Wesson Family Murder | Wesson Family Pictures

The Wesson Family Murder happened on a late afternoon on March 12, 2004 in Fresno, California. Several police officers were summoned to the Wesson home to settle a child custody dispute. Two women (who was later revealed to be his daughters) were claiming that Marcus Wesson, the patriarch of the Wesson family, refused to give them their small children. Marcus Wesson was standing in the doorway calmly talking to the police when suddenly he went inside and closed the door behind him. What happened next was one of the most gruesome murders in history. When he emerged 80 minutes later with blood on his shirt, the police stormed the house but found out that nine children have been murdered each one on top of the other.

The story that came out next was one of the most horrifying crime you would ever hear. When the DNA was processed, it became clear that Marcus Wesson was the father of all nine victims. Seven of them were his own children with his daughters and nieces.

The list of the dead included Jeva St. Vladensvspry, 1; Sedona Vadra, 1 ½; Marshey St. Christopher, 1 ½; Ethan St. Laurent, 4; Jonathon St. Charles, 7; Aviv Dominique, 7; Illabelle Carrie, 8; Elizabeth Breani Kina, 17; and Sebhrenah April, 25.

Victims of the Wesson Family Murder

The story started when after the Vietnam War, Marcus Wesson met and moved in with Rose Solorio, who was at that time already had eight children. They had a son together. They were never married, however. Instead, when Wesson was 27 years old he married Elizabeth, one of Rose Solorio’s children from another partner. Elizabeth at that time was only 14.  The year was 1974. The coupe had five boys and four girls.
In 1989, Elizabeth’s sister had to leave her seven children at the Wesson home because of her drug addiction. At that time, the number of children living in the household rose to 16. The family has no income and were living off welfare.

Marcus was strict with the children. They were not allowed to go out and play and talk to other people. At the time of the murder, their neighbors were even surprised at the number of children found in the Wesson home.  The children were isolated and not seen in the neighborhood. At one point, Marcus Wesson began segregating the children, separating the boys and girls. He said that he believed his children will develop feelings for each other, thus the segregation. The boys soon moved out of the Wesson household and new nothing of the following events.

When the children reached the age of eight and nine, he began molesting them. He was so sinister that he brainwashed all of them to believe that the father and the children having sexual relations is normal. He would say they were obeying the word of God if they have more children. The brothers were taken aback when their sisters started showing signs of pregnancy because they never dated other boys.

One of the girls is Ruby Sanchez. In court, she revealed that they were married when she was only 14 years old in a ceremony inside their home. She placed her hand on a Bible and they said I do. Marcus Wesson married several of his daughters and nieces.

However he might have brainwashed them he could never stop a natural teenager’s inclination. He discovered Ruby Sanchez flirting with boys and beat her. Ruby ran away but soon came back. She could never leave her children behind that’s why she kept on coming back. She ran away three times until at the age of 22, she ran away for good and got married. Once they realized there is normal life out of Wesson’s reach she became more determined to get her kids back. She indeed went back to get her kids on that fateful day of March.

At court, they revealed how Wesson vowed they would never be able to get their children if they ran away. He even instructed them on a suicide pack once social service or the government becomes involved in their situation. He made them believe that that was the worst thing that could happen to them is to be split up and the children taking away. He instructed that if that happens his daughters would have to shoot their offspring before shooting themselves afterwards.  He would have to stay alive according to the plan so he can explain what happened to the police.  They even purchased 12 mahogany coffins and placed it in their home.  And that was exactly what happened the afternoon of the Wesson Family Murder tragedy.

According to www.trutv.com, this was what happened that fateful day:

According to witness accounts, Ruby Sanchez and Sofina Solorio pulled up to the Wesson house around 2 p.m. on March 12, accompanied by several carloads of young people.

“I came to get my son,” Solorio said, rushing into the house to find 7-year-old Jonathon. She had the boy by the hand and was walking out of the house when her sister Rosa snatched him away and stuck him in the back bedroom with the other children, according to the Fresno Bee. Solorio would never see her son again.

Solorio was pushed from the house and Wesson stationed his massive frame in the doorway to block her from re-entering. Wesson’s supporters called the two sisters “whores” and “bitches” and ordered them to leave. Sebhrenah Wesson pointed at her father’s feet and told Ruby Sanchez to “bow down to her master” before running into the back bedroom with the children, according to news accounts.

At 2:30, a squad car pulled up. The Wesson household kept a low profile and the police had only visited twice before — once to take a report on a missing license plate, and another time on the theft of a purse from a car.

One of the responding officers would later say he heard a baby crying as he spoke with Marcus Wesson in the doorway. Wesson did not invite the officers inside, and they weren’t allowed to enter without a warrant or reasonable fear for public safety. Wesson’s preternaturally calm demeanor — as the crowd cursed and jeered around him — lead officers to believe that the patriarch would work with them toward a peaceful resolution.

But then he suddenly turned and ducked into the house, slamming the door behind him.

“He’s going to hurt the kids!” the two mothers shouted. One of Wesson’s sons told the police he owned a .22-caliber gun, and they called for a SWAT team. The police ordered the crowd to disperse and take cover themselves behind the bus and trees. An enraged woman punched the hood of a patrol car, denting it.

During the ensuing standoff, several witnesses reported hearing gunshots inside the house, according to media reports. The damning implication was that the police didn’t move to stop the massacre once it began. But all the officers present denied hearing gunshots, an assertion that was fully supported by their police chief.

By the time the SWAT team arrived to evacuate the neighborhood, it was all over. Wesson appeared abruptly in the doorway, his black shirt and pants spattered with blood. As officers grab him, he instructed them to use three handcuffs to encompass his thick wrists. The blood soaking his clothing was enough of a warrant to cause the officers to storm the house, and they rushed through the doorway, calling for the children.

It didn’t take long to find them, piled in the back bedroom. Each victim had been shot in the eye, and they were stacked youngest to oldest. On top of the pile was Sebhrenah, a .22-caliber pistol lodged under her arm.

The officers searched under beds and in cabinets for possible survivors, wanting desperately to amend this tragedy. There were none. For all of the officers, March 12, 2004 would become the single most traumatic day of their professional careers; many would seek counseling in an attempt to erase the horrific image of the stacked dead children from their minds.