"Live With Guilt": Craig Price's 1989 Confession Tape

Name: "Live With Guilt": Craig Price's 1989 Confession Tape
Uploaded: 2018-10-25
Duration: 9 min 32 s
Description: Aged 15, Craig Price calmly told Warwick detectives how he killed Joan Heaton and her two daughters. Nearly thirty years later the tape was mailed anonymously to a Providence TV station.

Aged 15, Craig Price calmly told Warwick detectives how he killed Joan Heaton and her two daughters. Nearly thirty years later the tape was mailed anonymously to a Providence TV station.

Subject: Craig Price
Recorded: September 17, 1989
Runtime: 9:32

Content warning: A 15-year-old describes stabbing a woman and her two young daughters to death; the report also refers to the stabbing of a young woman two years earlier.

The Recording

On September 17, 1989, Warwick police detectives questioned 15-year-old Craig Price, with his mother in the room, about the killings of Joan Heaton and her two daughters. The interview was recorded on audio tape. Nearly thirty years later a copy was mailed anonymously to the Target 12 investigative unit of WPRI 12 in Providence, which said it had been authenticated by law enforcement sources who worked the case. On October 25, 2018, reporter Tim White played excerpts in two reports. In them Price, calm and quiet, answers the detectives' questions about what happened in the house.

Historical Context

On September 1, 1989, Joan Heaton, 39, and her daughters Jennifer, 10, and Melissa, 8 (some sources give 7), were found stabbed to death in their home in the Buttonwoods section of Warwick, Rhode Island. Price lived nearby. An injury to his hand helped link him to the crime. In the same interrogation he was questioned about the 1987 killing of Rebecca "Becky" Spencer, 27, also in Buttonwoods, and later that day he confessed to it as well. Because he was a juvenile, he was dealt with in Family Court, and under the law at the time he faced release at 21.

Circumstances of the Recording

The tape was made at the Warwick Police Department sixteen days after the Heaton killings. According to WPRI, it begins with Detective Tim Colgan reading Price his rights. Retired Warwick detective Ken Anderson, who went into the Heaton house on the first day and later helped take Price into custody, is interviewed in the reports. The tape was not released by the police or any court; how the anonymous sender obtained it is not known.

What the Recording Covers

The narration says Price told the detectives Joan Heaton woke and saw him in the kitchen. In the excerpts he says she "didn't say anything", says he ran "back and forth" to the window "to see if the police were coming", and tells the detectives he gathered the knives into a towel and then a bag, both taken from the bathroom. Asked what else he did afterwards, he answers, "Live with guilt", followed by words that are not yet certain. According to the narration, he denied killing Becky Spencer when first asked, and admitted it later that day to Detective Sergeant Dave Hornoff; that part of the tape is not clear enough to quote. Ken Anderson says Price spoke "like it was nothing" and that he was "nowhere near remorseful".

What Makes the Recording Significant

Because Price was a juvenile in 1989, almost nothing of his own account had been heard in public. The tape lets listeners hear how he described the killings at the time, in his own voice, at the age of 15. The case led Rhode Island to change its law so that juveniles accused of serious crimes could be tried as adults.

Archival Importance

WPRI framed its report around Price's projected release from a Florida prison in November 2019. That release did not happen: on January 18, 2019, Price pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a fellow inmate, stabbed at Suwannee Correctional Institution in 2017, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by probation. The recording preserves a confession that had been kept from the public for almost three decades.

Important Caveats

The tape is heard only in short excerpts selected by WPRI, and parts of the audio are faint. Price's statement that he went to the house to steal is his claim; the detectives did not believe it. The narration's details (for example "stabbed 58 times") are WPRI's. The report's forward-looking statements ("could be a free man late next year", "scheduled to go to trial next month") were overtaken by his guilty plea in January 2019.

Anchor: Thank you, Kate. Now, to a Target 12 Investigators exclusive: the Craig Price confession. They're chilling, never-before-heard recordings: notorious serial killer Craig Price detailing to detectives how he murdered a family of three in his Warwick neighborhood.

Detective: You put their clothes in the attic. You put the knives in the shed. What else do you do?

