12/08/2025
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HE KILLED HIS FAMILY, RIPPED OUT HIS OWN EYES, AND ATE ONE.
THE MURDER OF LAURA BOREN, ANDRE LEE THOMAS JR., AND LEYHA HUGHES
Sherman, Texas — 2004
Andre Lee Thomas met Laura Boren when they were still teenagers. She became pregnant at fifteen, and he dropped out of school to support her. They married on his eighteenth birthday, but the relationship collapsed within weeks. Laura moved on and began building a new life with another man. Thomas did not.
For years, Andre spiraled deeper into paranoia and psychosis. He had been hearing voices since childhood. He once stabbed his own brother. He repeatedly went to the ER expressing delusions about “crossing over into heaven,” but each time, he left before doctors could keep him. In the days leading up to the murders, he stabbed himself and still walked out of the hospital.
On March 27, 2004, shortly before 4 a.m., Andre broke into Laura’s apartment in Sherman, Texas. Inside, he stabbed Laura. He cut open her chest and attempted to remove her heart. Then he entered the children’s room. His 4-year-old son, Andre Jr., and Laura’s 13-month-old daughter, Leyha, were both stabbed, and their hearts were removed as well.
Afterward, he walked home, placed the hearts in a plastic bag, and threw them in the trash. He then left a voicemail for Laura’s mother, saying, “Something bad is happening to me. I think I’m in hell.”
When arrested, Andre told police that God told him to kill them, insisting demons lived inside their bodies. He believed he had to keep their blood from mixing.
What happened next stunned even veteran officers. Days after his arrest, Andre gouged out one of his own eyes. In 2008, while on death row, he removed the other — and ate it.
Despite years of documented mental illness and a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the jury rejected his insanity defense. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Laura, Andre Jr., and Leyha. His ex*****on has been delayed by ongoing appeals.
Three lives were stolen in a tragedy rooted in untreated psychosis, systemic failures, and unimaginable violence. Laura, Andre Jr., and Leyha deserved protection, safety, and the future that was taken from them.
