Police Say John Kastner Lied

Tulsa Police arrest a man for murdering his wife.  Detectives say John Kastner has been lying to them since Wednesday morning when he called 911.

Friday, June 27th 2008, 10:31 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police arrest a man for murdering his wife. Detectives say John Kastner has been lying to them since Wednesday morning when he called 911 and told police an intruder broke into their home, killed his wife and shot him in the hand. The News On 6's crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports investigators say Kastner's been lying to family and friends for months about his finances, and when it all started to collapse around him, he murdered his wife as a distraction.

Detectives say John Kastner quickly became their prime suspect in Lori Kastner's murder because his story changed so many times on so many topics.

Just to name a few, they say he first said the suspect was Native American. Later, he said the suspect was white. They say he claimed he was in the other room when his wife was shot, and then that he saw the whole thing.

Investigators say he claimed he bought the gun months earlier, but records indicated he bought it eight days before the murder.

They say he told his family they were going to Israel on a private jet for a six week trip, but there was no jet and John Kastner didn't even have a current passport.

"John Robert Kastner lied to us. He lied to us from the moment we responded to his home. He lied to dispatchers. He lied to his friends. He lied to his family, and for that, no one should be responsible except him," said Tulsa Police Chief Ron Palmer.

Records show Kastner had claimed he was in the Israeli Special Forces and was going to have access to millions of dollars through an Israeli charitable group called the 713 Corporation.

They say he promised Webster High School hundreds of thousands of dollars and they were counting on that money for athletic equipment.

Police say he told them he was going to inherit millions thanks to a printing press invention of his father's.

They say no corporation and no invention exist.

Investigators say Kastner wrote a passage in his journal, just three days before the murder. It read: "Wow. Intense pressure. She was right. I do put things off hoping that problems will cure themselves. Unfortunately, time has not slowed, stopped or gone backward. There is no next week."

"I don't think he believed he had another way out of this other than do what he did because he would've been found out later in the day that in fact he is a fraud and committed this murder to cover up the pack of lies he'd told," said Tulsa Police Chief Ron Palmer.

Detectives say Kastner is a TV crime show junkie and they believe he carefully staged the crime scene to make it look like a home invasion. He reportedly even went so far as to see if the gunshot would be heard by neighbors, 24 hours before the murder.

"We do believe he actually did a test fire of the weapon the night before to see if there would be someone who'd hear the noise the neighborhood and make a police response. That's how he referred to it, as a test fire," said Tulsa Police Sgt. Mike Huff.

Lori Kastner was laid to rest to rest the same day her husband was arrested. Family and friends say she was a good-hearted person who loved her children and was involved in the community.

Police think Lori Kastner believed her husband's tales along with everyone else.

She had quit her job as an attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court to work for the Israeli corporation and even asked a friend at a bank about opening an international account where millions could be transferred into it from Israel.

The autopsy says she was killed while sleeping, two shots fired at close range.

John Kastner remains jailed without bond.

Read The Affidavit Against John Kastner