Suspect's Co-Workers Provide Clues About Murders of Wife & Newborn
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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - Fort Worth police said they don't know why Craig Vandewege allegedly cut the throats of his wife, Shanna and his 3-month-old son, Diederik.
But a newly released arrest warrant affidavit shows detectives have been talking with Vandewege's co-workers at a Fort Worth Costco.
"Some conversations he had with people led detectives to believe that he may have had the mind-set to commit this kind of crime," said Fort Worth Police Sgt. Marc Povero said.
In the affidavit, police said Vandewege told a co-worker he recently started taking a daily anti-anxiety prescription medication "...that makes him hear voices that tell him to kill people..."
The co-worker claimed months earlier, Vandewege said, "...that his wife was pregnant and that he wished that he could push her down the stairs and kill her that way..."
According to the affidavit, the co-worker also mentioned a dream that Vanderwege told him about. "...Craig said that in this dream, he sliced the heads of his wife and father like bologna..."
Sgt. Povero warned, "At this point, we don't really know why he did what he did."
Police said Vandewege called 911 on December 15 to report that he found his wife and son dead in their bedroom.
The detective said he listened to the call and that Vandewege spoke "...in an overly calm manner..." and "wasn't scared that an intruder might still be in his house..."
According to the affidavit, the detective went onto say, "...In my experience this is extremely unusual behavior for someone who has just discovered that a loved one is deceased..."
Police said Vandewege appeared to stage his house to make it look like someone broke in.
While he called 911 on December 15, the detective said in the affidavit that the victims "...had not recently been killed..."
On Wednesday night, police in Glenwood Springs, Colorado arrested Vandewege for alleged traffic violations.
Police sid earlier, Vandewege stopped a stranger to borrow his cell phone and spoke about a murder.
According to the affidavit, the man told police there, "...Vandewege said he was headed to Las Vegas to see Donald Trump to work it out with him..."
"When homicide detectives were made aware of some of the things Mr. Vandewege had said, they notified Glenwood Springs of a murder warrant being written," said Sgt. Povero.
Vandewege remains in jail on $1 million bond in Colorado and will be extradited to Fort Worth.
Before he was charged, his relatives told CBS11 Vandewege could not have been involved.
A family member in Colorado didn't return a phone call Friday.
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