On the evening of October 11, 2024, in a quiet Henderson, Nevada, neighborhood, the life of 44-year-old Caucasian female Anastasia Sergeyevna Akutsina came to a tragic end. In a residence on Black Rock Hills Drive, she and her 20-year-old son, Sergei "Evan" Scoggins, were found deceased, both having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The incident, which neighbors believe stemmed from a family dispute, shattered the calm of the Highland Glenn gated community.
When Henderson police
officers arrived at the home around 6 p.m., they were met by Anastasia's husband, 41-year-old Karl Groschen. He was holding prescription bottles and a drink, and he told the officers, "You have to take me; I thought they were trying to kill me." Groschen was immediately taken into custody. Inside the home, police discovered Anastasia's body in the garage, behind the driver's seat of a car, and her son's body in the laundry room. A 5-year-old boy, reportedly the child of Anastasia and Groschen, was found unharmed in the house.
Investigators found no evidence to support Groschen's claim that his wife and stepson were trying to kill him. A neighbor reported hearing a gunshot and seeing Groschen push his stepson out of the garage, yelling at him to leave. The neighbor then heard screams and more gunshots as the young man ran back into the house, an act his father, Andy Scoggins, believes was an attempt to protect his mother.
Karl Groschen was subsequently indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder with a deadly weapon and one count of child abuse for engaging in domestic violence in the presence of a child. Following his arrest, his legal representation requested a competency hearing to determine if he understood the charges against him. In January 2025, a judge found Groschen competent to stand trial. Prosecutors have stated their intention to pursue the death penalty.
