Keith Belajonas, a 32-year-old dad of two with a history of expressing violent desires on social media, brutally murdered his 28-year-old wife early Thursday morning as their two young sons, ages four and five, watched the whole horrifying crime unfold. And when he was done shooting and stabbing the mother of his children, Belajonas left a bone-chilling message on his Facebook page, declaring that he “won.”
Belajonas then grabbed the two boys, got in his Nissan Pathfinder and drove from the Philadelphia suburb of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, to Staten Island, New York, with his two terrified young sons as cargo. According to a witness, one of the boys asked his father, “Is mommy dead?” as Belajonas loaded them into his SUV at about 2:30 am.
But before he took his kids and fled, Belajonas logged onto his Facebook page and posted a terse and haunting message .
“Had an argument. She was cheating on me. I won.”
When police arrived they found a filthy apartment splattered with blood. The boys’ mother, Christina Corrigan-Belajonas, was lying slumped against a closet door, stabbed multiple times and shot in the head.
Police put out an Amber Alert for the two boys.
Meanwhile, Belajonas made his way to Staten Island , pulling into a CVS drugstore where his brother was an employee. He left the two boys, who appeared physically unharmed, with his brother then robbed the CVS of cash, beer, and cigarettes before fleeing in his Pathfinder.
Later Thursday morning police in New York City took a 911 call from a witness who recognized Belejonas’ SUV from the Amber Alert description. Police located the vehicle and quietly trailed Belajonas, who was armed with two handguns, until he turned on to a dead end street, Bartlett Avenue.
Officers were about to approach the vehicle and attempt to take Belajonas into custody, but before they could even get out of their own vehicle, the violently disturbed dad shot himself, dying instantly.
The two boys were recovered in good physical condition.
The New York native who moved his family from Staten island to the Philadelphia area two years ago had a history of making frightening and disturbing posts on social media , frequently referring to blacks and Hispanics with racial epithets, declaring that African-Americans should be encouraged to kill each other so “they just might do my job for me,” and at one point posting a Twitter message declaring, “Wanna shoot someone soooooooo bad right now.”
Keith and Christina Belajonas had lived in Pennsylvania for 22 months but neither had a criminal record there and police found no record of ever responding to domestic disturbance calls at their duplex apartment. Records in New York were still being examined.