SOLVED: 1981 brutal stabbing and murder of Arkansas brother and sister (13,14) in their kitchen while mom was in hospital & father working the graveyard shift. Holy s*** there's so much to unpack here.

Here's the text to the article, my thoughts and additional links are below it. https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2023/oct/19/breaking-child-murders-in-1981-solved-texarkana-police-prosecutor-announce/

this man was NEVER suspected

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Investigators have answered a question that has haunted locals for more than 40 years: Who stabbed teenage siblings Karen and Gordon Alexander to death in 1981?

Answer: The children's father, Weldon Alexander, is the sole viable suspect in the murders, Police Chief Michael Kramm said in a prepared statement. Miller County Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell, retired police Capt. Calvin Seward and state forensic criminologist Dr. Todd Steffy were also present at the announcement during a news conference Thursday in the Bi-State Justice Building. Weldon Alexander died in 2014 at the age of 80. The children's mother, Vera Alexander, died by suicide in 1984. Long thought to have been working at Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. the night of the killings, Weldon Alexander had never before been considered a suspect. Based on evidence Seward and Steffy presented to her Oct. 4 — including DNA collected at the crime scene — Mitchell would issue an arrest warrant for Alexander for two counts of capital murder. In the early morning hours of April 8, 1981, 13, and Karen, 14, were brutally murdered in their home in the Carmichael Hill neighborhood of Texarkana, Arkansas. Infamous murderer Henry Lee Lucas claimed in 1984 to have killed the Alexander children, but like most of Lucas' hundreds of confessions, that one proved to be false. Further investigation showed he could not have been in Texarkana on the day of the murders.

In 1981, Seward was a young TAPD patrol officer who lived in the same neighborhood as the Alexanders. He never forgot the crime, and after his retirement as a captain, with the department's support, he began to reexamine the case.

Seward brought in Steffy to help take a fresh look at a large amount of evidence, reports and notes compiled by police at the time of the murders. Both hoped advances in DNA technology would break the case.

A Facebook group dedicated to finding justice for the Alexander children has been active in bringing renewed attention to the crime. The first, current season of the Gazette's podcast "True Crime Texarkana" tells the story of the Alexander children murders and their aftermath.

I am from Arkansas and only heard of this case last year when the Facebook page began circulating a ton of new information. I know nowadays, the parents are the first ones to be suspected....but it seemed like he had a solid alibi and was never considered. (he may have been, but I never even saw it speculated).

Why its even crazier....Karen did not die during the attack. She was in the hospital for several days after the attack. Her murderer was 100% allowed to visit her. Can you imagine, being attacked like that, incapable of telling anyone who hurt you and killed your brother while they have open access to visit you?

This was on a school night. According to friends on the Facebook group, Karen had begged them to spend the night that night while her mother was in the hospital. I guess now we know why.

The mother was in the hospital for depression. She committed suicide after their murders.

This man had everyone fooled. Had everyone's sympathy until he died in 2014.

So much to unpack.

Im not sure if I can post a link to a Facebook page here...but I suggest searching for it on Facebook because it contains a wealth of information not available anywhere else. I apologize, the FB group is private and the admin has paused all activity for a month. Guess mentioning the group on here probably wasn't the best idea.

Edit: I apologize for not adding additional information after initially posting this. Things got really busy at home. A kind Redditor posted these so people could learn more about the victims. Gordon Alexander Karen Alexander

edit: Here are two photos I found of young Karen in First Grade and Gordon in Kindergarten Karen and Gordon Alexander