Running to Chester

He ran away from his Sumter County, Fla., home sometime after 11 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2001, taking a back pack and $70 cash. Deputies in neighboring Marion County picked Christopher up at an Arby's restaurant along Interstate 75 the following day, according to a sheriff's office report.

A day earlier, he'd asked his sister which way was north. He was planning to run away to his grandparents' home in Chester.

Life at home had grown unbearable. Bad grades had Christopher on restriction -- no television, no video games. The relationship with his father was strained from arrival of his two new siblings and the dwindling attention coming his way, a state psychologist later explained.

Christopher reported his father had beaten him, but an investigator from the Florida Department of Child and Families determined the claim wasn't true. That night, the boy threatened to harm himself.

He was committed to Lifestream BehavioralCenter in Leesburg, Fla. , for a few days, his father said. Doctors diagnosed him as clinically depressed and put him on Paxil, an antidepressant widely used to treat depression in adults but not approved for people under 18.

A Temporary Move

Hoping it would help; Joe agreed to let Christopher temporarily move to Chester .

"When he left here, he was thrilled," Duprey said. "He was going to live with Nana and Pop-Pop."

Christopher was enrolled at Chester Middle School and attended New Hope Methodist, where Joy played the organ and Joe Frank sang in the choir. He was also taken to a family doctor, who switched his medication to Zoloft, an antidepressant the family blames for causing the deaths.

Church members knew Christopher had problems and that his grandparents were working with him, the Rev. Snelgrove said.

It was clear the boy had changed from prior visits. He'd become withdrawn and mouthy, Snelgrove said. "It was a noticeable difference that everyone could see."

Family members in Florida also noticed a change, though in a different way, when Christopher and his grandparents visited Florida for Thanksgiving. He was happy but hyperactive, something that was out of character, they said.

"He never did anything in 10th gear," Duprey said. "He was always so laid back."

Joe said his oldest daughter first noticed the change but didn't think much of it because he was so happy. Joe remembered his son couldn't wait to take his medicine.

"He was almost like a drug addict," Joe said. "I thought it was odd but thought he was trying to be responsible."

Within days of returning to Chester , that would prove to be terribly off-base.

Losing Control

On the way home from school on Nov. 27, 2001, Christopher began picking on a smaller, younger boy, according to another child who was on the bus.

All three boys got on and off at the same bus stop, said the boy, now 11.

Near the end of the 45-minute ride, Christopher pinned a then-9-year-old boy's head against the window and choked him using two fingers. "It began by him playing around," said the boy, who was sitting between the two.

The younger boy soon began crying, and the third boy said he tried to break it up. When they got off the bus, Christopher told the boy he'd kill him if he told anyone. The boy dismissed it as nothing.

The next day, the parents of the boy who was choked reported the incident. School officials called the Pittmans.

The boy's grandfather picked Christopher up and told officials he'd "handle it when he got home," Chester County Sheriff Maj. James McNeil said. Investigators later said the grandparents demanded that Christopher write a letter of apology. They also threatened to send him back to Florida if his behavior didn't improve, the state psychologist reported.

That night, the couple attended rehearsal at church. Christopher went with them. Witnesses, including the boy who'd tried to break up the fight, reported that Christopher was extremely quiet. He sat alone while other children rehearsed for a Christmas play.

The Pittman’s left around 8 p.m., and everything seemed fine, a witness said. They were going home to help their grandson with his homework.

Within hours, a fire was reported on Slick Rock Road . People first thought the woods were burning because of the intense red glow in the night sky. As firefighters and dozens of neighbors arrived at the scene, they realized it was the Pittman’s' house. Most thought no one was home because the car was gone.

Combing through the rubble, investigators discovered two bodies. Labeled as Jane and John Doe until they could be positively identified, everyone knew they were the bodies of Joy and Joe Frank Pittman. They were found side-by-side on the remnants of a mattress in an upstairs bedroom.

When a third body wasn't found, police issued an all-points bulletin for Christopher and the Pathfinder.

Solving a Mystery

Terry Robinson hadn't heard the news by daybreak when he saw the Pathfinder while hunting near Thicketty Creek in CherokeeCounty. The off-duty firefighter said no one was inside.

