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Brothers, 17, 'beat their mother to death with a hammer, stabbed her
in the neck and buried her in the desert because they didn't like her
parenting style'
- Michael Wilson and Dakota Saldivar, both 17, have been charged with murder
- The brothers buried their mother Dawn Liebig in a shallow grave after killing her
- Told police they hit her in head with a hammer 20 times and stabbed her neck
- Confessed that they killed Liebig because they 'couldn't take her complaining'
- Liebig cried for their help during attack, not realizing her sons were the killers
Published:
10:36 EDT, 2 August 2018
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Updated:
12:14 EDT, 2 August 2018
Two
teen brothers are behind bars after they told police they beat their
mother to death with a hammer and then buried her in the desert.
Michael
Wilson and Dakota Saldivar, both 17, confessed to the crime and said
they murdered their mother Dawn Liebig because they didn't like her
parenting style.
The brothers, from
Pahrump, Nevada, buried Liebig in a shallow grave after striking her in
the head with a hammer 20 times and stabbing her neck, police said.
Wilson
and Saldivar were arrested on Wednesday and have been charged with open
murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and domestic battery with a deadly
weapon.
Video playing bottom right...
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Michael
Wilson (left) and Dakota Saldivar (right), both 17, told police they
beat their mother to death and then buried her in the desert because
they didn't like her parenting style
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The brothers, from Pahrump,
Nevada, buried Dawn Liebig (pictured) in a shallow grave after striking
her in the head with a hammer 20 times and stabbing her neck, police
said
A man from Idaho had called the Nye County Sheriff's Office to ask about a welfare check he had requested on Liebig's home.
The
man told a detective that he did not trust her sons and, after it was
discovered Liebig's cell phone was still in her home, police opened up a
missing person report.
Detectives then
contacted another man who revealed that Saldivar and Wilson had
different stories about their mother's disappearance, according to
KVVU.
The
man, whose identity was not released, told police that Liebig, 46, had
multiple disabilities and that he believed she was dead 'due to the type
of family she is in'.
Investigators
returned to Liebig's home to speak with Wilson and Saldivar, who said
they didn't know what had happened to their mother.
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The brothers (pictured here in a
2015 photo with their older brother Michael) first told police that
Liebig was suicidal and had asked them to help kill her
But
detectives found that the brothers' stories were inconsistent and that
Wilson had sent a text saying 'my mother passed away'.
Wilson
then claimed that Liebig had wanted to commit suicide and asked her
sons to help kill her. He said the teens stabbed her to death and buried
her in the desert.
The brothers eventually confessed that they murdered Liebig after getting into a fight
The
brothers eventually confessed that they murdered their mother after
getting into a fight, Sgt Adam Tippetts said during a press conference.
They said they were tired of her parenting style and that they 'couldn't take her complaining'.
Saldivar
and Wilson waited for Liebig to fall asleep after the fight and had
planned to stab her in the jugular vein so she would die fast, they told
police.
Wilson stabbed her in the neck and said she screamed 'No!' and fought for her life.
Saldivar
then struck her 20 times in the head with a hammer. He said his mother
cried out for her sons during the half-hour attack, not realizing they
were her killers.
He only stopped after the hammer went through his mother's skull, police said.
Saldivar then stabbed Liebig in the back of the neck with a pocket knife and the pair buried her body in the desert.
One
brother led detectives to Liebig's shallow grave, while the other
showed investigators where they had buried the murder weapons.
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Saldivar
(pictured) struck Liebig 20 times in the head with a hammer. He said
his mother cried out for her sons during the half-hour attack, not
realizing they were her killers
The pair tried to justify the murder by telling police that their mother had wanted to be with her dead sister.
Wilson
told police he was adopted by Liebig and had lived with her for five
years. It remains unknown if Saldivar was also adopted.
Liebig wrote about her dedication to her sons in the 'Intro' section of her Facebook page
The two also have an older brother, Michael Liebig, who was in prison at the time of their arrest.
Wilson and Saldivar are being held as adults in the Nye County Detention Center.
Saldivar
uses 'Liebig' as his last name on his Facebook profile, which was full
of comments from his mother writing about how much she loved him.
'I miss my sons terribly when they're gone,' she wrote on one of his posts.
Liebig even wrote about her dedication to her sons in the 'Intro' section of her Facebook page.
'I'm a mom that hopes she did okay,' she write. 'I want my boys to become the men I hoped for. I live for them.'
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