrant for his DNA. This got Gribble thinking.
He asked the officer sitting with him if the crimes they were investigating him for were eligible for the death penalty. The officer informed him that he didn’t believe so. This seemed to perk Gribble up. He said that he’d agree to talk, but he would only speak to the officer sitting with him.
Gribble told police that the crimes were a conspiracy. He said that he and his friend, Steven Spader, were both psychopaths.
A week before the home invasion, they’d burgled a house near Spader’s home. Once they ran out of money for the items they’d stolen in that burglary, they decided that they wanted to do it again. Spader and Marks then began scouting the house in Mont Vernon, because it was remote, and away from prying eyes.
Spader and Gribble then made an agreement between themselves, which they then made Marks and Glover agree to. They agreed that if they ever burgled a home and found people inside, they would kill them. “For fun”, Gribble said.
Gribble then added details to the night that Marks had described for them. Gribble stated that he and Spader had met with Marks and glover just after midnight at Walmart on Sunday, October 4th. Spader had forbidden them from drinking or doing drugs – he wanted them to be lucid and sharp for what they were about to do. They changed clothes, got into Gribble’s car, and put on gloves.
Gribble then dropped the other three off in front of the house that they’d originally selected, and then proceeded to park his car down the road, out of sight, on a hill, near a tractor. They all also left their phones in the car. When Gribble returned, they’d changed their minds about which house to target. They decided on the Cates house, as it appeared the house didn’t have a security system.
Then, the story differs only slightly from the story Marks told them. Gribble described lowering Marks down through the basement window. When he couldn’t gain access to the main floor, they hauled him back out the window, and all four of them broke in via the porch window by taking out the AC unit.
Spader, weilding the machete, was first inside the house. All four of them were armed with bladed weapons. Once inside, Gribble turned off the circuit braker. Then, they searched the house room by room, stealing things to pawn. The light of an iPod swiped off a docking station was used to light their way through the house.
As Marks described, the four boys then made it to the master bedroom, where Spader attacked Kimberly. Gribble went after Jaimie himself, when Jaimie got up off the bed and made a run for the door. Gribble stabbed her in the face and chest, and then threw her against the glass door. He assumed she was dead.
The boys checked over Kimberly, to make sure she was dead, but they never checked for signs of life from Jaimie. The left the master bedroom, turning the circuit breaker back on as they went, and ransacked the house one more time, looking for more things to steal.
Then, they returned to the car, changed clothes, threw some of the weapons and their bloody clothes into a black trash bag, and then drove back to the Walmart. As they drove, they celebrated by smoking cigars in the car.
They dropped Marks off at his car, then Spader, Glover, and Gribble went to Savoy’s house in order to brag about what they’d done. They threw the evidence into the river, as Savoy had stated, then went back to Savoy’s home after stopping at the convenience store. There, they told Savoy that he was to act as their alibi.
The boys then checked the news online later that morning to see if anyone had reported the murder. If was there that they realized that only Kimberly had been murdered. Spader and Savoy turned on Gribble, and began harassing him for failing to kill Jaimie. He stated that he’d wanted to kill someone for a long time, and if he’d known that Jaimie would survive, he’d have gone back to finish the job.
Police had gotten the rest of the story out of Gribble, but they still had one more person to interview.
When they when to interview Spader, her threw Gribble, his childhood best friend, right under the bus. He told police that he had not committed the crimes they were accusing him of, and that he didn’t know who did it, but they deserved the death penalty. He did say, though, that he was with Gribble when he pawned off the jewelry, but he didn’t know where the jewelry had come from. Then, he asked for a lawyer, and refused to speak to police any further.
As the investigation continued, police discovered that Spader had formed some kind of club. He’d called it “The Disciples of Destruction”. The D.O.D had a logo designed by Spader. Spader had recruited Gribble, Marks, and Glover for his club. He decided that the home invasion and murder would act as an “initiation” into the club – if they had the guts to follow through.
On Tuesday, October 6th, 2009, a little before noon, Steven Spader, Christopher Gribble, Quinn Glover, and Billy Marks were arraigned at the Milford District Court.
Spader and Gribble were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, as well as other lesser charges.
Marks and Glover were charged with Burglary, conspiracy to burglary, and robbery. They were also warned that prosecutors would be seeking additional indictments when they presented their case to a grand jury.
Autumn Savoy was charged with two counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution, and one count of conspiracy to commit indering apprehension or prosecution in early November of 2009.
Fearful of the potential other charges prosecutors would seek indictment for in front of a grand jury, Savoy, Glover, and Marks agreed to testify against Gribble and Spader at trial.
