Dad Murders Teen Daughter, Blames Innocent Son, Police Say

An Ohio man said he killed his 15-year-old daughter and then tried to blame his autistic nephew who couldn’t talk for it.

Court records show that 39-year-old Kenneth Paul Farler III pleaded guilty to manslaughter without consent, reckless murder, endangering children, and many other gun-related charges. He did this because he had already been convicted of several felonies in the past. On May 14, he will be given his sentence.

On April 14, 2024, in the afternoon, there was a shooting in an apartment on the 400 block of Bowen Street. Dayton police were called. When the police arrived, they found 15-year-old Kendra Farler with a gunshot wound to the chest.

A 911 call that Dayton CBS station WHIO got shows Farler telling the operator that his stepson fired the gun by accident.

He is said to have said on the call, “My stepson is autistic, he had no idea, it was an accident ma’am.” He was also said to have said, “He’s autistic” and that the boy had “no idea what he was doing.”

The police chief in Dayton, Maj. Brian Johns, told the Dayton Daily News that the claims Farler made on the first 911 call were found to be false after more research and questioning.

“The girl’s father shot and killed her inside the Bowen Street address,” Johns told the news source. “It would be too mild to say it was a tragedy.”

Johns made it clear that the police think the killing was planned.

He also said, “I would say it’s not an accident.” “Before she died, our victim asked him not to point the gun at her.” “That wasn’t a mistake.”

A person who was nearby called 911 and said he was in his car when he heard a gunshot and the words “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

The caller said, “She’s a kid.” “I heard a gunshot and people screaming.”

A neighbor named Nancy Ledbetter told WHIO that she was shocked when she heard the gunshots.

“I was kind of curious about what was going on, so I walked over there. There was a woman on the corner of the street across from me, and I asked her, ‘Do you happen to know what’s going on?'” Ledbetter told the station, “She says my granddaughter was shot.”

About a week after the death, the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office charged Farler with murder. Mat Heck, the prosecutor, said that Farler had been found guilty of cocaine trafficking less than a month before the killing.

Actually, Heck said at the time of the indictment, “He has been arrested about 40 times in the last 20 years and has been sent to prison before.” “This person should never be near a gun again, and they should be in jail for sure.” A fifteen-year-old girl who was not guilty of any crime died because of her father.

In her death notice, Kendra’s family called her “our shining little star.”

The obituary says, “Kendra was the heart and soul of our family. She had a spirit full of joy, curiosity, and creativity.” “As a student, she wasn’t just a person who was learning; she was also a little teacher who was always excited to share what she had learned.” Her laugh spread like wildfire, her energy was endless, and her goodness warmed everyone who was around her.