Fort Worth man gets life sentence for slicing necks of wife, 3-month-old son in 2016

A Fort Worth man was found guilty of capital murder Thursday, nearly five years after police said he cut the necks of his wife and 3-month-old son.

Craig Vandewege, 40, received an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. His attorney, Steve Gordon, declined to comment on the case.

On Dec. 15, 2016, Vandewege called 911 around 9:30 p.m. and reported that he found his wife, Shanna Vandewege, and his 3-month-old son, Diederik, dead.

Shanna Vandewege was found in bed in the couple’s home in the 8500 block of Cactus Flower Drive with a deep horizontal cut on her neck, police said in an arrest-warrant affidavit. Diederik Vandewege was in his bassinet next to the bed and also had a deep cut to his neck. Both were pronounced dead at the home.

Police said the house had been staged to look like a burglary had occurred, and that even though cabinets were open and some items were strewn about, no valuables had been taken.

Craig Vandewege initially told police that his wife was alive when he left for work that morning, but investigators later found that there was no activity on her phone that would suggest she had been alive after that time, the affidavit said.

“This was never a burglary,” prosecutor Lisa Callaghan told the jury. “Why would a burglar ever kill an infant? … It’s absurd.”

One of Craig Vandewege’s co-workers later told police that Vandewege had told him that he took medication that made him hear “voices that tell him to kill people” and that a few days before the slayings, Vandewege said he had a dream that he sliced his wife’s and his father’s heads “like bologna,” according to the affidavit.

Co-workers also testified at trial that Vandewege spoke about how he’d get more time off if his wife and child died, and authorities said he stood to receive more than $700,000 from life insurance policies.

Vandewege was arrested in Glenwood Springs, Colo., for traffic violations about a week after the murders. He told police that his lawyer told him to leave Texas or he wouldn’t be able to bury his family, and that he was “headed to Las Vegas to see Donald Trump” to figure things out, the affidavit said.

Tarrant County prosecutors said he was on the run from the law.

“All these pieces … show you a picture of only one thing, that he’s guilty,” Callaghan told jurors, according to a news release. “There are no other answers.”