Savage Son

by Corey Mitchell

  “It is,” she quietly muttered.

  Soon thereafter, Bart was airlifted into the hospital as well. Kent was informed that Bart had been rather heroic in his attempt to tackle the shooter and had been shot in the shoulder in the process. His oldest son was in a state of shock about the events that had just occurred, but he would be all right.

  Both Kent and Bart were ably tended to by the Memorial Hermann staff. Both men had suffered a broken arm and were both set in temporary casts. According to Kent, the bullet he had taken had “entered my right shoulder and traveled through the arm muscle, striking midhumerus and shattering the bone.”

  Bart had been shot in the left arm, which had also been broken.

  The arms of the Whitaker men weren’t the only things to be set and healed that night. According to Kent, a self-described very religious man, he “felt God’s presence and comfort” in his hospital room the night of the murders. As a constant stream of well-wishers respectfully marched in and out of his hospital room, he claimed that “Scriptures of comfort came to mind” and described it as if “God gave me a shot of Novocain” to deal with the pain of the complete and total upheaval he was now about to embark on.

  Miraculously, on the same night his beloved wife, Tricia, and his equally beloved youngest son, Kevin, were murdered, Kent Whitaker decided to invoke a “conscious act of will.” He forgave the shooter.

  Not wanting to be burdened with the additional emotional turmoil wrought by anger, Kent made an emphatic decision to forgo anger and hatred. Instead, he decided to turn his faith over to God. According to Kent, he stated, “I wanted whoever was responsible to come to Christ and repent for this awful act.”

  Kent’s decision to forgive startled even himself. Earlier, he felt the normal feelings of an individual who had a loved one ripped away from him—depression, anger, the desire to kill his wife and son’s killer. He stated, however, that once he decided to forgive the killer for the murders, “This forgiveness astounded me.” He believed the act saved his life and changed everything for the better.

  6

  Thursday, December 11, 2003, 7:00 P.M.

  Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital

  Sugar Land, Texas

  The night after the murders, Detective Marshall Slot and his partner, B. W. “Billy” Baugh, paid a visit to Kent and Bart Whitaker at the hospital in their shared room, which had been upgraded from a double to a hospitality suite to hold their numerous visitors. Slot and Baugh were able to speak with both men about the previous night’s fateful encounter. Detective Slot introduced himself to the two men and informed them that he would be lead detective on their case.

  Detective Slot wanted to learn more about the Whitakers so he could possibly unearth a single clue as to why someone would rob them and attempt to kill their entire family. Kent and Bart recalled the events from the night before in as much detail as they possibly could.

  They also spoke about their various backgrounds in education and employment. Kent informed Detective Slot that he had been employed as an accountant for his wife’s father’s construction company for a number of years.

  Bart spoke about his education and his impending graduation ceremony from Sam Houston State University, in Huntsville, Texas, which was to take place the following night. Bart added that he was interested in working in law enforcement and would be taking part in an internship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after graduation. He wanted to become a detective, just like Slot.

  The detectives left the two grieving men to their own devices. Detective Slot expressed his condolences for the losses of Kevin and Tricia. He let them know he would be available for them at any time, if they thought of anything else that happened the night before, or if they could think of any reason why someone would want to cause them harm.

  The Whitakers thanked Slot and Baugh and returned to healing and commiserating.

  The following day, Detective Slot began to make a series of phone calls trying to track down as much information about the Whitakers and any of their acquaintances as possible. The detective mostly came up with dead ends, either with no information or simply that the Whitakers were well-liked and appeared to have no enemies.

  Most of Slot’s efforts seemed to bear no fruit. That is, until he received a phone call from the bursar’s office of Sam Houston State University.

  Detective Slot was stunned by the phone call he received. He knew he only had one option—he needed to speak to the oldest brother, Bart, at the hospital. The detective drove back up to Memorial Hermann and made his way toward the twenty-three-year-old’s room. He walked into the room and saw Bart sitting up, watching television. Kent Whitaker was not in the room.

  “Hello, Bart,” Slot greeted the young man.

  “Detective Slot”—Bart returned his gaze with a grin on his face—“any new information on the case, sir?”

  “As a matter of fact, Bart, there is something that is quite puzzling to me.”

  Bart’s expression changed to quizzical as he looked back at the detective. “What is it, sir?”

  “Bart, I got a call not too long ago from your college, Sam Houston,” Slot informed him.

  “Yes, sir?” Bart looked confused.

  “Bart, the bursar’s office told me that you are not actually even going to school there. In fact, they said you only have enough credits to be a freshman,” Slot calmly relayed the information. “Why would they tell me that?”

  Bart sat, stunned. He looked defeated. He looked embarrassed. “I had a feeling you were going to find out, sooner or later,” Bart replied with a knowing frown. He slowly began to shake his head and look down at his chest as he sat in his hospital bed.

  “Bart, do you care to tell me what is going on?” Slot asked. “Can you tell me the truth, son?”

  Bart paused interminably. Finally he lifted his head up and looked directly into Detective Slot’s eyes. “I am not enrolled at Sam Houston State, Detective.”

