According to Oxygen, the Freeman family were devout Jehovah’s Witnesses and were raised as such. Things changed for Bryan Freeman and David Freeman, however, after an alleged incident involving a dispute between their father, Dennis Freeman, and fellow congregants at their Kingdom Hall. While the inciting incident remains unclear, the matter prompted the boys to “[lose] respect for their father,” as Nelson Birdwell later told the Associated Press in 1995 (via The Roanoke Times). It was not long after that David and Bryan began to rebel against their parents and their religion, prompting them to engage in drug and alcohol use.
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Per The Washington Post, the situation worsened when the boys found the neo-Nazi skinhead movement, donning military garb and shaving their heads, per The New York Times. Later, Bryan and David had the phrases “Seig Heil” and “Berzerker” tattooed on their foreheads, respectively. Their grandfather told Newsweek they “looked like monsters,” and reports from the time stated they garnered a reputation for preaching about racism, antisemitism, and violence (via The Roanoke Times).
Things were similar at home. The boys were aggressive and threatening towards their parents — so much so that their aunt Valerie Freeman, who lived in their family home, moved out (via Oxygen). Dennis and Brenda attempted to get professional help for their sons to no avail, per the Associated Press – and chillingly, Erik Freeman told his aunt Valerie that “you never know when you’re going to die” shortly before the murders.
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