Cassie Bjorge Murders Grandparents

Cassie Bjorge along with her boyfriend Johnny Rider would be convicted of the murders of her Grandparents in Georgia

According to court documents Cassie Bjorge and Johnny Rider were in a relationship that her Grandparents, Wendy and Randall Bjorge, did not approve of. Instead of ending their relationship the two teens would come up with a horrible plan that they thought would work

On the day of the murder Johnny Rider would attack Randall Bjorge while Cassie Bjorge would drag Wendy Bjorge into a bedroom. A tire iron, hammer, baseball bat and butcher knives were used to kill the elderly couple. Cassie and Johnny would then caulk the door to the bedroom in order to keep the smell of the murder scene contained.

Cassie Bjorge and Johnny Rider would attempt to murder her sister and brother who thankfully were able to escape and call 911

Cassie Bjorge and Johnny Rider would be arrested. Plead guilty to two counts of murder and be sentenced to life in prison

Cassie Bjorge Current Information

NAME: BJORGE, CASSANDRA

GDC ID: 1002246318

YOB: 2000
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: FEMALE
HEIGHT: 5’03”
WEIGHT: 136
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BROWN

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: ARRENDALE STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE

Johnny Rider Current Information

NAME: RIDER, JOHNNY HIRO

GDC ID: 1002246300

YOB: 1998
RACE: WHITE
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 5’10”
WEIGHT: 168
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: CENTRAL STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE

Cassie Bjorge Case

Gruesome details of the heinous murder of a Lawrenceville couple left loved ones in tears Friday.

This as two teenage murder suspects enter guilty pleas. Wendy and Randall Bjorge were savagely slaughtered in their own home by their granddaughter and boyfriend.

Cassandra Bjorge, 17, cried a bit but had nothing to say before she and Johnny Rider were given consecutive life sentences.

“I wonder how much vicious cruelty it takes to leave someone to putrefy,” said Sylvia Berman, sister of Randall Bjorge.

Berman laid out all the agonizing questions that run through her mind when she thinks about how her brother and his wife, Wendy were stabbed and beaten by their own granddaughter Cassandra last April.

“Did he die quickly? Did Cassie see his face? Did he see Cassie’s face? Someone he loved so much, someone he was so proud of.

Chris Bjorge, the couple’s son, too emotional to read his own victim impact statement so he asked his wife.

“It is sad to me that first time they visit my house and meet my children is in a paper bag from a funeral home,”

Prosecutors outlined the horrifying ordeal that the teens admitted to committing. Both waited for the lights to go dark in the couple’s Lawrenceville home, then entered with Cassandra’s key. She ambushed and beat her grandmother while Rider kicked the grandfather and beat him with a tire iron in front of Mrs. Bjorge. All this before he slit their throats.

Gwinnett County Judge Debra Turner simply appalled by the lengths the two went to cover up their crime for a week.

“I just continue to be stunned that you sealed areas so that you could make sure the smell of decaying human flesh wouldn’t be noticed. That you had parties and ordered Chinese food with two people that you had brutally murdered lying upstairs,” the judge said.

The plea deal spared both the death penalty in this capital murder case.

Granddaughter, boyfriend plea guilty to murder of Lawrenceville couple | FOX 26 Houston

Cassie Bjorge Video

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The Cassie Bjorge Case

On the surface, it looked like another missing teen case in suburban Georgia. Wendy Bjorge posted on Facebook asking friends to look out for her 17-year-old granddaughter, Cassie, who had run away again. What no one knew was that Wendy and her husband Randall were already dead upstairs, and Cassie was downstairs ordering Chinese food, smoking weed with friends, and texting family members pretending to be Wendy.

The Cassie Bjorge case is one of the most chilling examples of premeditated familicide by a teenager in recent American true crime history. It is not just brutal because of the weapons used. It is disturbing because of the cold calculation that followed.

Who Is Cassie Bjorge?

Cassandra “Cassie” Bjorge was born in 2000. By 2017, she was 17 years old, living in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia, with her maternal grandparents, Wendy and Randall Bjorge, both 63.

Cassie had not had a stable childhood. Court testimony and police interviews later revealed she had been placed with her grandparents because of her mother’s instability. The move from a permissive home to a structured one was difficult. Friends described Cassie as rebellious, prone to running away for days or weeks at a time.

