The murder of Kimberly Cates was a thrill killing that attracted national attention due to the brutality of the killers' crimes, the randomness by which the home was chosen with intent to murder everyone inside it (the victims and perpetrators did not know each other prior to the home invasion), the apparent lack of remorse of murderer Steven Spader, and the ages of the thrill killers when they committed murder.
On October 4, 2009, 17-year-old Spader and 19-year-old Christopher Gribble murdered Kimberly Cates (age 42) and severely maimed her 11-year-old daughter Jaimie during a home invasion in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. Both victims were assaulted with a machete.
Spader admitted to hacking Kimberley Cates to death with 36 blows to the head and torso.
A former Boy Scout, Spader was a high school dropout who passed the GED high school equivalency exam. He had formed a club he called "The Disciples of Destruction" shortly before the murder, to whom he recruited his confederates. Spader designed a logo with the initials D.O.D. Spader told his recruits that the home invasion was to be a rite of "initiation" for club members.
Both Spader and Gribble were sentenced to life in prison, while three other accomplices are also serving prison sentences.
Spader informed his attorneys during an April 2013 resentencing hearing that he did not want a reduction in sentence, describing himself as "the most sick and twisted person you'll ever meet".
The murder led to the New Hampshire legislature expanding the crimes punishable by the death penalty to include murder during a home invasion. The state later repealed the penalty on May 30, 2019, after state senators overrode a veto by Governor Chris Sununu.
https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/search/steven+spader
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imj.13658
http://www.kimcatesfund.org/2020golf.htm