GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — New details have been released in the murder of a Gwinnett County couple.
Cassandra Bjorge, 17, and her boyfriend, Johnny Rider, 19, are accused of using a tire iron to beat the girl’s grandparents, Wendy and Randall Bjorge, 63.
According to the Medical Examiner, the manner of death for both victims was homicide and the cause of death for both victims was an incision to the throat.
The grandparents also suffered blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries.
The bodies of the couple were found inside their home on Furlong Road in Lawrenceville on Saturday night.
The teens were hospitalized after police say they tried to kill themselves after a SWAT standoff on Sunday.
Bjorge was released from the hospital overnight Thursday for stabbing wounds, booked and charged with murder.
The mother of Cassandra Bjorge spoke to Channel 2's Nicole Carr about her daughter being accused of killing her parents in a clearly heartbreaking situation.
While she won't appear in court on the new charges until Friday, Rider did face a judge on the murder charges Thursday morning.
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The 19-year-old's arm remained wrapped from his own stab wounds. He got some advice from a defense attorney who was standing in on his first appearance.
"You're on the news. Everyone in here is your friend,” attorney David Whitman said, with apparent sarcasm. “They'll want to come up and talk to you about your case, and then they're going to come to me or another lawyer and they will sell that information to the District Attorney. You don't talk to anyone in here about anything and you stay off that phone, okay.”
Police said Bjorge was a repeated runaway who had been living with her grandparents.
“They had (been) really the only people who really cared about her and was trying to help her,” neighbor Steve Lazzari.
Cox Media Group
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