Craig Price: Live with guilt till I get caught.

Anchor: Target 12 has been reporting on Craig Price for years, and our investigations have already led to more prison time for Price. And now we're bringing these tapes to light for the first time, as Price may be set free in just one year and prosecutors are looking to keep him behind bars. A warning to our viewers: some of you may find the audio disturbing. Target 12 investigator Tim White is here now with the exclusive details.

Tim White: The confession took place on September 17th, 1989, inside the Warwick Police Department. Questioning Craig Price are detectives Tim Colgan and Kevin Collins. Also there, Price's mother, listening as her 15-year-old son calmly recalls how he murdered a mother and her two children. The tape begins with Warwick police detective Tim Colgan reading Craig Price his rights.

Detective: If you do talk to us, you can stop at any time. Do you understand those rights, Craig?

Tim White: Two weeks earlier, the bodies of 39-year-old Joan Heaton and her two children, 10-year-old Jennifer and 8-year-old Melissa, were discovered inside their home, stabbed to death.

Detective: Craig, I want you, in your own words, at this time, to tell me as clearly and as best you can what occurred there.

Tim White: Price told detectives he snuck through an open window in the Heatons' home in the dead of night. At the time, he claims he was there looking to steal a VCR, but detectives didn't buy it, noting he went into the house with a small knife. Price says Joan Heaton awoke and spotted Price in the kitchen.

Craig Price: [unclear: "There, he" / "Then she"] just got hectic after that.

Detective: What did she say when she saw you?

Craig Price: She didn't say anything. She was just, like, trying to, like, [unclear: "since you seen like"], like, run the other way. I [unclear: "freaked" / "break"] the other way. [unclear: "That grabbed"], uh...

Detective: What happened?

Craig Price: Just, like, trying to kill her.

Tim White: In the chaos, Price says Heaton's two girls woke up.

Detective: Do you remember one of the girls trying to get to the phone?

Craig Price: She was just saying that, [unclear: "get to the phone. She didn't say in the name, but she said"]...

Detective: Do you remember one of the girls trying to get to the [unclear: "phone" / "fact"]?

Craig Price: [unclear: "That you just standing at the side wall"], and I was running back to the window, back and forth, to see if the police were coming.

Detective: In some ways, if you can remember, how many knives did you use?

Craig Price: About six, I think.

Tim White: Price tells detectives Mom fought back.

Craig Price: [unclear: "Catchy bit like that"].

Tim White: You've obviously heard the confession tape.

Ken Anderson: Oh, yeah.

Tim White: What stood out to you about it?

Ken Anderson: [unclear: "Just his demeanor" / "justice damina"]. No, they say, like, "I'm remorse." He's nowhere near remorseful, this guy.

Tim White: Retired Warwick detective Ken Anderson went into the Heatons' house that first day, and later was one of the officers who took Price into custody.

Ken Anderson: And he's talking like he killed these people like it was nothing. I mean, like, absolutely nothing. It's incredible.

Tim White: Because Price was a juvenile, state law at the time meant he could be set free when he turned 21. The law has since been rewritten, but Price has remained behind bars because of a series of violent clashes he has had as an inmate. Now in Florida, Price is awaiting trial for allegedly attempting to murder another prisoner with a homemade knife. If acquitted, his projected release date is November of next year.

Tim White: Why is it important for recordings like this to see the light of day this many years later?

Ken Anderson: Do you think people have to know? Just because he was 15 at the time, he wasn't just some poor little innocent kid that went astray. He killed four people. One, and then two years later, three more, and two of them were children.

Tim White: Whenever Price's sentence in Florida ends, the Rhode Island Attorney General's office has already asked the courts here to keep Price locked up as a probation violator for his prison antics. A judge will ultimately decide.

Ken Anderson: Never let this go. Never let this go.

Tim White: When Anderson and other detectives were in the house that awful day in 1989, they found the killer had covered the victims, Joan Heaton in a blanket.

Detective: [unclear: "What color, the mother?" / "Covered the mother"] Do you know what [unclear: "color" / "you covered"] the other children [with]?