His hunting partner, Roland Pennington, soon came across Christopher in the woods. The boy was wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle, Robinson said.

Christopher's dog, Christy, was barking nearby.

The boy told the men there was "a bunch of money and guns in the car," Robinson said. "He said some guy had him down in the woods. He claimed he'd been kidnapped."

The three walked about two miles to the Corinth Volunteer Fire Department. Robinson took investigators back to the site. Christopher stayed at the station, watching cartoons and eating cheeseburgers, Robinson said.

The boy told firefighters, like he would later tell ChesterCounty and State Law Enforcement Division investigators; he'd been sleeping in his grandparents' house when he heard a noise outside. He said he looked out the window of his first-story bedroom to see a black man enter the house from the front porch.

Christopher told officers he ran outside and hid, because he was afraid of the intruder, Chester County Sheriff's Detective Lucinda McKellar said during a June court hearing.

Christopher told authorities he heard four shots fired before the man came outside and ordered him to get the keys to the Pathfinder. The man then used a gasoline can to set the house on fire before forcing him into the car and taking him to Cherokee County.

When asked about the dog, however, investigators got suspicious. The boy said Christy followed him. "That's when the red flags went up," McNeil said.

Information about the fight on the bus came in around the same time and McKellar's approach changed. Christopher became a suspect. He was read his rights and taken to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. That's where investigators say he confessed.

Details from the boy's father and testimony given by a state psychologist, a SLED fire investigator and McKellar at June's family court hearing revealed many details of what really happened that night.

After returning from church, Joy went straight to bed. She was exhausted because of the stress caused by Christopher's troubles at school. The boy and his grandfather stayed up for a while, watching a nature program on television in the living room of the ranch-style house.

They both eventually went to bed, Joe Frank in the loft upstairs and Christopher to his bedroom at the bottom of the staircase.

Sometime later, the boy got up and went into the living room. From the gun cabinet tucked beneath the stairs, he removed the pump-action, .410-gauge shotgun his grandfather had given his father for his 10th birthday.

Joe gave the gun to his son at Thanksgiving, something he says he now regrets.

With the shotgun loaded with bird shot, Christopher climbed the stairs to the dark loft. He turned left at the top landing and faced the side of the bed where his grandfather was likely sleeping. Without turning on the lights, he fired at least two shots -- one into his grandfather's open mouth and another into the back of his grandmother's head.

He found candles in the medicine cabinet of the upstairs bathroom. He placed lit candles around the house and set a blaze with lighter fluid and gasoline from a can for the four-wheeler.

Making Sense of it All

The confession led to charges of double murder and arson. Though he was 12 at the time of the killings, a family court judge agreed to waive the boy up to adult court in June. John Justice, 6th circuit solicitor, requested the move, citing the "absolute cold-bloodedness" of the crime.

The death penalty was not sought. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court set 16 as the minimum age for capital punishment.

Now 14, Christopher could get 30 years to life in prison if convicted. The case may go before a grand jury within the next few weeks for an indictment to go to trial. The defense and prosecution could also reach a plea agreement at any time and avoid a trial altogether.

His family, however, isn't interested in a plea agreement. They don't doubt that Christopher pulled the trigger but feel he doesn't deserve to spend a day in adult prison. He may have committed the act, but he is not criminally responsible, they say.

They blame the Medication.

Though he suffered from depression, Duprey said antidepressants changed her grandson.

"Until that point, he was still Christopher," she said. "Then you bring medication into the equation, and it changed this quiet boy. And all of this happened in a very short period of time."

Instead of jail time, the boy's father believes his son needs extensive therapy. "He'll need that just with the trauma of having to live with this the rest of his life.” Christopher just wants this all to end, Duprey said. "He wants closure. He wants answers to what he's facing. It's been two years."

The answer, however, could bring years -- possibly all he has left -- in prison.

Duprey hopes that doesn't happen. She doubts the criminal justice system could punish her grandson as much as he'll punish himself.

During a recent conversation in Columbia , Duprey said Christopher told her, "Grandma, I know God forgives me. I know my grandparents forgive me. But I don't think I'll ever forgive myself."