Their killer is facing execution by firing squad. Who were Gladys and David Larke?
They were the glue of their small-town South Carolina family of five children and a growing number of grandchildren before Brad Keith Sigmon beat them to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001.
Editor's note: Brad Keith Sigmon was executed Friday by firing squad. Follow along here.
Gladys Larke never wanted to go out to eat for special celebrations like Mother's Day or a birthday. She preferred to cook up a storm instead, making fried chicken, roasts, and macaroni and cheese. There’d always be enough to feed an army.
Her husband David Larke was quick to ask for forgiveness and even quicker to forgive, never letting an argument go after sunset without an apology.
They were the glue of their small-town South Carolina family of five children and a growing number of grandchildren before one of their daughter's ex-boyfriends snapped and beat them to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001.
Now 24 years later their killer, Brad Keith Sigmon, is set to be executed Friday by firing squad, the first time that method has been used in the U.S. in 15 years.
”I miss my momma and daddy,” said Rebecca Armstrong, who had broken up with Sigmon before the killings and has never given an interview about the crimes until she spoke with Paste BN this week. “I didn’t get to see them grow old,” said Armstrong, 59. “I didn’t get to take care of them. My brothers and sisters, we missed that.”
Because they were murdered, she said her parents missed the birth of some of their grandkids and five great-grandchildren, and didn’t get to go to weddings, graduations or other family milestones.
“He took that away,” she said. “They missed so much.”
What happened to Gladys and David Larke?
On April 27, 2001, Sigmon showed up at Armstrong’s parents’ house with a plan that he hatched while doing crack cocaine the night before: He was going to tie up David and Gladys Larke and kidnap his ex, he told police.
Instead, he beat the couple to death with a baseball bat, hitting each of them nine times, according to police and a medical examiner's report. Sigmon kidnapped Armstrong, who jumped out of his moving car and was able to escape, though Sigmon shot her once before his gun ran out of bullets, according to court records.
"I jumped out of the car to get back to my parents, to try to go back and help them," Armstrong told Paste BN, adding that she knew they were hurt but not how badly and that she didn't believe Sigmon when he told her they were dead.
Sigmon has always admitted to the crimes. He told jurors at his 2002 trial that he had no excuse for what he did, saying that when Armstrong fell out of love with him, it “set me off,” according to reporting at the time by the Greenville News, part of the Paste BN Network.
”Do I deserve to die? I probably do," he told jurors. "I don’t want to die. It would kill my mom, my brothers and my sisters … I just want to live for my family’s sake.”
Who were Gladys and David Larke?
Gladys, 59, and David Larke, 62, raised five children in a rural area of southeastern South Carolina and "loved the Lord," Armstrong said.
"We were country people," she said. "We wasn't rich. We didn't have a lot of money. But we were rich in love."
She said her parents worked in a metals factory, her father on first shift and her mother on second. Eventually she went on disability for migraines and he started running his own washer/dryer business.
"They worked hard their whole lives," Armstrong said. "They were just ordinary people who loved their children and loved their grandchildren."
Armstrong said that the family all sat down at the table for dinner every night, no matter what.
"They showed us kids what unconditional love was all about," Armstrong said. "They just loved helping people. That's who they were."
Armstrong's brother, Darrell Larke, spoke to jurors during Sigmon's trial.
"I am who I am because of him (my dad) and my mom," he said, according to the Greenville News. "(My dad) taught me how to fish, how to hunt, how to enjoy life, how to be responsible."
Family looks to execution for relief
Armstrong said she has decided not to witness Sigmon's execution on Friday, saying that she was eventually able to forgive him through God's love and the counseling of a Christian psychiatrist.
"The Bible tells you, I know it says 'an eye for an eye' and 'a tooth for a tooth' but if you read on down in there it says, 'Revenge is not mine, says the Lord, revenge is God's," she said. "I don't think somebody being put to death is gonna bring me closure ... It bothers me and gives me anxiety about him being put to death, and especially him picking the firing squad."
But she said once Sigmon is dead, she thinks "there'll be a relief."
"It's like I'm reliving that morning," she said about the execution and the emotions it's dredged up for her. "It's brought a lot of that up, a lot of anxiety."
Armstrong's son, Ricky Sims, told the Greenville News, part of the Paste BN Network, that he will attend the execution, and that he'll wear a pair of boots that were the last present his grandparents gave him before they were killed.
“He's going to pay for what he’s done,” Sims said. “He took away two people who would have done anything for their family. They were the rock of our family ... They didn't deserve it."
Contributing: Terry Benjamin II, Greenville News