REDDING, Calif. (AP) - A Northern California man confessed to a 1993 killing in an emotional interview with a television station, saying his faith in God led him to do the right thing.
Brian Hawkins told KRCR of Redding that he and two accomplices robbed and killed 19-year-old Frank Wesley McAlister, whose slaying was unsolved for nearly 25 years.
The 44-year-old Hawkins refused to give any details about the killing in Tuesday’s interview but said living with the secret had been “absolutely horrible.” He said he wanted people to know he was remorseful.
“Every minute of every day has been a nightmare. It’s kind of weird, Frank never got to have a life, but we were teenagers and now I’m 44 and still haven’t even had a life and now most likely won’t anyway,” Hawkins said.
After the interview, Hawkins went to the Shasta County Sheriff’s office to meet with police investigators, the Redding Police Department said.
“It was a cold case, unsolved murder. All the detectives that had worked it have long since retired,” Capt. Eric Wallace said Friday.
Hawkins told them that he, Curtis Culver, 45, and Culver’s sister, Shanna Culver, 41, murdered McAlister after luring him to Shingletown to steal money he had received in a settlement. Later, the trio decided to murder him instead, the department said.
Hawkins told officials he and Curtis Culver stabbed McAllister to death, and dumped his body in the woods in rural, mountainous Shasta County. A hiker found McAllister’s remains a year later, police said.
Hawkins was arrested Tuesday after his confession. Police arrested the Culver siblings on Wednesday in Red Bluff, officials said.
Wallace told the station one of the Culvers also confessed but did not want to say which one.
All three were being held in the Shasta County Jail; the men were held on $1 million bail each and Shanna Culver was being held without bail. The men were arraigned Friday and Shanna Culver, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was arraigned Thursday.
Jail officials said they did not know if the suspects had lawyers.
Before leaving the television station, Hawkins said he was no longer running from his past.
“I’m not running. I just need someone that cares. I just hope the community can also forgive me,” he said.
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Information from: KRCR-TV.
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