Menendez Brothers’ Cousin Who Testified at Trial Says She Still Believes They Were Sexually Abused
The cousin of Lyle and Erik Menendez who testified at the California brothers’ trial for murdering their parents says she still believes the brothers were sexually abused.
Diane Vander Molen told ABC News in Thursday night’s special, Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers, about the murder of Kitty and Jose Menendez, “I know that they would never, ever have done what they did unless they felt that they had no choice — that it was either them or their parents. I believe that very strongly.”
Jose, an entertainment executive, was 45, and wife Kitty was 47 when the pair was killed in their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989. Lyle, then 21, and Erik, 18, snuck up on their parents while the slept in the home’s den, shooting Jose in the back of the head with a shotgun. As Kitty tried to run away, she was shot in the leg. She was then shot multiple times in the chest, arms and face.
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At their first trial, prosecutors said that the privileged brothers killed their parents in an attempt to obtain the family fortune. The brothers’ defense team, however, argued that Lyle and Erik had been sexually abused by their father for years, and killed the couple out of self-defense.
Vander Molen, who lived with the Menendez family during summers in her youth, testified at the time that Lyle had told her about the alleged abuse in 1976, when he was only 8.
Recalling her testimony to ABC News, Vander Molen said, “One night, I was in my room changing the sheets in my bed, and Lyle came in. He became very serious about asking me if he could sleep in the other bed next to mine and saying that he was afraid to sleep in his own bed because his father and him had been touching each other down there, indicating that it was his genital area.”
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Despite telling Kitty about her cousin’s allegation, Vander Molen felt that her aunt didn’t believe Lyle’s story — even though she insists his fear was very real.
She told ABC, “In hindsight, I wish that I would have been stronger about what Lyle was telling me so I could have done something to help them.”
Vander Molen added, of the abuse claims, “I know for 100 percent that there was.”
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Erik and Lyle’s first, 1993 trial ended in deadlocked jury, but in a second trial they were found guilty and sentenced to two-term life sentences each.
