Henderson double homicide suspect told officers ‘you have to take me,’ police say
Updated October 22, 2024 - 12:19 pm
A Henderson man accused of fatally shooting his wife and stepson told police they needed to arrest him, according to a report released Monday.
Henderson Police said they were dispatched to a residence around 6 p.m. Friday after a man called and said, “You need to come here now; there’s a huge crime scene.” The address is redacted in the report, but police previously said it was in the 300 block of Black Rock Hills Drive.
When officers arrived, Karl Groschen, 41, who held prescription bottles and a drink, told police: “You have to take me; I thought they were trying to kill me,” according to the report.
Police did as Groschen asked, handcuffing him and putting him in a patrol vehicle. He faces two open murder charges and a child abuse or neglect charge.
Officers found 44-year-old Anastasiya Groschen’s body in the garage behind the driver’s seat of a Toyota Prius. Sergei Scoggins, 20, was in the laundry room. Each victim had suffered about five gunshot wounds. Police said Groschen told them that Anastasiya Groschen was his wife and Scoggins was his stepson.
One neighbor told police she heard “three loud booms that sounded like fire works” around 5:30 p.m., followed by a woman’s scream.
Another neighbor said she witnessed Groschen push his stepson out of the garage around 5:45 p.m. and yell, “go to your car, get out of here.”
Soon after, she told police, she heard what she thought was a gunshot and the sound of someone screaming. Scoggins then ran back into the house “as if he was in a panic” and she heard more gunshots, which she thought might have been Groschen pounding on a wall.
Anastasiya Groschen had said her husband lost his job and was depressed, a teacher for the Groschens’ other son told police.
Police said pill bottles in the house, prescribed to Groschen, included the medications Alprazolam, a medication frequently used for panic and anxiety disorders, and Escitalopram, a medication the FDA has approved for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
A search did not reveal any evidence that Groschen’s son and wife were trying to kill him, according to the report.
Groschen’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday morning in Henderson Justice Court.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.