Her grandparents were not strangers to this pattern. They had taken her in, paid for opportunities including a kung fu tournament trip to China, and tried to impose rules around curfew, school, and relationships. Cassie reportedly chafed against every boundary.

The biggest point of conflict was her boyfriend.

Johnny Rider: The Older Boyfriend

Johnny Hiro Rider was 18 years old at the time, nearly two years older than Cassie. He had a history of minor offenses and was unemployed. Wendy and Randall did not approve of the relationship. They believed Rider was a bad influence and had told Cassie to end it.

Instead of ending it, the couple decided to end her grandparents’ lives.

According to Gwinnett County Detective Dave Brucz, who testified in the preliminary hearing, the pair discussed the murders for days beforehand. This was not a crime of passion. It was planned like a project.

The Premeditated Plan

Police say Cassie and Johnny talked through logistics:

1. Wait until the lights went out at the Bjorge home on Temple Johnson Road.
2. Enter quietly. Johnny would attack Randall first with a tire iron.
3. Cassie would handle Wendy, dragging her into Randall’s bedroom.
4. Use multiple weapons to ensure death: tire iron, hammer, baseball bat, and butcher knives.
5. Afterward, seal the bedroom with caulk and duct tape to contain the smell of decomposition.

They even discussed what they would do next. The plan did not stop at Wendy and Randall. Investigators later learned from Cassie’s own confession that the kill list included Johnny’s mother, his sister, and Cassie’s own mother.

The Night of the Murders – Early April 2017

On the night of the attack, Cassie and Johnny sat outside the house in the dark. They waited until about 11 p.m., when the upstairs bedroom lights went off.

Johnny went in first and struck Randall Bjorge repeatedly with a tire iron while he was in bed. The 63-year-old man never had a chance to defend himself.

Down the hall, Cassie grabbed her grandmother Wendy. In her confession, Cassie described feeling “a surge of energy.” She dragged the 63-year-old woman into the master bedroom, duct-taped her, and then joined Johnny in the beating. Both victims were bludgeoned with the hammer and bat, then stabbed multiple times. Finally, their throats were slit with butcher knives from their own kitchen.

The medical examiner would later confirm the level of overkill. This was rage, not efficiency.

After the murders, they did not flee. They cleaned up slightly, moved the bodies into the master bedroom and adjoining bathroom, and then sealed the door frame with caulk.

Living With the Bodies: The Party House

For the next seven to eight days, Cassie and Johnny lived in the house with Wendy and Randall decomposing upstairs.

During that week, they:

• Invited friends over to smoke marijuana in the living room
• Ordered pizza and Chinese food delivery
• Slept in other bedrooms
• Used the grandparents’ car and credit cards
• Hosted what one friend later called “just a normal hangout”

None of the friends knew. The sealed bedroom was explained away as “grandma and grandpa are sleeping” or “they’re out of town.”

Meanwhile, family members grew worried. Wendy had stopped answering texts and calls. Cassie solved that problem by taking Wendy’s phone and texting back as her grandmother. She told aunts and uncles that everything was fine, that they were just busy, buying herself more time.

This level of deception is what shocked investigators most. Judge Debra Turner would later say in court, “I just continue to be stunned that you sealed areas so that you could make sure the smell of decaying human flesh wouldn’t be noticed. That you had parties and ordered Chinese food.”

The Unraveling

The case broke not because of the grandparents, but because of Johnny’s family.

About a week after the murders, Cassie and Johnny drove to the McGinnis Ferry Apartments where Johnny’s sister lived. According to police reports, they attempted to attack her and her boyfriend with a baseball bat, continuing their planned killing spree.

The sister escaped and called 911. She told police that Johnny had been acting erratic and that he was driving Wendy and Randall’s car. That license plate ping gave Gwinnett County Police the connection they needed.

Officers had already done one welfare check at the Bjorge home days earlier after family reported them missing, but left when no one answered. Now, with the assault report, they returned with a warrant.

On April 9, 2017, they forced entry. Inside the master bedroom they found the bodies of Randall and Wendy Bjorge, in advanced stages of decomposition.

