On December 15th, 1978, 11 year old Billy Heuling, hid trembling in his bedroom.

He could hear gunshots and the screams of his family.

A stranger had entered his home in Stearns County, Minnesota and began to execute members

of the Heuling family.

Billy waited.

He waited, huddled in a sleeping bag on his bed.

The stranger shot the sleeping bag twice.

Billy wasn't hit by the bullets, but he stayed under the covers until the man left. When the noises stopped, Billy ran down the stairs and escaped the house.

He kept running as fast as he could through the dark freezing woods,

searching for help.

From A&E, this is cold case files. Billy was able to find help and Jim Kostreba, the sheriff of Stearns County, responded to the call. He quickly made his way to the house where Billy's family was attacked. This is Sheriff Kostreba.

As soon as I opened the door into the porch and stepped in I could immediately

smell the smell of gunpowder.

And with my flashlight I was able to see a 12-gauge shotgun casing laying on the floor.

The sheriff then made his way to Alice's room, Billy's mother.

Alice occupied the only bedroom on the first floor of the home.

She was 36.

I saw her laying on the bed. And she was laying with her head towards the foot of the bed, with her legs drawn up and just by observing her I realized that she was dead.

Following a trail of empty shell casings, Kostraiba made his way up the stairs to check the other rooms.

Here's Sheriff Kostriba again.

When I got to the top of the steps, I could see that there was a lot of blood and tissue and hair splattered against the wall, the far wall.

Upstairs, the sheriff discovered that three of the healing children had been murdered.

...