Andrew Balcer
Andrew Balcer
Andrea (Andrew) Balcer is a transgender resident of Winthrop, Maine. In 2018, they were sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing of their parents, Antonio and Alice Balcer.
Legal Issues
On October 30, 2016, the Balcer family watched the film Monty Python's Life of Brian before Andrea headed to her room to go online. In the early hours of the next morning, the start of Halloween, Andrea called 911 and calmly confessed that, 30 minutes earlier, she had killed her parents by stabbing them to death. She said they had had an argument and she had 'just snapped' but didn’t really know why she had done it. She told the dispatcher:
" I took my Ka-Bar [knife] and drove it straight into my mother’s back.
My father came up because he heard her screams and I stabbed the f**k out of him."[10]
When the 911 operator asked if Andrea was sure her parents were dead, she laughed and said, 'Yeah, there’s no helping them.' As Andrea coolly explained the killings, she revealed there was another victim.
'Oh, I stabbed the dog too,' she said.
't was barking.' She said her brother had been spared.
When officers arrived at the house, Andrea was covered in her parents’ blood, but she surrendered without resistance.
In the back of the police car, she reportedly broke into an opera song that she had heard Pavarotti perform.
Alice was found dead in a bedroom with nine stab wounds.
Antonio was face down in the kitchen with 13 stab wounds and the murder weapon embedded in the floor next to him.
When Andrea was questioned by police, she didn’t deny the killings.
She explained she’d decided to kill her parents and had taken a hunting knife from the kitchen.
When her mum had discovered Andrea was still awake, she had come to check on her – and while Alice was giving Andrea one of her comforting hugs, Andrea had plunged the knife repeatedly and fatally into her back.
Antonio came running after hearing the screams and Andrea attacked him – leaving a trail of blood leading to the kitchen, where he died from his injuries.
Balcer is transgender, formerly called Andrew, and was 17 at the time of the crime.
In December 2018, in court, Balcer asked for forgiveness from her family:
"Though no one may believe me, I am truly sorry for what I have done.
I've killed my parents.
And I know that no amount of repenting will ever bring me true forgiveness for that."[9]
Antonio Balcer, 47, was a former coast guard who had become a chaplain after he retired.
He was a member of several motorcycle clubs, where he was known as 'Rev', and he would officiate at weddings and services.
He loved the outdoors and taking his family hunting and fishing.
Alice Balcer, 47, worked at a veterinary hospital.
She was an animal lover and enjoyed the outdoors as well.[10]
Balcer had said his parents weren't supportive of his transition from male to female and abused him.
Family and friends disputed any notion the parents weren't supportive of Andrea.
Carl Pierce, Alice's brother, said the suggestion that gender identity played a role was an insult to the parents' memory.[9]
In December 2018, Balcer was sentenced to 40 years in prison for their parents' death.[9]