Ludwig was caught around 12:30 p.m. after the car he was driving crashed about 20 miles west of Indianapolis following a pursuit by state police.

Police said Ludwig, along with 14-year-old Kara Beth Borden, the daughter of the slain Warwick Township couple, were both unhurt and in custody.

Every law-enforcement agency along the East Coast _ from the FBI to Warwick Township Police _ had been looking for Ludwig, who police said had shot and killed Kara’s parents, Michael F. and Cathryn Lee Borden, in their Lititz area home on Sunday morning.

The nation’s AMBER Alert system was activated Sunday afternoon, broadcasting descriptions of the car and the teenagers through the media and across interstate highways, while state troopers combed the Ludwigs’ cabin in Juniata County for any sign of the pair.

Ludwig, of 422-A W. Orange St., Lititz, has now been charged with kidnapping, recklessly endangering another person and two counts of criminal homicide.

The Bordens’ other daughter, 13-year-old Katelyn, told investigators she witnessed Ludwig shoot her father, then hid and listened as she heard a second shot and the sound of the youth running through their house, yelling for her sister, Kara.

When the shouting and shooting stopped, Katelyn told police, she and her 11-year-old brother, David, ran to neighbors for help.

Sunday’s double murder shook the quiet community, the second such violent incident in a week. Last Monday, another young man shot a Lititz policeman over a routine traffic violation and later died in a gun battle with state police.

Kara had reportedly told her parents that she was staying at a friend’s house Saturday night and returned to her home at 15 Royal Drive, Lititz, around 6 a.m. Sunday.

“The young girl was out during the night, came home, and her parents confronted her,’’ Lititz Police Chief William Seace said today.

“We think they’re boyfriend and girlfriend,’’ Seace said. “Their parents didn’t approve of them being together because of the age difference.’’

Confronting their daughter, the Bordens then contacted Ludwig, asking him to come to their house and talk about the situation. Ludwig arrived around 7 a.m., according to the police affidavit.

Katelyn said her parents, sister and Ludwig talked for about one hour.

Borden was “escorting’’ Ludwig to the front door, Katelyn told police, when she saw “Ludwig with a handgun pointed toward her father ... pull the trigger, heard a gun shot and then she ran into the bathroom.’’

While hiding in the bathroom, Katelyn told police in the affidavit, “she could hear David Ludwig yelling for her sister, Kara. ... She then heard a second shot and she also heard David Ludwig running around the house yelling for Kara. After things got quiet, she then ran out of the bathroom and ran out of the house and went to the neighbors.’’

This morning, Lancaster County District Attorney Donald Totaro, Warwick Township Police Chief Richard F. Garipoli Jr. and the lead investigator, Warwick Township Police Detective Lt. Ed Tobin, were meeting to determine the next steps in the search.

Totaro said every possible law enforcement agency has been called in to assist, including Pennsylvania State Police and its Major Crimes Unit, the FBI, U.S. Marshalls, as well as county detectives.

Totaro said Ludwig’s family has been extremely cooperative as detectives served a search warrant at their home in an effort to learn more about the youth and his relationship with the young girl.

Detectives confiscated computers from both the Ludwig and Borden homes to review e-mails between the two teenagers. Ludwig’s father, Gregory, also suggested that police check a family-owned cabin in Juniata County, officials said.

State police checked the cabin but did not find Ludwig or Kara.

“There is no reason to believe (Kara) went willingly,’’ with Ludwig, Totaro said, as they left the area in the red 1998 Volkswagen Jetta TDI he was driving. The car carries a license plate EHH-0994.

Kara is described as 5-foot, 1-inch tall and weighing about 100 pounds. She has brown hair with blond highlights and was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt emblazoned with the name of Pillar, a Christian rock band.

Ludwig is described as a white male, 6-foot, 1-inch tall, thin build with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen dressed all in black.

Within the first 10 hours of the AMBER Alert broadcast, county emergency dispatchers said they received more than 100 calls of reported sightings. As of 11 a.m. today, dispatchers said, they were still receiving calls, but the young couple still had not been located.

The only area that police could confirm the couple traveled through was Clay Township after someone found a cell phone, that turned out to be Kara’s, lying along a road.

Police were apparently alerted to the shooting by Kara’s little brother, David, who apparently escaped the home around 8 a.m. Sunday by running out the front door, past his father’s body, to a neighbor’s house, asking them to call 911.

“The boy found a neighbor and told them Mommy and Daddy had been shot,’’ Seace said. “Nobody had any idea if they (Ludwig and Kara) were still inside the house.’’

As police arrived at the scene, according to the affidavit, they spotted Kara’s sister, Katelyn, running out the back door of her home to a rear neighbor’s house.

Police said Katelyn told them Ludwig had gotten into an argument with her parents, possibly over him dating her sister, Kara, and that she saw him shoot her father, according to the affidavit.

Not knowing if the gunman was still in the house, police called for the Lancaster County Special Emergency Response Team.

It took about two hours for the county officers to arrive, dressed in military-style uniforms with high-powered weapons and police dogs, and set up positions around the $300,000 homes along Royal Drive.

Area residents were told to stay inside their homes and go to their basements, while neighbors closest to the Bordens were evacuated from their houses and the streets were sealed off.

When a policeman reported that he believed he had seen someone inside the home with a rifle, the SERT officers decided to fire tear gas into the house before officers stormed inside shortly after 10 a.m.

Inside, the only people police reportedly found were the bodies of Michael and Cathryn Borden.

Police said the Bordens, each 50 years old, both apparently died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Ludwig and Kara were long gone.

“They got about a two-hour head start on us,” Seace said.

Warwick Township police issued the AMBER Alert about noon Sunday.

The alert system, which stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, links police departments with broadcasters to notify the public to be on the lookout for abducted children.