The shocking Texas double-murder of 36-year-old Shanna Vandewege and her 3-month-old son Diederick rocked her peaceful Fort Worth community to its core. Particularly because police initially didn’t appear to have a suspect in the brutal, senseless, seemingly random slayings. Initially, it was reported that her husband Craig Vandewege returned to his Texas home after work on December 15 to find that his wife and infant child had become victims of a horrific double-murder in his absence, a murder that looked like a “robbery gone wrong.”
Shanna Vandewege was thrilled w/ the birth of a son after 3 previous miscarraiges. Now she and the infant are dead. https://t.co/rV9OzMSZKj
— Deanna Boyd (@deannaboyd) December 16, 2016
Craig Vandewege, Shanna’s 35-year-old husband, reportedly cooperated with police immediately after the discovery of his wife and child’s lifeless bodies. The coroner would later announce that both mother and child had had their throats slit in their beds and injuries that would prove fatal. Just days after the Texas double-murder was discovered, however, Mr. Vandewege stopped talking to investigators. He allegedly told them he needed to speak to an attorney before he continued answering questions, and subsequently lawyered up.
Detectives investigating double-murder immediately spoke out against Craig Vandewege and his decision to stop cooperating, telling the media that he was hindering the investigation and that he “could not be excluded” as a suspect, because he was no longer talking.
“It’s standard and it’s normal for us to try to exclude people close before we can move on and look elsewhere. It stalls our investigation if there’s somebody that close that says flat out, ‘No, I’m not going to do it.’ Anyone we can’t eliminate is obviously suspect until we can eliminate them. This extremely hinders our ability to move ahead and definitely hinders our ability to eliminate him.”
Why? Shanna Riddle Vandewege and baby found dead. Slit throat https://t.co/qvk58jP4rz #Fort Worth double homicide #Diedrik Vandewege
— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) December 17, 2016
By December 21, the Vandewege Texas double-murder case had taken another, devastating turn. That’s when Craig Vandewege was picked up in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The husband and father of the Fort Worth murder victims was a long way from home and acted suspicious when using a stranger’s borrowed cell phone. That stranger alerted police to the fact that Vandewege, who called himself “Craig Allen,” had used his phone to talk about a murder in Texas.
After receiving the 911 call, Glenwood Springs police arrested Vandewege for speeding and not having proof of insurance. He was found to have a number of guns (including one loaded weapon in his waistband and another in an ankle holster), a whole bunch of ammo multiple bottles of pills, a pocket full of condoms, and empty gas cans in his possession when he was arrested. Police say he had the proper permits for the guns, and the husband of the Texas double-murder victims bonded out of the Colorado jail the next day.
He didn’t make it far.
@thetrialwatcher Hey it looks like we have our next Ross Harris. What’s wrong these disgraceful men?
— *~Sevenitta~* (@SevenittaJKC) December 23, 2016
@RitaCosby @HLNTV I knew it right away. Who else would do that. POS
— Denni (@dennidenni57) December 23, 2016
Leslie Barrows, attorney for Craig Vandewege, has no comment on his arrest by @fortworthpd for death of his wife and 3mo son. @wfaachannel8
— Marie Saavedra (@MSaavedraTV) December 22, 2016
this looks like a personal crime. Either the dad did it or somebody was cheating and the 3rd party did it. ?
— GoGetWoo (@n3rdb0i_69) December 20, 2016
just made me 50 shades of sick! ? #GodHaveMercy
— GoGetWoo (@n3rdb0i_69) December 20, 2016
While he was in police custody, Craig Vandewege reportedly told law enforcement that he was in Colorado for the funeral of his wife and baby; the Vandewege family had moved to Texas from Colorado just before Diederick was born. Shanna’s family still lives in Colorado, and that will be her final resting place. Vandewege allegedly talked about the double-murder with Glenwood Springs police officers, showing no emotion as he recalled his tragic tale. Those officers called Fort Worth police to confirm his story.
“It’s been a long week, my wife and kid were murdered in Texas.”
#NEW Affidavit: Craig Vandewege charged w/ capital murder for cutting throats of wife Shanna & 3 mo old son Diederik while sleeping @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/8hsD5v1aMk
— Jack Fink (@cbs11jack) December 23, 2016
When he was on his way out of the Glenwood Springs pokey, after paying his bond, Craig Vandewege was arrested again. This time, it was on a capital murder warrant that had just been issued out of Fort Worth. His bail was set at $1 million, and it was widely reported that he was and is the sole suspect in the unthinkable Texas double-murder that took the lives of his wife and young baby. A baby that the pair had reportedly been trying to have for years, a baby that Shanna Vandewege was only able to call her own after at least three miscarriages.
“[Shanna] had wanted a family since she was a little girl. She planned it out, including names, before she was 12.”
Check it out! I donated to Shanna & Diederik Vandewege https://t.co/oXSVTwItgd via @gofundme
— LBay (@LindsayBay1) December 22, 2016
After his capital murder arrest, new details about Craig Vandewege began to be made public. According to police in Colorado, Vandewege had made comments that the government was setting him up for the Texas double-murders and that he was headed to find President-elect Trump in an effort to have things set right.
“Craig Vandewege said he was headed to Las Vegas to see Donald Trump to work it out with him.”
Reportedly, the night before Craig Vandewege was re-arrested on the Texas double-murder warrant, his home (where the murders had taken place) was poured through by police with a search warrant. What investigators found has largely not been made public, aside from the fact that blood was reportedly found around sinks in the home, indicating that someone likely tried to clean up the scene and that it appeared that the “robbery gone wrong” scene had been staged. However, some of Vandewege’s statements prior to the double-murder have been released.
As People reports, detectives interviewed Craig’s co-workers in the aftermath of the Vandewege Texas double-murder. The image those co-workers painted to investigators was one of a disturbed man who was dissatisfied with his wife, one who claimed to be taking medication that caused him to hear voices instructing him to kill. A man who reportedly had dreams in which he cut his now-murdered wife’s head off “like a piece of bologna.”
“[His wife]could not do anything right and she dressed and wore her hair poorly…the only way he could tolerate his wife was by drinking.”
#Texas mom, baby son found dead with necks cut #Diederick #ShannaVandewege https://t.co/9Krz9oijsh pic.twitter.com/7TXT9YwlMZ
— Trending Deaths (@Obitolizer) December 20, 2016
According to the co-workers reportedly interviewed by Fort Worth police officers, Craig Vandewege made a variety of disturbing statements in the days and weeks leading up to the Texas double-murder. Allegedly, while Shanna Vandewege was still pregnant, her husband and the sole suspect in her murder told a co-worker that he “wished he could push her down the stairs and kill her that way.”
Vandewege also reportedly told multiple co-workers that his prescription drugs were causing him to “hear voices that tell him to kill people.”
Craig Vandewege, now being held in Colorado on suspicion of two counts of capital murder , is expected to be extradited back to Texas soon. CBS Local reports that, according to his attorney Leslie Barrows, the suspect has no plans to fight extradition back to Texas to face the music in the Vandewege double-murder case.
[Featured Image by Glenwood Police Department]
