MILWAUKEE - Family members of 14-year-old Cody Reetz made a somber procession into Washington County Court to hear a judge charge Reetz's stepfather, Charles Avey, with first-degree intentional homicide.

A criminal complaint filed Tuesday Avey allegedly strangled Cody to death in a Germantown Wal-Mart parking lot on Sunday night. Prosecutors say he told investigators he did it to punish his wife's mother, sisters and ex-husband for meddling in his family's affairs.

Police first discovered Avey's van in the parking lot Sunday night after Cody's mother, Trista, reported him missing and in danger. An officer reportedly found the boy's body on the floor of the van with two neckties knotted tightly around his neck.

Avey allegedly left notes at the scene, saying, "This boy met angels all too early... This wouldn't have happened if Trista wouldn't have run away from me."

Around the same time Avey allegedly took off with Cody, Trista was reporting to Grafton Police that he had allegedly beaten her with a hammer the week before. Prosecutors say Cody appears to have become the tragic victim of domestic revenge.

CBS 58's Mike Strehlow reports.