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Jury: Missouri ranch for boys not liable in West Michigan couple’s deaths

Posted at 1:06 PM, Apr 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-04 13:06:07-04

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri ranch for troubled boys will not be held liable for the murders of a Michigan couple committed by two boys who ran away from the facility.

The children of Paul and Margaret Brooks, of Baldwin, Michigan, sued Lives Under Construction, a Christian juvenile rehabilitation center, after their parents were killed in 2013. The couple was stabbed repeatedly when the two boys broke into their winter home in Stone County, Missouri, two days after they left the ranch.

The Springfield News-Leader reports a Lawrence County jury decided Monday that the ranch was not responsible for the couple’s deaths.

The family argued the ranch wasn’t equipped to handle Christopher Allen and Anthony Zarro, who both had severe mental health issues.

Allen and Zarro are serving life sentences for the couple’s deaths.