On March 3, 1993, just after 2:00 AM, three people were murdered in a family home in Layhill, Silver Spring, Maryland. Mildred Horn, her eight-year-old son Trevor, and Janice Saunders, the boy's overnight nurse, were killed in what investigators initially suspected was a robbery. The bodies were discovered around 7:30 AM by Mildred's sister, Vivian Rice, and a neighbor.
The murders were brutal. Mildred Horn and Janice Saunders were shot in the head multiple times. Trevor Horn, who was quadriplegic and brain-damaged from a medical procedure three years earlier, was smothered—his killer pressing a hand over his tracheostoma, nose, and mouth to cut off his breathing. The scene had been staged to look like a robbery.
What made this case extraordinary was the motive. Lawrence Thomas "L.T." Horn, Mildred's ex-husband and Trevor's father, had orchestrated the murders to access his son's trust fund worth approximately $1.7 to $2 million.
The trust had been established in 1990 following a settlement over a hospital procedure in 1986 that left young Trevor permanently disabled and brain-damaged. The settlement awarded roughly $2.3 million to be held in trust for Trevor, with additional payments made directly to his parents: $322,359 to Mildred and $125,000 to Lawrence. By eliminating his ex-wife and son, Lawrence would become the sole beneficiary of the entire trust.
To carry out the plan, Horn turned to James Edward Perry, a 45-year-old hitman from Detroit who had connections through Horn's cousin, Thomas E. Turner. Perry would later prove to be meticulous in his approach—he even purchased a copy of "Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors" and followed its instructions with disturbing precision.
The investigation revealed the financial desperation behind the scheme. Lawrence Horn arranged payments to Perry through Western Union transfers under the assumed name "George Shaw." When Horn struggled to access the trust funds—blocked by a lawsuit filed by Vivian Rice to prevent his inheritance—Perry began making threatening phone calls demanding payment.
Detectives found crucial evidence in Horn's apartment seized on March 11, 1993: handwritten notes about the settlement and inheritance, along with audio and video tapes and phone logs that traced his connection to Perry.
Both men were indicted on July 19, 1994, on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Lawrence Horn was arrested in Los Angeles, while Perry was apprehended in Detroit, though he initially fought extradition.
