On Friday, 22-year-old Adam Dees found out he will never leave prison for the rest of his life for the killing of three people in their Foothills home last spring during a home invasion robbery.
Dees admitted to the murders of Ted, Elaine, and Thomas Welp months ago. What we didn’t know for sure until today was why he picked the Welp family to terrorize.
Dees told detectives Monday he had never met or known the Welp family before he picked their Cartwright Road house to rob because it wasn’t close to any roads or neighbors and looked like a home that people who had money lived in.
Dees also explained in detail how he robbed the home and did the killings by himself. He also said it was his first and only home-invasion robbery. Dees admitted to thinking he might try to do more in the future if he hadn’t been caught.
Dees told detectives he was depressed, suicidal, and didn’t see his life going anywhere at the time so he decided to “just go rob a house … that’ll give me money to play with for a while.”
Dees said he used Google Maps to search for remote areas around Boise and Mountain Home for high-end homes to rob. He settled on the homes near Cartwright Road and used satellite maps to pick some targets.
Dees said he drove along Cartwright Road on March 8 and began looking around, dismissing some Foothills homes because they were too close to roads or other homes, before settling on the Welp’s residence.
Dees said he parked his car on a nearby street, hiked down a hillside, and staked the home out while he worked out plan.
Dees then said he drove to his Nampa residence, waited until it got darker, and then drove back to Cartwright Road. Dees said he wore black clothes and armed himself with guns and knives. He parked his car far away, hiked down the hillside again, and began his plan.
Dees said he first broke into a second house being built on the property and stole some power tools. He then moved over the main house, where he found that a door to the garage was open, so he went inside and hid.
Dees said he found set of house keys inside a truck in the garage, which he used to get in the house. Dees said he saw a security system for the home was not armed when he went inside. Dees said that if the security system was turned on, he would have left immediately. He also said he probably would have given up on his plan if the family had a bigger dog.
Dees also went over several other things with detectives, including his “addiction” to violent “first-person shooter” video games. When asked specifically about the murders of the Welps, Dees said it wasn’t that difficult for him to because he had done so much killing in video games.
Dees will soon be placed in the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction, where he will serve three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Dees’ debriefing with detectives Monday was one of the conditions of his plea agreement with Ada County Prosecutors.
When news of this horrific crime emerged in March, the leaders of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office promised answers when we could provide them. We understand people were deeply concerned about what happened and why. At least now we have some of those answers.
Ada County is a safer place to live today. Adam Dees will never leave prison for the rest of his life.