Steven Gibson, 39, was allegedly the target of a family murder plot hatched by his wife Michelle and their son Steven Jr., 15, who took part in stabbing him.
Officials concluded this after a month-long investigation into his murder.
In a frantic 911 call on March 1, Michelle Gibson tearfully told police about a grisly discovery she made at 2 a.m. in the family’s Peoria, Ariz., home.
“There’s blood everywhere!” Gibson cried. “I’m with my kids.”
“I just got home and my husband’s out in the garage dead!”
But authorities now say it was all a sinister act on her part.
“This is a complete shock to the rest of the family,” Amber McGonagill, 23, Steven Gibson’s stepdaughter, said. “I have no clue why my mom would do this.”
“My dad was a loving man and was not abusive in any way.”
Michelle Gibson, 41, allegedly offered $1,000 each to two of her son’s friends, telling them “they needed to kill [her husband] before he killed her or [his son].”
The plan was to use chloroform to knock Steven Gibson out, drive him to a nearby park, shoot him in the head, and make it look like a drug deal gone bad.
The mom also allegedly told the two boys that they needed to make sure her husband’s body was found “so a money inheritance could be paid out.”
Later that evening, one of the two boys, Erik McBee, 16, allegedly beat a sleeping Steven Gibson in the head with a baseball bat, according to prosecutors.
Steven Jr. then later “drove [a] large knife he was holding into his father’s chest at least three times. [McBee] then took the knife and slit the victim’s throat.”
The scheme fell apart when McBee, who was helping Steven Jr. move the body, heard police sirens, fled the scene and later turned himself in to police.
Michelle Gibson, Steven Jr. and McBee have each been charged with first-degree murder and remain in police custody. Police have not yet offered a motive.
The Gibson household has a record of domestic violence calls between the parents, but they consistently refused to press charges, Peoria, Az., police say.
Even more arrests could occur depending on how the investigation plays out, as this is a complex case with a large amount of evidence still to review.
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