my heart breaks for jonathan, who only knew neglect and abuse until his life was ended by his own brother. jonathan deserved so much better than the family he was given

I rarely get emotional over true crime, but my heart breaks for Jonathan. I can’t imagine how terrified he must have been. A tragic end to a sad life

I'm with Kendall. I have no desire to try to survive an apocalypse. And I have little faith that I could, even if I wanted to try.

I think this is a prime example of how your surroundings can shape you and your mind. I don’t believe Eldin would have done those horrible things or been that mentally ill if he would have had a different family/home life.

I don't think he hated his brother at all. The fact that he refused for a long time to even talk about killing him tells me that. He doesn't want to relive what he did. This poor boy was just so messed up by abuse and the drugs he was being pumped full of. He was let down by literally every single person in his life, from his parents all the way up to the school officials who ignored all of the obvious signs that he needed someone to come in and save him.

This kid was literally introduced to extreme violence at such a young age… he needs HELP more than prison

This case is a clear example of the system failing the kids

Most of the time, when a murderer was abused in childhood, we say, "But lots of people have horrible childhoods and they don't grow up into murderers. It's not an excuse." And that's true enough. But this poor kiddo was trained in violence from early childhood and brainwashed into believing that his father's delusion was reality. He also seems to have been isolated except for school, so unless he was sitting in a classroom during school hours, he was immersed in his father's delusion.

Also, it should be illegal in every state to question a minor without an attorney present. Even if the minor refuses to speak with the attorney or take any advice, there should be a third party to supervise and call out any inappropriate or illegal police tactics. Even if the minor's parents are present and competent, attorney presence should still be mandatory.

So yeah this kid should've been sentenced to a safe environment; psychiatric care; and consistent, trustworthy adult caregivers.

21:50 "trying to simulate this violent, dystopian future where their lives were constantly at stake" 😭😭 the irony that they were in fact already living a violent dystopian future with their lives constantly at stake, cause who the hell shoots live rounds at their children?! and to rope them into this crazy ass prepper mindset, oh these poor kids

Eldon’s father was also abusive to his first three children and never paid child support. He finally had custody taken away from him because of abuse and the mother was granted full custody. It’s sad that he was such a charmer that nobody wanted to arrest him. He wasn’t even arrested when he abused his first wife.

This poor kid. He’s been fed so much violence, fear, and paranoia his entire life and then was abandoned by his parents and the system. What a tragic case all around 😢

Every time you think you've heard it all, you turn on the Lights Out podcast and hear about a child having to pee on his mother.

as a therapist whose specialized area is working with juvenile offenders/teens with significant trauma... this case HURTS!  I had two main takeaways that I really wanted to comment on: 1) after working in child welfare for 8 years, it kills me how broken the system is just because I don't think the system is funded adequately enough to actually create lasting change, especially for teens - most of them end up in group homes due to lack of foster parents, and without family support so many just fall through the cracks.  the juvenile offender system is the same - SO INADEQUATELY FUNDED that these kids don't get the help they need!  2) the brain is so complex that honestly I can absolutely understand Eldon's treatment of his brother - with so much significant trauma at a young age the brain basically stops developing correctly when it experiences trauma, and effectively it sounds like he really stopped mentally developing around age 4/5.  his 'doing what's best for me' attitude and lack of emotions towards his brother are so typical for that age and so is his reasoning for believing that his brother made his life significantly worse.  honestly, it sounds like he went into fight or flight mode when his dad was firing the guns and in that state he literally could not think about right/wrong and was probably so hopped up on adrenaline/fear/anger - coupled with his emotional age of a young kid - the whole scene was a disaster waiting to happen.  there are also studies that show that SSRIs can have severe side effects the younger they are prescribed so I would imagine that any homicidal ideation he had could have been intensified.  I hope he can get the mental health treatment he needs while he's in prison to give him a shot at having a life again.  WHEW - great case guys!

As the mother of a special needs child this upsets me. First, no child under 18 should ever be questioned by police without a parent or guardian. And him spending 70 days in solitary I would call cruel and unusual punishment.  Yes he needs to pay for what he did, but everything that happened to him was wrong

Eldon deserved so much more help than he was given. From being with his parents to being charged with murder. They took advantage of him. I also feel bad for Johnathan. He was treated so terribly

What drives me nuts is for many policy departments dealing with an officer involved shooting, they encourage the officer involved to have hours to collect themselves and get at least one sleep cycle before any questioning about the shooting happens. But they cant give that to people accused of a crime. Lets level the playing field.

I am so addicted to the whole Mile Higher family and everything they put out. EVERYTHING!

I don’t think anyone ever gave Eldon a chance not to end up in the prison system. The police were totally against him w/o a thought to any nuance in the case. Also CPS and the school should have stepped in way sooner and taken Eldon and Jonathan to somewhere safe

If you’re under 18 you should be in a juvenile facility no matter what. It’s mind blowing to me that any children get sent to adult facilities.

Well before this point, but especially from here forward, they need a forensic psychologist in on this interrogation. Just a Lehman watching this I can see he’s unable to thread together full thoughts. He isn’t functioning. He’s on auto pilot and he answers when he recognizes something he can answer, but he’s not answering it to the actual question because his brains and auto pilot. I do not understand how a juvenile is in a room with two police officers and there’s no one there to advocate for him. There should be a court appointed guardian at least even court appointed  at circumstances like this.