APNewsBreak: Prayers before SC woman killed family

 JEFFREY COLLINS, AP

 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Hours before she killed her two sons, her ex-husband and her stepmother and tried to frame it on one of the slain children, Susan Hendricks gathered her family together to pray. She said she was worried about her older son, Matthew, because he seemed so down after several people forgot his birthday the day before.

(worst birthday present ever) 

 The audio of her three-hour interview with investigators, as well as 324 pages of documents and more than 600 crime scene photos, were released for the first time in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press.

A report from the crime scene said Burns' body was covered up in her bed as if she were sleeping. Five cartridge cases were found in and around a closet in her room. Matthew Hendricks was found in his bed with one gunshot wound to his head. His body had also been covered up.

Hendricks' sister Evelyn Burns told police it was she who dialed 911 after Hendricks called her and casually remarked during what started as a routine chat that her son had shot himself.

In her interview at the sheriff's office, when she still was claiming Matthew committed suicide, Hendricks explained why she didn't call authorities immediately.

"I didn't want to call EMS," she said. "I didn't want to call anybody because I didn't want them to come take him. I know it sounds crazy. I just thought, well, if I can sit here with him, it will all be OK."

She didn't speak much about Marshall, Mark Hendricks or Linda Burns during the three hours of questioning, but instead repeatedly turned the conversation back to Matthew.

She told investigators she heard nothing during the night and had walked to the kitchen — past a trail of blood in the living room — to make coffee when she found a note from Matthew. She said when she read it, she became alarmed he had harmed himself.

In the note, which reads more like a kind Mother's Day letter, Matthew thanked his "mama" for making him the man he has become and said he couldn't ask for a better mother.