Warning: graphic content.
On August 20, 1989, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez walked into the parents $5 million mansion in Beverly Hills and shot their father, Jose, in the back of the head. As their mother, Kitty, tried to escape, they shot her in the leg.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Kitty and Jose Menendez were both killed by the sons that night after she was shot a total of nine times, and he was shot five.
Lyle and Erik were arrested in March of 1990, and were convicted of murder in 1994. The Menendez brothers were given life sentences.
Now 30 years after the crime, Lyle and Erik’s cousin, Diane Vander Molen, has spoken out about the crime and gave game-changing details to the highly publicized case.
On Thursday night, 57-year-old Diane Vander Molen spoke with ABC about the ordeal. Vander Molen explained that Lyle once told her he was being molested by his father.
Vander Molen recalled a disturbing experience when she was only 17-years-old and was staying over at the Menendez’s house for the summer. She explained that Lyle told her that he was being molested by his father.
“He became very serious about asking me if he could sleep in the other bed next to mine and saying that he was afraid to sleep in his own bed because his father and him had been touching each other down there, indicating that it was his genital area,” Vander Molen said.
Shocked by Lyle’s claims, Vander Molen went and told his mother, Kitty.
“By her demeanor, I could tell that she was not believing any of this,” said Vander Molen. “And [Kitty] went downstairs, and Lyle had already gotten into the bed next to mine, and she went ahead and yanked him by the arm and took him back upstairs and I never heard anything else about that.”
“He was scared to sleep in his own bed because he was afraid that his father was going to come in and molest him that night.”
Vander Molen simply believed that Kitty handled the situation after she mentioned what Lyle told her.
“In hindsight, I wish that I would have been stronger about what Lyle was telling me so I could have done something to help them,” she said.
Vander Molen has no doubt in her mind that Jose was touching the Menendez brothers in an inappropriate manner.
“I know for 100 percent that there was [molestation taking place,” she said. “Their privacy was everything to them. They were completely different people when nobody was around. And then Jose and Kitty would turn on the charm when they had people over, which wasn’t very often.”
Vander Molen continued by saying: “I know that they would never, ever have done what they did unless they felt that they had no choice – it was either them or their parents.”
What are your thoughts about this groundbreaking information in the Menendez brothers murder case?
MORE: Charles Manson’s Most Bizarre On Camera Moments | Entire Family Killed In Small Plane Crash | Former Politician Accused of Most Horrific Crime Ever | Three Women Disappear In Same Area As Sherri Papini | Charles Manson Taken Out of Prison | Kidnap Victim Relentleslly Tormented By Harassers | Hollyweed Sign Culprit Reveals Himself | Missing Church Usher Found Dead In Most Terrible Way | Uber Driver Saves Passenger From Sex Trafficking
[H/T Daily Mail]
