DID A SON'S FASCINATION WITH THE NOTORIOUS MENENDEZ MURDERS OF THE 1980S LEAD HIM TO SHOOT HIS WEALTHY PARENTS AND MAIM A YOUNG BROTHER?

"48 HOURS" INVESTIGATES IN "SHADOW OF DEATH"

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015

Troy Roberts and 48 HOURS investigate the case against a young man who police say snuck into his family's upscale California home and shot dead his parents and paralyzed a younger brother in "Shadow of Death," to be broadcast Saturday, Oct. 10 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Andra and Brad Sachs were gunned down in their San Juan Capistrano home on Feb. 9, 2014. The intruder also shot their young son, shot at and missed another daughter, and left a third sibling untouched.

Police initially thought the wealthy couple was killed after a business deal went bad. However, a month after the shooting, the couple's then-19-year-old son, Ashton, was charged with murder. It was a twist that no one saw coming, but it seems there were signs along the way.

What would cause a son to kill? And could this be the same person who delivered a loving eulogy for his parents at their funeral?

"There may be mental illness," his aunt, Stephanie Garber, tells 48 HOURS.

According to family members, Ashton Sachs was an avid player of violent video games and had been fascinated with the sensational 1989 murders of an entertainment executive and his wife, who were killed by their sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez. Indeed, Sachs wrote a college term paper about the Menendez case.

"He called his parents and told them he got an A on it," Garber tells 48 HOURS. "He gets A's all the time. So why that particular paper? He was notifying them that he was particularly interested in the Menendez story."

Ashton had also admitted to his aunt, Lesley Summers, he had bought a gun. "What do you need a gun for?" Summers recalls asking Ashton. "He goes, 'For protection.' And then Audra called me later and I said, 'Why is Ashton shopping for a gun?' And she goes, 'What?' She goes, 'Oh, that's not good.'"

There were signals that something was amiss with Ashton Sachs, suggests Ali Mattu, a highly respected child psychologist at Columbia University Medical Center, who reviewed the Sachs case for 48 HOURS. "I think what we have is an individual where there were a lot of warning signs of something that could happen," Mattu says.

"He blamed his parents," Los Angeles Times reporter and 48 HOURS consultant Jack Leonard, says of what Sachs told investigators. "He said he felt his parents didn't trust him and that he was the least-favorite child out of the family."

Ashton Sachs is scheduled to go on trial for the murders in March 2016. For now, Sachs remains in a California jail. His aunts say they're the only family members who still talk to him.

"I told him to his face, 'I hate what you did. It was a terrible thing, but we love you, you know? And we always will,'" Summers says.

"We always loved Ashton," adds Garber. "How could you not have pity for somebody that's locked up in a cell like that?"

Roberts and 48 HOURS report on the Sachs' murders through interviews with forensic, medical and psychological experts, and with Leonard, Burghardt, Garber, Summers, attorney Mary Fulginiti, and others. 48 HOURS: "Shadow of Death" is produced by Chuck Stevenson and Judy Rybak. Greg Fisher, Michelle Fannucci and Avi Cohen are the development producers. George Baluzy and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

Also, Orange County Register reporter Meghann Cuniff, one of the first reporters on the scene at the Sachs' home after the murders, discusses the case in a 48 HOURS podcast available here.

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