Kaleo Pangelian Oregon teen boyfriend helps online girlfriend Candace Walton burn family home, killing mom & special needs brother. Girl was pulled over while driving to Oregon after torching.
A 17-year-old Oregon teen boy has been charged with murder for allegedly helping his 16-year-old online girlfriend kill her mother and special needs brother by torching their family home.
Kaleo Pangelian was arrested by Douglas County Sheriff’s Office at around 4.30pm Thursday and will now face an extradition hearing for his charges in Georgia.
He faces charges for two counts of murder in the deaths of Gerald Walton, 21, and Tasha Vandiver, 46, whose bodies were found in a house fire in Forsyth, Monroe County, Georgia, on February 27.
His girlfriend Candace Walton, 16, was charged in March with arson and two counts of murder for their deaths. It was initially believed she had died in the fire.
Police now believe Pangelian helped Walton to kill her brother and mother before she began her journey to Oregon to start a new life with him 13WMAZ reports.
Incriminating items found in online girlfriend’s possession incriminated Oregon boyfriend:
‘After a thorough investigation, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Investigators obtained evidence to also charge Candace Walton’s boyfriend, 17-year-old Kaleo D. Pangelinan, with two (2) counts of murder,’ said a statement from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Walton was thought to be dead when police found two badly burned bodies in the house fire on Old Zebulon Road around 3:30 a.m. on February 27 and the girl’s mother was missing.
Emergency services who were called to a blaze at a property said the bodies were ‘burned beyond recognition’.
Initially, the fire was not believed to be intentionally set.
The other body was identified as Candace’s specials need brother, Gerald.
Officers reported Vandiver missing and her vehicle, a white 2007 Chevrolet Malibu, unaccounted for.
However, a nationwide lookout for the missing mom’s car led Kentucky police to locate the vehicle later that afternoon more than 450 miles away in McCracken County.
When they pulled the vehicle over, they found Candace alive behind the wheel and heading to Oregon, where her boyfriend Pangelian lives.
Kentucky Sheriff Brad Freeman told the Macon Telegraph that officers found ‘some incriminating things’ in the car.
She was arrested and charged with arson, theft by taking, and the murders of her brother and the unidentified female, who was then thought to be her missing mother. The body was later identified as Vandiver.
The Sheriff confirmed Monroe County investigators had traveled to Kentucky and spoken to the suspect but would not divulge ‘what kind of statement she made’.
The motive for the crime has not been released but Walton has since appeared in court and her charges are pending. She has been charged as an adult.
The investigation is ongoing.