The trial of Steven Spader began in August of 2010. He pleaded not guilty. The defence presented a forensic scientist who stated that nothing tied Spader forensically to the scene of the crime. However, the circumstantial evidence against him was very, very strong.
Marks, Glover, and Savoy all testified to their earlier statements, and gave details of the savagery with which Spader attacked Kimberly and Jaimie. They also spoke about his plan to use the home invasion as the initiation into the D.O.D club. Kyle Fenton also testified, and gave details about the visit Spader and Gribble had paid to his home.
The defense did their best to raise questions as to who had actually committed the murder. There was no DNA evidence tying him to the murder. They suggested that any of the others who’d testified against Spader may have been using him as a scapegoat.
Spader did his case no favours. He open threatened the witnesses while they were on the stand, in full hearing of the jury. However, the most damning evidence was the testimony of Chad Landry, Spader’s friend in prison.
Landry told the jury that Spader would pass notes in books that they would slide along the corridor between their cells. Landry would pretend to flush the notes, to make Spader happy, but he kept them. He figured that if he used the notes as leverage, and gave them to the authorities, he’d receive a reduced sentence.
The notes, written by Spader in his handwriting, stated that he had “whacked” the mother 36 times, and that it was an adrenaline rush to him. In one of the notes, he wrote that he was the most “sick and twisted person you will ever meet”, and that he found torture enjoyable. Another note explained the concept, and then initiation of the D.O.D club.
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes. Steven Spader was convicted on all counts on his 19th birthday. He was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole on the first-degree murder charge, and then the court imposed maximum sentencing on the remaining charges, totally 76 years.
Christopher Gribble pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity during the course of his trial. Under New Hampshire law, he forfeited his criminal trial. This meant that his lawyers had to prove to the jury that his actions were the result of a mental disease or defect. The question was not whether or not he participated in the crimes – his prior confession had shown that he had. The question, rather, was whether or not he had done so in his right mind.
Gribbles attorneys argued that he suffered from antisocial personality disorder, which roughly half of the the witnesses agreed was an accurate statement in regards to his personality. A few witnesses also recalled that Gribble always seemed social awkward. He was nice enough, but he was prone to missing social cues.
A friend of Gribble’s further testified that he was an intelligent person, and well spoken, but he had a warped world view wherein he was always in the right, and he saw himself as a “destroying angel”.
Gribble testified on his own behalf, doing himself no favours. He stated that he’d been fantasizing about murdering his mother, and torturing her, from the age of 14 onwards, as a result of her abuse against him. These allegations of abuse have never been corroborated.
The prosecution had experts interview Gribble for many hours. These experts testified that Gribble was, in fact, sane, and that he knew the difference between right and wrong. Prosecutors also pointed out that Gribble had been sane enough before, and after, the home invasion to go so far as to plan and plot the crime, and then try to cover it up by hiding evidence. All the gloating, though, could never be explained beyond brash teenage ego and hubris.
The jury deliberated for two hours. They rejected Christopher Gribble’s plea of insanity. They declared him guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit burglary, and witness tampering. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to life, as well as an additional 52 years for other charges.
Billy Marks pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and burglary, and being an accomplice to first-degree assault in exchange for a reduced sentence. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
Quinn Glover pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary, and conspiracy to commit burglary in exchange for a reduced sentence. He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.
Autumn Savou pleaded guilty to conspiracy and hindering apprehension and prosecution in exchange for a reduced sentence. He was sentenced to 5 to 12 years in prison. He was paroled in 2015.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing of minors to life sentences would be granted resentencing hearings for reduced sentences. In 2013, Spader informed his attorneys that he didn’t want a hearing. One would be held in any case, but he did not appear at the hearing. His life, and 76 year sentence was upheld.
In October of 2014, Gribble sought a reduction in his sentence, based on the Supreme Court ruling. His sentence was also upheld.
In the autumn of 2009, a horrendous attack rocked the community of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. Jaimie Cates survived the attack, and continues to thrive. Jaimie and her father, David, honour Kimberly’s memory every year with a gold tournament for the Kimberly Cates Memorial Scholarship fund. More information, and donations to the fund, can be made here.
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Sources:
NH Man Who Helped Cover Up Mont Vernon Murder Granted Parole – CBS Boston
Mont Vernon Thrill Killing – Sword and Scale
True Crime Garage podcast – Episodes 433 and 433 – Mont Vernon Murder
Murder of Kimberly Cates Wikipedia page