  Slot did not press the issue with Bart. Instead, he made Bart go back over the details of the night of the murders. After he was done, Slot made his way over to Kent Whitaker’s bed; Kent had since returned to the room. Slot waited until Bart left the room to speak to Kent.

  “Hello, Mr. Whitaker,” Slot greeted the mourning father. “How are you feeling today, sir?”

  Kent Whitaker muttered, “Fine, I guess.” The shock from losing his wife and youngest son had not settled.

  “Mr. Whitaker, I have to ask you something about your oldest boy, Bart.”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Kent replied.

  “Did Bart tell you he was graduating from college this weekend, sir?” Slot asked.

  “Yes, from Sam Houston State University, up in Huntsville. We were supposed to go to the graduation ceremony today, as a matter of fact. Why do you want to know that?” Kent asked.

  “Sir, are you aware that Bart is not even enrolled at Sam Houston?”

  Kent flinched at the statement. “No, that’s not true. Of course, he’s enrolled. How else could he be getting his degree?”

  “Sir, Bart is not enrolled in school there. In fact, he has not been enrolled at Sam Houston for a number of years.”

  Kent sat stunned in his hospital bed. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he declared, dumbfounded. “That’s why we went out to dinner. We were celebrating his upcoming graduation.” Kent looked directly at Detective Slot. “This has got to be some kind of joke, doesn’t it? This is just a cruel joke.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. Your son is not enrolled in college,” Slot reiterated.

  Kent sat silent and upright in his bed. He still was not sure if he heard the detective right. Even if he had, he was not sure what to make of the news. He knew his son had some trouble as a youth with telling the truth, but he knew his oldest child was a good kid.

  Bart would never do anything to harm anyone—much less anyone in his family.

  Kent Whitaker simply shook his head.

  “Of course, sir, we
are still looking into every angle to find out who killed your family,” Slot reassured the stunned father.

  Kent later admitted that when he heard the news about Bart’s lies about college, he only had one thought: This will derail the investigation into the police finding the real killer because they will focus on Bart as a suspect.

  Kent, of course, knew his oldest son had nothing to do with the murder of his own mother and brother, but this latest bit of information, coupled with a smallish criminal record as a teenager, would temporarily delay things, as far as finding the actual murderer.

  According to Kent, he decided he needed answers from Bart. An aching Kent glanced at Bart’s side of the hospital room, where he spotted Bart asleep in his bed. He also noticed Bart’s girlfriend, Lynne Sorsby, seated in one of the uncomfortable guest chairs. Lynne had been at the hospital since the morning after the shooting, and had not left Bart’s side the entire time.

  Kent nodded toward Lynne and then quietly asked her if he could have a moment alone with his son. Lynne cordially assented, stood up, and walked out of the room. Kent edged his wheelchair up next to his son’s bed and began to speak.

  “Bart, what were you thinking?” Kent whispered. “You weren’t even in school? How could you lie to us about graduation?”

  Bart sat up erect in bed at the sound of his father’s voice. “Dad, I’m so sorry!” he bellowed out loud. “I didn’t want to tell you because I knew how much you and Mom were looking forward to my graduation.” He added, “I just figured I could work it out and take the classes next semester, and nobody would know.”

  Kent was livid. “Nobody would know! How would we not know? How would they let you graduate? How did you get into this mess in the first place?”

  According to Kent, Bart had been a complete wreck since the shooting. He, too, was in a sling and bandaged up rather thoroughly. He had kept the drapes in his room closed so no light peered in whatsoever, and all he wanted to do was sleep.

  Kent felt pity for his son as he listened to Bart’s explanations for his scholastic situation, and why he felt the need to lie to his parents about it. Bart explained that he had been swamped at his job at the Bentwater Yacht & Country Club, in Montgomery, Texas, a palatial sporting club and restaurant located on Lake Conroe, which catered to some of the wealthiest individuals in the state of Texas. Several employees had quit during the summer and he had been forced to take over a majority of the duties to keep the restaurant afloat.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” the once-mild-mannered father, now furious, asked his son. “Thanks to this ‘little’ lie about graduation, the police think you’re a suspect!” Kent was incredulous. He told Bart that he believed the police now viewed Bart as the only suspect. “You weren’t in school, you told everyone you were graduating, and they think you arranged to have us killed to cover it up. Can you see how stupid that was?”

  Bart immediately snapped to and made sure his dad was fully aware he was in no way involved with the deaths of his mother and brother. “Dad, that’s nuts! I didn’t have anything to do with the shootings!” Bart tearfully apologized to his father for the ridiculous lie and reiterated that he did not want his parents to be disappointed with him for not doing well in college. “This will be okay,” he reassured his father.

  Kent, however, was not completely satisfied with Bart’s response. “I’m so mad now, I could spit!” he bellowed out at his oldest son. “I’ve told you before—you cannot ever allow yourself to start lying again!” Kent reiterated that the police were now wasting time focusing on Bart because of his lies, instead of doing everything in their power to find the real killers.

  Kent eventually relaxed and the two men made up, told one another that they loved each other, and mentioned that the police would get back on the proper trail soon enough.

