Why Let One Live? in Weisenberg, Pennsylvania

Small Town Murder returns to eastern Pennsylvania for Weisenberg Township, in Lehigh County, a collection of small communities outside Allentown, about an hour and five minutes from Philadelphia and an hour and fifty from New York. The township was formed in 1753 and named after a German city; first settlements date from 1734 and the land was bought by Thomas Penn from the Lenape in 1737. Its militia fought at the Battle of Long Island, Pennsylvania German was the language of business and church for generations, and one-room schoolhouses stayed open until 1951. It has 5,099 people across 27 square miles, a median age of 45.7, a median household income of $94,000 against $57,000 nationally, and crime well below average.

The story starts on Sunday, January 6, 1991. Stacey Novotasky, 15, has a weekend job at the Roy Rogers in Trexlertown. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The Floods moved from Glastonbury, Connecticut in April 1990. Flood was a long-distance truck driver who moved between companies, with his longest job at Stroman's Bakery in East Hartford. Friends described him as devoted to the children: he bought Todd a bow, a rifle and a 1967 Chevy Nova, drilled gun safety into them, cared for the family's Doberman, Samson, and Collie, Baby, was active in the Elks and gave a camper to be converted into a lunch wagon for needy people. He also told tall tales about mob connections. The household income in 1990 was said to be about $90,000, yet they were always behind on rent and bills. Flood had quit his job a few months earlier without finding another, and after Thanksgiving Rosemary told colleagues she was unhappy and thinking of leaving.

On the morning of January 6 Stacey was told she could leave early and phoned home. Flood said he would collect her in half an hour. When he arrived he told her the family had gone ahead to Connecticut to look for a house, because they were moving back, and drove her there in near silence. He left her at her father's, Ted Novotasky's, and the next day phoned to say the closing was delayed, that her mother would collect her and then that her brother had crashed the Nova. In fact he had returned to Pennsylvania. He left an envelope in a neighbour's mailbox containing a note asking the neighbour to phone Ted Novotasky so he would not bring Stacey to the house and to support her, and a second note to be taken to the state police. He also paid the rent, phoned Roy Rogers to say Rosemary would not be in, and cashed Rosemary's child support cheque.

The neighbour took the notes to the state police barracks at Foglesville, where Trooper Francis J. Carvin received them. The police note told them to enter the Blue House by the garage door, said he would be on his way to heaven to be with his wife, that the guns were on the bar, and that he had done it on Sunday morning. On January 9 investigators entered the house. In the garage they found the Collie and the Doberman beaten to death with blunt objects. In the living room were a .45 pistol and a sawed-off .22 rifle on the bar, and notes asking police to contact Ted Novotasky and Rosemary's father, one reading that Stacey was special and had been a true daughter. The bodies of Rosemary, Carrie Lynn, Todd and Michael were in the house.

Flood drove to Glastonbury and hid his truck behind an abandoned, vandalised house on a hill that he and friends had used as a base for deer hunting. Snow fell on January 11 and covered his tracks. Police, asking where he might go, were told of the house, found his truck with the plate removed and called him out by loudspeaker on January 13. He came out armed but with his hands up. Evidence suggested he had been eating cold oatmeal for about four days.

In a seven-page statement Flood said that on the Saturday night, January 5, Rosemary told him she would leave when she was next paid. On Sunday morning he asked if she meant it, she said yes and rolled over, and he shot her with the .22 rifle. He killed the dogs by blunt force so that gunfire would not wake the house. In the basement Carrie Lynn asked what he expected, and he shot her in the head. Todd came home and was shot in the back of the head with the .45 while at a closet in Stacey's room. Michael Fadden returned from work, argued with Flood, found Carrie Lynn and was shot. Flood said he drank whiskey throughout and then picked up Stacey, though state troopers found only dusty bottles and no empties, which undercut a possible intoxication defence argued by his public defender, William Wismer. One note said he wanted everyone to go to hell together. In court he said he spared Stacey because she never gave anyone trouble.

this part of the story is covered for now At the preliminary hearing Stacey, still 15, testified, looking at him only once to identify him. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Michael Fadden's mother, Lorraine, said she was satisfied provided he never got out. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The families then struggled to retrieve their belongings, because the landlord, who lived in New York, had changed the locks; police eventually helped open the door. James says Flood is believed to be alive at 74.