Craig Price: The rug.

Detective: The rug. Okay. Right. Why did you cover...?

Craig Price: Because I didn't [unclear: "look at that" / "want to look at that"] (Whisper only).

Tim White: While Price claims he felt guilty after the murders, he also tried to mislead investigators in that interview. [unclear: "Here's how." / "Here's how he was"] He was instantly a prime suspect in the murder of 27-year-old Becky Spencer from two years before. New at six, hear what Price tells detectives when he is asked about that killing. With the Target 12 Investigators, Tim White, Eyewitness News.

Anchor: Now, a Target 12 Investigators exclusive: the Craig Price confession. At five, we brought you the never-before-heard confession tape of notorious serial killer Craig Price. Only 15 years old, Price admitted to detectives he killed a Warwick mother and her two young children.

Detective: What did she say to you when she saw you?

Craig Price: She didn't say anything. She was just, like, trying to, like, [unclear: "since you're seeing like"], like, run the other way. I [unclear: "freaked" / "break"] the other way.

Anchor: New at six: it was that same interrogation Price lied to investigators about another murder he later admitted to. And a warning to our viewers: some of you may find the audio disturbing. Target 12 investigator Tim White is here now with the exclusive details.

Tim White: It's hard to imagine, but Price could be set free November of next year. Prosecutors here and in Florida are working to keep him behind bars. That's why, as one retired detective tells me, it's crucial to keep a spotlight on this case.

Tim White: Here, inside the second floor of the Warwick Police Department, on September 17th, 1989, detectives Tim Colgan and Kevin Collins hit record on the cassette deck and read 15-year-old Craig Price his rights.

Detective: If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.

Tim White: With his mother in the room, Price detailed how he viciously stabbed 39-year-old Joan Heaton and her two children, 10-year-old Jennifer and 8-year-old Melissa, to death.

Craig Price: When I was, like, oh, I ran into, like, the kitchen. On top of the refrigerator, it was a knife, and I just [unclear: "killed" (Whisper only)]...

Tim White: Price then tells the detectives how the girls woke up and his killing spree continued.

Detective: Then what did you do?

Craig Price: Grabbed all the knives and anything I could see and put 'em in a towel, then in the bag.

Detective: But did you get the towel and the bag from inside the house?

Craig Price: Yeah, in the bathroom.

Detective: Okay.

Craig Price: And I just put everything in the bag. I even got the garbage bag out of the bathroom.

Detective: When you [unclear: "found" / "popped"] that bag, did you find all the Dixie cups and everything in it?

Craig Price: I think they did. Yeah, that was from the house.

Tim White: Price claimed he was originally there to steal stuff, but detectives, including Ken Anderson, [unclear: "I think he was there to kill" / "who think he was there to kill"], didn't buy it.

Ken Anderson: We truly believe, a lot of us truly believed, that he was a peeping tom. [He] loved to look in people's windows.

Tim White: An injury to Price's hand was ultimately his downfall, because it linked him to the crime. Price was then briefly questioned about the unsolved murder of Becky Spencer. The 27-year-old was stabbed 58 times two years earlier, in the same Buttonwoods section of Warwick. Listen as Price claims he knew he was going to get arrested for the Heaton murders, but then quickly denies his role in Spencer's death.

Detective: [unclear: "If you hurt that expensive, would you want to be club not" (captions only)]?

Craig Price: [unclear: "Yeah, if I did" (captions only)].

Ken Anderson: He knew we had him for the Heaton murders. Obviously, we had everything we needed. But he probably assumed, and he was right, we didn't have anything [on] Becky Spencer.

Tim White: But later that same day, under questioning by Detective Sergeant Dave Hornoff, he confessed to the Spencer murder, too.

Detective: Okay. This interview was ended September 17th, 12:40.

Tim White: Price is scheduled to go to trial next month in Florida for allegedly attempting to murder a fellow inmate with a homemade knife. But if he's acquitted, it will be up to Rhode Island prosecutors to get him held as a probation violator, or the 45-year-old could be a free man late next year. With the Target 12 Investigators, Tim White, Eyewitness News. ---