Who Is Alec Kreider? Man Convicted Of 3 Murders As Teen Kills Himself In Prison

A man who, as a teenager, broke into a classmate's home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in May 2007 and stabbed the teenager and his parents to death killed himself in prison, authorities reportedly said Monday. Alec Kreider, 25, hung himself in his cell and the authorities found him on Friday at the state prison in Camp Hill Cumberland County, about 40 miles from Lancaster, Deputy Coroner Jeff Miller said.

The State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill said Kreider was found unconscious in his cell. Some staff members tried to revive him and also provided CPR, which was continued by emergency medical personnel, CBS Harrisburg affiliate WHP reported. Holy Spirit Hospital pronounced Kreider dead at 4:31 p.m., Jan. 20.

Kreider was 16 years old when he murdered Kevin Haines, his classmate from 10th grade at Manheim Township High School, and his parents, Thomas and Lisa Haines, in their house using a hunting knife. Kevin's sister, a Bucknell University student, was also at home that night. She was awakened by the sounds of a struggle in Kevin's room and immediately ran to her parents' room, where Lisa, her mother told her to get help. She escaped from the house and ran to a neighbor's home to call the police.

Kreider was given three consecutive life sentences in June 2008 when he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. At his sentencing in 2008, the judge asked him for an explanation why he committed the crime.

Kreider replied: "There is none."

Kreider was on medication and treatment for depression even before he committed the murders, he told the judge. Tim Kreider, his father, told local newspapers in 2014 that while confessing to the murder, his son "never gave a motive... only said something about Kevin annoying him lately."

During his sentencing, the prosecutors read excerpts from a journal Kreider wrote after the murders in which he expressed a "want/need to kill people" and admitted to having "murderous thoughts."