Alec Devon Kreider - Arrest, Trial, and Aftermath

Arrest, Trial, and Aftermath

During a month of intense national and regional media coverage and speculation, including tracking by bloodhounds and an intensive search by PSP cadets, Kreider was arrested on June 16, 2007, after his father, Timothy Scot Kreider, informed authorities that his son had confessed to the killings two days earlier. Police said Kreider was a friend of victim Kevin Haines (16), a fellow sophomore at Manheim Township High School. Kreider pleaded guilty to three counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole on June 17, 2008. His age prevented him from being sentenced to death due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Roper v. Simmons (2005). Kreider's motive for the killings is unclear, although according to an entry investigators found in his journal, he claims to have "despised happy people".

A financial reward offered on behalf of the Haines family remains unclaimed.

Kreider pleaded guilty to three counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. On June 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that a sentencing scheme that includes mandatory life in prison for juvenile offenders violated the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Kreider is among several juvenile offenders sentenced to life without parole who are returning to court to have their cases evaluated in light of the Miller decision.