Suspected killer held, girl found unharmed

A MAN wanted in a Pennsylvania double homicide and apparent abduction of 14-year-old girl was captured last night after a car he was driving crashed in Indiana following a police pursuit, State Police said.

State Police 1st Sgt Dave Bursten said David Ludwig, 18, was apprehended at about 5.30pm Irish time after a car he was driving crashed about 20 miles west of Indianapolis, Indiana, following a pursuit by State Police.

Bursten said Ludwig was found with the missing girl, 14-year-old, Kara Beth Borden, a daughter of the killed couple, and she was unharmed.

"He's in custody and we have the girl," Bursten said.

Police in Pennsylvania said Ludwig killed Kara's parents, Michael F and Cathryn Lee Borden, early Sunday after they and their daughter argued about her curfew.

The shootings happened at the family's home near Lititz in Warwick Township, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.

Footage from news helicopters in Indiana showed a girl sitting in a police cruiser, and a young man wearing a gray T-shirt was handcuffed sitting next to a red Volkswagen Jetta that had run head-on into a tree.

Police Chief William Seace said earlier that authorities were operating on the assumption that the girl had been kidnapped and had issued an amber alert.

Kara's 13-year-old sister, Katelyn, told investigators her father and mother were shot after they argued with Ludwig for about an hour, according to a police affidavit filed in court.

"As they got near the front door, Katelyn Borden saw David Ludwig with a handgun pointed toward her father and Katelyn saw David Ludwig pull the trigger, heard a gunshot, and then she ran into the bathroom," the affidavit said.

She heard a second shot presumably the one that killed her mother while hiding in the bathroom, it said. Ludwig then ran through the house calling for Kara, she told police.

The couple's nine-year-old son ran to the home of neighbours, who called 911, police said earlier.