  Kent, however, had a niggling sensation that he could not shake. He was still very angry with Bart for having lied to him about his college career. One thing he did not ponder: How could Tricia and I have not known Bart wasn’t in college all these years?

  7

  Kent and Tricia Whitaker’s first encounter was on a blind date. “I walked into her house and I didn’t know what I was expecting, but she came down [the stairs] and I thought, ‘I’ve never been on a blind date like this before,’” Kent joyfully recalled. “We hit it off very well right from the start.” Indeed, he was smitten by the beauty with long blond hair that draped below her shoulders. He realized within a matter of months that he had fallen deeply in love with her, and she had reciprocated his feelings.

  Tricia and her younger brother, William “Bo” Bartlett, grew up near the South Loop in Houston. When she turned fifteen, the family moved over to the west side of Houston. Tricia and Bo attended Westchester High School. Tricia participated in the group Young Life, a Christian ministry that reached out to middle-school, high-school, and college-aged kids. She also loved to hang out with her friends and was even an avid water-skier. Tricia was a good student and very popular with her classmates.

  Upon graduation from Westchester High School, Tricia migrated north for college at Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas, the halfway point between Austin and San Antonio. She attended Southwest Texas for one year before she returned home for the summer. That was when she met Kent.

  Having been smitten with her newfound love, Tricia knew she could no longer attend school in San Marcos, since she would have been nearly two hundred miles away from Kent. To remedy the situation, she instead opted to transfer to the University of Houston.

  In 1974, Kent landed a job at Tricia’s father’s construction company, which was “in the commercial construction business in masonry.” The company was founded in 1951 by Tricia’s father, William Bartlett Sr., who ran a tight ship that turned into a lucrative venture in a short period of time.

  According to Kent, he acted as the company’s office manager and also its accountant. He mainly handled relations with the government and oversaw all of the accounting and contracts that came over the transom.

  After dating Tricia and working for her father’s company for more than one year, twenty-six-year-old Kent Whitaker and twenty-three-year-old Patricia Ann Bartlett decided to get married. They sealed their nuptials on June 21, 1975.

  The happy couple enjoyed each other’s company for another four years before they excitedly welcomed their first child. Thomas Bartlett “Bart” Whitaker was a New Year’s Eve baby, born on December 31, 1979. The couple focused all their love and attention on Bart, until four years later when they welcomed their second son, Kevin, into the family on March 19, 1984.

  The Whitaker household was a growing hub of love and activity. Kent and Tricia worked hard to raise healthy, happy children. They went out of their way to make sure each son was cared for, paid attention to, and encouraged to be the best possible children they could be.

  As the boys grew older, the family became closer. Kent played sports with the boys, and Tricia, a school-teacher, worked with them on their studies. They exercised their minds, as well as their bodies. They also made sure to incorporate the boys into their religious beliefs, as they were very devout Christians.

  When Bart and Kevin started having friends, the Whitaker household in Sugar Land was Grand Central Station for activity. Parents felt safe knowing their kids were with the Whitakers, and the kids enjoyed playing with Bart and Kevin and adored their parents.

  By the time the boys were teenagers, they had pretty much anything and everything at their disposal. Nice clothes, a large two-story home, cars, skiing trips, girlfriends. All was good in the Whitaker household.

  Bo Bartlett later described Tricia and Kent’s relationship as something most couples would envy. “They would wake up in the morning excited just to talk to each other,” Bo recalled. “Kent would even brush his teeth at the office before he went home just so he was more presentable to Tricia when he got home.

  “He was s
o into my sister. That was his soul mate.”

  8

  Saturday, December 13, 2003

  Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital

  Sugar Land, Texas

  Kent and Bart Whitaker were scheduled to have their surgeries, back-to-back, early that Saturday morning. According to Kent, his and Bart’s injuries were practically mirror images of one another, with the damage to his right arm and Bart’s in his left arm. Kent claimed to have teased the nurses into making sure they inserted the appropriate metal into the correct arms.

  Both Whitaker men were to have titanium rods inserted into their arms which “over time the fragments would fuse together around it” and would take approximately three months to heal. Kent described himself and Bart as “real bionic men,” after the ’70s television icon Steve Austin, from the hit series The Six Million Dollar Man.

  Both Kent and Bart came out of their successive surgeries without any further complications.

  9

  Sunday, December 14, 2003, 1:00 P.M.

  Whitaker Residence

  Sugar Land, Texas

  Detective Marshall Slot returned to the scene of the double murder. This time, however, he was right behind Kent and Bart Whitaker. The two victims of the shooting had been picked up and driven home by Kent’s brother, Keith. Slot hoped to get more information from the father and son as to what had occurred four nights earlier.

  When Keith Whitaker pulled his vehicle alongside the front curb to his brother’s home, Kent Whitaker was taken aback by the sight of several large yellow ribbons tied to many of his neighbors’ trees, as well as around some of the trees in his own front yard. Tears welled up in Kent’s eyes as he exited the vehicle and slowly made his way up to the front door of his home. He somehow managed not to break down as he walked past the spot where Tricia had fallen. As he cracked the door open wider, he was shocked to see that there was no blood to be found.