Arrest and the Suicide Attempt

Police tracked Cassie and Johnny to the apartment complex. A SWAT standoff lasted about an hour. When officers entered, they found both teens unconscious from self-inflicted knife wounds to their throats and wrists. It was a failed murder-suicide pact.

They were rushed to Gwinnett Medical Center, treated, and then booked into jail. Johnny was initially charged with aggravated assault for his sister’s attack. Within two weeks, both were charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery.

The Confession

Cassie did most of the talking. In her videotaped interrogation, which detectives later described as “flat, emotionless, and disturbingly detailed,” she admitted everything.

She told Detective Brucz that she killed her grandparents because “they were becoming too strict.” She was tired of rules about her boyfriend, curfew, and school. She said she felt relief after.

She also confirmed the extended plan to kill Johnny’s mother, his sister, and her own mother. Johnny, she said, eventually backed out of killing his own family, which is why they only attempted the sister’s murder.

Johnny Rider was far less forthcoming initially, but the physical evidence was overwhelming: DNA, phone records showing Cassie’s impersonation texts, receipts for caulk purchased days before, and surveillance of them using the grandparents’ car.

The Trial That Never Happened

The case was set for a death penalty trial for Johnny Rider. Cassie, being 17 at the time of the crime, was ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

On February 2, 2018, both teens took a plea deal to avoid trial.

In Gwinnett County Superior Court, before Judge Debra Turner:

• Cassandra Bjorge pleaded guilty to two counts of malice murder. She received two consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole after 60 years, plus 21 years concurrent.
• Johnny Hiro Rider pleaded guilty to the same charges. He also received two life sentences with parole possible after 60 years.

In court, Rider stood and read a statement: “I know what I have done is abominable and evil and is deserving of hellfire. I would like to express my deepest apologies to the Bjorge family. I’m so sorry for the pain and grief I have caused all of you.”

Cassie cried quietly but declined to speak when offered the chance. Her silence infuriated the victims’ family.

Judge Turner called it one of the worst cases she had ever presided over. “Your behavior lacks any sense of humanity or morality,” she told them.

Family impact statements were devastating. Sylvia Bjorge Berman, Wendy and Randall’s daughter, said she suffers persistent anxiety and profound sadness. Their son Chris Bjorge said he still talks to his parents’ ashes when no one is around.

Where Are They Now in 2026?

As of 2026, both are still incarcerated in the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Cassie Bjorge, GDC ID 1002246318, is housed at Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia, a maximum-security women’s facility. She is 26 years old. Her earliest possible parole date is in the year 2077, when she will be 77 years old. Her major offense is listed as murder.

Johnny Rider is housed at a separate men’s facility in Georgia. He has reportedly participated in prison ministry programs, consistent with his courtroom apology.

Neither has filed a successful appeal.

Why This Case Still Haunts True Crime Fans

Three factors make the Cassie Bjorge case uniquely disturbing:

1. The Age and Gender Dynamic. Female teen perpetrators of parricide are rare. When they do kill, it is rarely this brutal and premeditated with multiple weapons.
2. The Post-Crime Behavior. Most killers flee. Cassie and Johnny stayed, partied, and performed normalcy. Psychologists point to this as indicative of blunted affect and antisocial traits, not just teenage impulsivity.
3. The Digital Deception. Pretending to be her murdered grandmother via text for a week shows a level of manipulative planning that goes beyond “strict parents” as a motive. It suggests a desire for control.

True crime podcasts like Sword and Scale Episode 268, 10 to Life with Annie Elise, and The Other People Show have covered the case extensively because listeners struggle to understand the motive. “Too strict” does not explain caulking a door to hide a smell.

Experts who reviewed the interrogation noted Cassie’s lack of remorse, her bizarre smile in some court footage, and her focus on practical details rather than emotion. While no formal diagnosis was made public, the behavior aligns with conduct disorder progressing to antisocial personality traits, exacerbated by a toxic dyad relationship with an older boyfriend.

Lessons for Families

The Bjorge family did everything “right” by social service standards. They took in a struggling grandchild, provided structure, and tried to protect her from a negative relationship. Their reward was murder.

The case is now used in Georgia law enforcement training for welfare checks and teen homicide indicators. Police emphasize: when a teen goes missing repeatedly and then suddenly stops communicating, and when a disapproved boyfriend is involved, dig deeper.