Crago to face charges related to killings
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BY LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star
Brandon Crago will be charged Wednesday in the deaths of Carolyn and Steve Baily, a day after funeral services were held for the rural Lincoln couple, Deputy County Attorney Joe Kelly said Tuesday.
Crago, 34, is being held on charges related to the armed robbery of another couple that occurred at about 7:15 a.m. Aug. 10.
Search warrant returns filed Tuesday point to him as being responsible for much more.
Wearing a blond wig and carrying a sawed-off, camouflaged shotgun, Crago allegedly told a Lincoln man as he robbed him early Aug. 10 that he “already had killed two people,” according to the records.
By that time, eight miles away, Steven and Carolyn Baily already had been left for dead.
His body lay on their front lawn, covered by a blanket. She lay inside the front door, a gunshot wound to her back.
It was just past noon when the crime was discovered by a neighbor.
The documents describe what officers say happened next.
When investigators went in, they found a trail of jewelry scattered throughout the brick ranch home at 9700 Raymond Road.
And a spent Winchester shotgun shell. Pieces of glass from the front door. A small piece of duct tape. A shoe print on the garage floor.
By then, sheriff’s deputies already had the next clue — a Jeep Cherokee left running in a driveway at about 8:30 that morning eight miles away.
A police officer who inventoried the Jeep, stolen in Lincoln, took note of a blond wig, two spent shotgun shells, jewelry and a radio scanner.
The Bailys’ daughter later identified the jewelry as her mother’s.
The Jeep led back to Lincoln, where it had been stolen at gunpoint at 8:18 a.m.
A couple reported a man with a shotgun had come into their home near North 70th Street and Cornhusker Highway through an unlocked door, threatening to kill them and demanding their keys.
Also that morning, a Lincoln man was robbed at gunpoint in his home near South 23rd Street and Park Avenue, allegedly by Crago with the camouflaged shotgun, and wearing gloves and a wig.
The man later told police that Crago, a man he knew, told him he already had killed two people, according to court records.
He gave Crago $80 cash, and Crago left.
The man didn’t report the robbery but told police about it when they stopped his car about 2 a.m. the next day.
An hour earlier, they had found Crago at the Great Plains Motel with an apparent self-inflicted stab wound to his chest.
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. Cory Matteson contributed to this story.
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