Killer Prayed With Family Before Shooting Them

A Pickens County woman convicted of killing her family gathered them together for prayer just hours before she shot them to death.

That revelation and more are part of a trove of information released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request stemming from the murder case against Susan Hendricks of Liberty, who pleaded guilty but mentally insane last October for killing her two sons, ex-husband, and stepmother.

The information release contains a three-hour interview with investigators, 324 pages of documents, and more than 600 crime scene photos, according to the Associated Press, which filed the FOI Act request.

The AP's report said Hendricks gathered her family to pray 12 hours before the killings, saying she was doing it for her older son, Matthew, who seemed depressed after several people forgot his birthday.

"I know it sounds pretty fricking bizarre, but we pray a lot as a family," Hendricks told investigators in a room at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, just hours after authorities discovered the bodies.

Hendricks would later try to pin the murders on Matthew, who was found with a gunshot wound to the head.

The information release also details Hendricks' suicide attempt behind bars and how she kept large insurance policies on all the victims, among other details. For more, read the AP's report.