Twins fatally stabbed; father charged

The N.C. family formerly had lived in Sacramento.

By Christina Jewett and Elizabeth Hume -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 21, 2006

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A former Sacramento bank executive was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his twin 5-year-old daughters in his home near Charlotte, N.C., police said.

David Lauren Crespi, 45, a vice president at Wachovia Bank, formerly lived in the Pocket area and worked at Sacramento Savings Bank and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency before moving to the Charlotte area in 2000.

Crespi had suffered from a five-year bout of depression and a very recent stretch of insomnia, but was undergoing treatment, said his father, Lauren Crespi, of Angels Camp.

"He had no history of this kind of problem," Crespi said.

David Crespi called police at about 12:39 p.m. Friday requesting emergency response to his home in the Deerfield Creek community of Matthews, said Keith Bridges, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman.

Officers found him on the driveway, distraught. Inside the home, they found the girls, Samantha and Tessara, dead from stab wounds.

"It was very emotional for the police officers who had to respond, attempting to rescue these children who unfortunately were already gone," Bridges said.

He said police had no record of prior calls to the Crespis' address, and there was no sign of a forced entry.

Crespi was taken to a local police station, where detectives questioned him. His wife, Kimberli, was also interviewed by officials and was counseled by chaplains, Bridges said.

Capt. Brian Cunningham said late Friday that Crespi was charged with two counts of murder and is being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail.

Crespi has three older children from his first marriage to Kimberly Ann Crespi, who was a nurse at Mercy General Hospital. Those children - Jessica, 17, Dylan, 14, and Joshua, 9 - were at school at the time of the stabbing.

Kimberly Ann Crespi died in 1993 after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. She was 30, according to former neighbors.

David Crespi later married Kimberli Crespi.

Former neighbor Marta Carrera said she could not have had kinder neighbors on El Douro Drive in the Pocket area. When she moved in, David and Kimberli Crespi brought her a bundt cake, she recalled.

The family routinely went on bike rides together, and after the twins were born on Oct. 16, 2000, they rode along in a bicycle buggy, Carrera said.

"They were just a model family," she said. "Hardworking, very engaged with each other and with the kids."

Carrera said Crespi was a leader at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in the Pocket area, and made his views clear to his next-door neighbor Michael Newdow, an atheist activist.

While living in Sacramento, Crespi, a Stockton native, graduated from California State University, Sacramento - as his father had, according to a Sac State Magazine item.

Crespi was vice president and chief financial officer at Sacramento Savings Bank until it closed in 1995. Later, he was a program manager at SHRA. Later still, he was an executive at the Money Store, his father said.

David Crespi had been diagnosed with testicular cancer about a year ago, but beat it, Lauren Crespi said.

"Everything was fine" when he visited his son last Thanksgiving, Lauren Crespi said.

The brunet twins were happy and dressed alike, he said. "They were the twins, happy little girls. They loved their dad and everything," Lauren Crespi said.

He said his son was open about his battle with depression, including that in the past week he had started medication to help him sleep at night. "In no way did he ever show this. There were no eruptions from him or anything," he said. "He told us he had problems, depression. But he had the best doctors he could find in North Carolina."

Lauren Crespi said he was in a state of shock, waiting Friday evening to hear what would come next. "Our family has never been through anything like this," he said.

Julie Sheehan described the area she and the Crespis live in as a "family neighborhood." "They're a part of this neighborhood, and we just have to pray for them," she said.

Former Pocket neighbor Carrera voiced her concern Friday evening for Kimberli Crespi.

"My heart goes out to the older kids, too," Carrera said. "They lost their biological mother, have a new mother, and now their father's not there and their sisters aren't there."

About the writer:

• The Bee's Christina Jewett can be reached at (916) 321-1201 or cjewett@sacbee.com. Bee researcher Becky Boyd and the Associated Press contributed to this report.