High School Student Charged With Murdering Parents Denied Bail

Bond was denied for a Chicago area high school student, John Granat who was charged with murdering his parents, said Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

Granat, 17, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder after his parents John and Maria Granat, 44 and 42 respectively, were found bludgeoned to death in their bed. The bedroom was splattered with blood from ceiling to floor.

According to prosecutors, the father had his kidney lacerated, jaw broken and teeth knocked out, while the mother had been stabbed repeatedly.

It was Granat who made the 911 call from his family home in the 12700 block of 81st Court in unincorporated Palos Township on Sunday morning, alerting police that his parents were dead. He said he awoke at 7 a.m. and found his family home disheveled. That's when he went upstairs and found his parents. He said he ran from the home and immediately called 911.

However, authorities found no signs of forced entry to the home and Granat told investigators he fell asleep in the basement of the home around 12:30 a.m. and was in the home the entire night.

But the investigation revealed that Palos Heights Police had stopped Granat for a minor traffic offense at 5:17 a.m. at 122nd Street and Harlem Avenue. That led to the first of what would be several conflicting stories Granat gave investigators about his activities in the hours before he called 911.

He finally told investigators a friend had been in need of money and, while Granat was out of the home, he gave the friend permission to enter. Granat said he fell asleep in his car and didn't enter the family home until 7 a.m., when he found his parents dead. But investigators interviewed several friends of Granat's and learned he had previously made multiple threats to kill his parents.

Granat told his friends that he wanted to kill his parents after they learned that he was growing marijuana at their home. The Tribune quoted sources saying that John's parents threw out the drugs shortly before he threatened to kill them for what they had done.

Granat is being temporarily held at Cermak Hospital at the Cook County Jail, where he is undergoing a full physical and psychiatric evaluation, according to the sheriff's officials.

After the bond hearing Tuesday, he was transferred to the Cook County Jail, where he will be held while awaiting trial. Granat's next court hearing is set for Sept. 20.