Police: Iowa teen admitted to killing parents to ‘take charge of his life’

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) - Police said a teen admitted to stabbing and killing his parents at their home Thursday morning.

Court documents obtained by KCRG state a 17-year-old Ethan Alexander Orton stabbed his parents, Misty Scott-Slade and Casey Orton, at their house in Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department responded to a call about a suspicious person at the property, and when officers arrived they found Orton covered in blood outside the home.

Authorities said he admitted to killing his parents by stabbing them. He told officers he used an ax to kill his mother when she appeared to have survived the initial stabbing.

Investigators said the teen said he did it to “take charge of his life.”

The parents were found dead inside the home.

Orton was arrested and faces two counts of first-degree murder.

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