After slitting Wendy and Randall Bjorge’s throats, 17-year-old Cassandra Bjorge and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Johnny Rider, threw parties and smoked pot in the grandparents’ home for days while the bodies decayed, a Gwinnett County detective said in a court hearing Wednesday.
Rider and Cassandra Bjorge are charged with beating and killing Bjorge's 63-year-old grandparents. After killing the couple, Rider and Bjorge caulked doors in the homes shut to keep the smell of the decomposing bodies from seeping out, Channel 2 Action News reported Det. Dave Brucz as saying.
The grandparents were dead for about a week, according to police. During that time, Bjorge and Rider invited friends over for parties, not telling them about Bjorge’s grandparents dead upstairs, Brucz said.
Bjorge and Rider also planned to kill more people, Channel 2 reported. Bjorge’s mother was on a “hit list” along with many members of Rider’s family, Brucz said.
Rider and Bjorge are charged with aggravated assault in connection with an attack on Rider's sister and her boyfriend. Rider sprayed the pair with pepper spray and called for Bjorge to get a baseball bat, police said. Bjorge allegedly began beating the sister with the bat before the girl escaped. Bjorge and Rider fled the scene, according to police.
Bjorge and Rider decided to kill Wendy and Randall Bjorge because they had gotten “too strict,” according to Brucz.
On the night of the murder, the pair allegedly waited outside the grandparents’ Lawrenceville home until all the lights had been turned off, Channel 2 reported. Rider began by attacking Randall Bjorge, and Cassandra Bjorge dragged her grandmother into the bedroom, restraining her with duct tape before beating her, Brucz said.
The grandparents were beaten with a tire iron and stabbed before their throats were slit, according to police.
After the grandparents’ bodies were found, Bjorge and Rider engaged in a standoff with Gwinnett County SWAT and attempted to kill themselves before being apprehended.
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