GUILTY MN - Peter & Patricia Niedere, both 52, murdered, Hastings, 8 Oct 2005

A third suspect arrested Monday in connection with a double homicide in Hastings had helped to plan the shootings and had been at the couple's home the night before they were gunned down at their business, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Jamie C. Patton, 18, of East Bethel, was arrested Monday afternoon in connection with the slayings of Peter and Patricia Niedere, who were shot to death at their auto glass business Saturday afternoon in downtown Hastings.

Hours after the shootings Saturday, the Niederes' son Matthew, 17, and his classmate, Clayton Keister, also 17, of Blaine, were arrested on suspicion of killing the couple.

Matthew Niedere and Keister are senior classmates at Concordia Academy, a Lutheran school, in Roseville. Patton was a senior at Mounds View High School this year. He grew up with Keister and attended Calvin Christian School in Blaine with him.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/467/5661228.html

Long article but worth the read. I will be following this as it is local to me. Very sad case.

This was an interesting article also...they say their son Matthew was adopted:
Students and staff at Concordia Academy in Roseville will attend a special chapel service this afternoon to mourn two deaths and pray for survivors in connection with the slayings Saturday of a Hastings couple.

Two 17-year-old male Concordia students were arrested Saturday following the shooting deaths of Peter and Patricia Niedere, church leaders and business owners.

Arrested were the couple's adopted son, Matthew Niedere, and classmate Clayton Keister of Blaine, both seniors at the Lutheran high school.

"There's a lot of prayer today,'' said Concordia's interim chief administrative officer Lynn Henry. The chapel service, to be conducted by the school principal, the Rev. Tim Berner, is open to students, staff and parents only.

"It's a very sad situation and a sad thing for our kids to have to process and deal with,'' Henry said, adding, "The main thing is being supportive of families involved.''

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/12866744.htm

Police say at least two other people may have known in advance there was a murder plot in place against Peter and Patricia Niedere, who were shot and killed Oct. 8 at their Hastings business.

Authorities said Wednesday they want to question those people as potential witnesses to the planning of the attack.

Police said they don't expect those people to face charges, as they may not have enough knowledge to be implicated criminally. They are not legally obligated to speak to police at this time, although they could eventually be subpoenaed.

Police did not describe their relationships to defendants Matthew J. Niedere, 17, and his friend Clayton R. Keister, 17. Matthew Niedere is the victims' son.

Prosecutors say Matthew Niedere and Keister planned the murders for two weeks and discussed the plans at Concordia Academy, a private Lutheran school in Roseville, Minn. where both were classmates.

Prosecutors say the teens discussed details of the plots every day and considered poisoning Matthew Niedere's parents or sabotaging their car before settling on shooting them.

A third teenager, 18-year-old Jamie C. Patton, helped plan the murders, according to court documents. He was charged with conspiracy.

Matthew Niedere and Keister were moved from a juvenile facility into the adult jail on Wednesday.

The teens are under special watch, authorities said. Jailers check on them more often because of their age and the circumstances of their case.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_286175620.html

The Hastings teenager charged in the shooting death of his parents fits the profile of young people who kill parents, the nation's leading authority on such jolting cases said Wednesday.

"These kids are oftentimes intelligent, polite and well-integrated in the fabric of their society and come from middle-class families that would be considered law-abiding," said Paul Mones, an Oregon attorney who has represented or testified for hundreds of kids accused of killing their parents.

Mones said he didn't know the facts in the case surrounding 17-year-old Matthew Niedere, who authorities say plotted with two friends to kill Peter and Patricia Niedere at their Hastings auto glass store Saturday.

The couple have been called pillars of the community, and Matthew was a church-going athlete at a respected private school in Roseville.

"Most of these kids don't have the same profiles as kids who kill strangers," he said. "They generally don't have a history of violence and aren't the kids who go into the 7-Eleven with a gun to steal a six-pack of beer."

His book, "When a Child Kills," is considered a definitive source on patricide (children killing fathers), matricide (killing mothers) and parricide (killing parents).

Mones said research literature shows the rate of parricide committed by adopted children is no greater than other children. Niedere was adopted as an infant, and Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom has said the adoption was a point of contention with Matthew.

"We don't know how that played out and whether it was thrown up as an issue," said Thomas Blomberg, the dean of criminology at Florida State. "It might have been part of his lack of attachment because certainly there was a lack of attachment to those adoptive parents."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5666280.html

'SOMBEODY JUST GOT SHOT'

The Dakota County Sheriff's Department has released the following transcript of the 911 call. The department deleted the caller's name and cell phone number:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/12887039.htm

calculated murder plot, that's what prosecutors are calling this past weekend's double murder in Hastings.

On Tuesday, the couples own 17-year-old son along with two friends were charged in what authorities say was a murder plot developed over the past few weeks.(Related: Niedere's family searches for answers)

Matthew Niedere, 17, of Hastings; Clayton Keister, 17, of Blaine; and Jamie Patton, 18, of East Bethel are charged as adults in the deaths of Niedere's parents, Patricia and Peter Niedere, both 52.

Charges against Niedere and Keister include four counts of first-degree murder. Patton was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder; prosecutors allege that
Patton and Keister unsuccessfully tried to kill the couple in a staged burglary the night before their deaths.

Matt Niedere, the 17-year-old adoptive son of Peter and Patricia Niedere, hung his head as he appeared on murder charges for Saturday's killing of his parents - Murders the prosecutor calls cold and calculated. Authorities say after Matt had fired ten rounds with a .22-caliber handgun inside Gordy's Premier Auto Glass, his wounded mother ran outside for help. There she saw one of her son's classmates, Clayton Keister, and pleaded with him for help.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=109031

Oh my gosh, how sad. It really got me reading the part where the mom asked her son's friend for help and he ended up following her and shooting her in the head.
I just can't imagine why kids would do this to their parents, even though it did happen in my family. My cousin shot and killed my aunt and uncle and then killed herself. A senseless tradgedy.

A Hastings teenager and his accomplice were given life sentences today for the October murder of the teen's parents.

Dakota County District Court Judge Timothy McManus sentenced Matthew Niedere, 18, and Clayton Keister, 17, to life with the possibility of parole before a packed courtroom.

Niedere and Keister, a classmate from Concordia Academy, entered guilty pleas in Dakota County District Court on Feb. 27.

A third defendant, Jamie Patton, 19, rejected a plea offer earlier today and now faces a May trial on conspiring to murder.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/14106253.htm

Yet, I also found this link saying he got 30 yrs.

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/309416.html

Jamie C Patton: Received Prison sentence of 9 years.
http://info.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/Inmate.asp?OID=220308

CLAYTON ROSS KEISTER: Received Prison sentence of life (it says in above post)
http://info.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/Inmate.asp?OID=219667

MATTHEW JACOB NIEDERE: Received Prison sentence of life
http://info.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/Inmate.asp?OID=219668