Father, ex-husband of Henderson slaying victims calls killer ‘coward’

The father of the young man killed in a double homicide in Henderson on Friday said the person who fatally shot his son and ex-wife should receive the death penalty.

“If he wanted to harm somebody, why didn’t he harm himself?” said Andy Scoggins in a Tuesday phone interview with the Review-Journal. “Because he’s a coward.”

Scoggins, who lives in Hanoi, Vietnam, said he was married for about seven years to Anastasiya Groschen, 44, who was one of the victims. Their son Sergei Scoggins, 20, who went by Evan according to his father, was the other victim.

Karl Groschen, 41, faces two open murder charges and a child abuse or neglect charge in their deaths. Groschen was married to Anastasiya Groschen. Evan Scoggins was his stepson.

Groschen appears in court

Karl Groschen is being held without bail after a Tuesday arraignment before Pro Tem Henderson Justice of the Peace Lee Thomson that only lasted a few minutes.

He spoke briefly, confirming he had a copy of the criminal complaint filed against him and had been able to read it. Asked if he understood the charges, he said, “I think so.”

Thomson appointed the public defender’s office to represent Groschen, but Chief Deputy Public Defender Ryan Bashor said Groschen may ultimately be able to afford a private attorney.

Groschen is currently being held at the Henderson Detention Center, and attorneys did not present bail arguments Tuesday. Bashor said the defense would address Groschen’s status in a written motion.

His next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.

‘Huge crime scene’

Henderson Police said they were called to a residence around 6 p.m. Friday after a man called and said, “You need to come here now; there’s a huge crime scene.”

The address is redacted in Groschen’s arrest report, but police have said it was in the 300 block of Black Rock Hills Drive.

When officers arrived, Groschen, who held prescription bottles and a drink, told police: “You have to take me; I thought they were trying to kill me,” according to the report.

Police did not discover any evidence that supported that claim.

Officers found Anastasiya Groschen’s body in the garage behind the driver’s seat of a Toyota Prius. Scoggins was in the laundry room. Each victim had suffered about five gunshot wounds.

A neighbor told police she witnessed Karl Groschen push his stepson out of the garage around 5:45 p.m. and yell, “go to your car, get out of here.”

Soon after, she said, she heard what she thought was a gunshot and the sound of someone screaming. Scoggins then ran back into the house “as if he was in a panic.” She said she heard more gunshots, which the neighbor said she thought might have been Groschen pounding on a wall.

Andy Scoggins said he thinks his son went back into the house to protect his mother. “My son would never leave his mother or his little brother inside with that monster Karl,” he said.

The police report indicates that the Groschens had a child who was picked up by Child Protective Services after the shooting.

Anastasiya Groschen was a “brilliant, driven woman” from Belarus, her ex-husband said. She got a bachelor’s degree and later an MBA from East Carolina University, and she worked in the insurance industry, according to Scoggins and her LinkedIn page.

“She was at one time the light of my life,” Andy Scoggins said. “She gave me the best gift anyone could ever give anybody, which was my son, Evan.”

Evan wanted to be a filmmaker, was fascinated by politics and was smart, Andy Scoggins said.

Anastasiya met Groschen on a dating app in 2014, he said, and married him about two years later.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.