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Christopher Hightower

Active

1991–1991

Region

Barrington, Rhode Island, USA

State

RI

Kind

Single

Status

Convicted

Victims

3

In September 1991 Christopher Hightower, a commodities broker living in Barrington, Rhode Island, killed Ernest Brendel, his wife Alice, and their 8-year-old daughter Emily. Ernest had filed a complaint with federal regulators seeking to revoke Hightower's license over money he had invested with him. Hightower then told Ernest's sister that the family had been kidnapped and asked her for ransom money; she called the FBI, and he was arrested on September 23. The family's bodies were found buried near St. Andrew's School on November 7, 1991. A jury convicted him in 1993 and he was sentenced to consecutive life terms, a verdict the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed in 1995.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Ernest Brendel · September 20, 1991

  A Barrington father who had invested money with Hightower and complained about it to regulators.

• Alice Brendel · September 20, 1991

  Ernest's wife; last seen walking home from the bus after a day in Providence.

• Emily Brendel, 8 · September 20, 1991

  The couple's daughter.

Timeline of locations

1. September 20, 1991
   Brendel home, Barrington (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Alice Brendel was last seen walking home from the bus on September 20, 1991. Police later found part of the family's garage freshly washed down, and Hightower was charged with breaking into the garage and home.

2. September 20, 1991
   YMCA after-school program (Abduction, approximate area)

   Hightower picked Emily up from her after-school program, showing her father's driver's license as proof he was allowed to take her. She was not seen alive again.

3. September 23, 1991
   Arrest in Barrington (Arrest, approximate area)

   After Ernest's sister called the FBI, Barrington police stopped Hightower in the Brendels' red Toyota in a church parking lot on September 23, 1991. He was carrying Ernest Brendel's credit cards.

4. November 7, 1991
   Graves near St. Andrew's School (Recovery site, approximate area)

   A woman walking her dogs near St. Andrew's School found two lime-covered depressions beside a trail; the bodies of Ernest, Alice and Emily Brendel were recovered there the same day, about half a mile from their home.

5. March 1993
   Providence County Superior Court (Licht Judicial Complex) (Court / trial)

   Hightower's trial began in March 1993; the jury convicted him in April on 11 counts, and on June 8, 1993, Judge John Sheehan sentenced him to consecutive life terms.

Watch, listen, read

Sources

• State v. Hightower, 661 A.2d 948 (R.I. 1995) (Caselaw Access Project)
• Hightower sentenced to life for R.I. family slayings (UPI, June 8, 1993)
• Death of an Angel, by Donald A. Davis (Open Road Media / St. Martin's)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.