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Parents with mental illness who kill their children,
stories from 2004 and 2005

October 2005

When a parent with a severe mental illness kills a child, it tends to make news.

What is stunning to realize after reading of one of these cases is that it is not unusual. In fact, of children killed by a parent, 15.8 percent of defendants had a history of untreated mental illness. [1994 Department of Justice Statistics Special Report, "Murder in Families"]. People with severe psychiatric disorders are not more dangerous than the general population - if they are being treated. But w ithout treatment, some commit acts of violence because of their delusions and hallucinations. Many of the cases in the news eventually uncover the fact that the person who killed their child was not taking medication. And research shows that the most common reason that people with severe mental illness refuse treatment is because they are too sick to realize they need treatment.

Folliwing is a sampling of these stories from 2004 and 2005. They are provided as a research tool for reporters and others wanting to find out more about cases where parents with severe mental illnesses have killed, or are accused of killing, their children.

This information is not intended to be all inclusive of every such story. The data is from our unique online Preventable Tragedies database, which is made up of information culled from daily newspaper searches. Because the incidents in the database come only from verified newspaper sources, the database can never cover all the countless unreported tragedies that occur. Some printed reports include more information than others, and some newspapers do not publish their stories to the internet. Sometimes the news stories carry many details about medical histories, hospitalizations, and treatments, sometimes the coverage is sketchier.

In any case, the listing is grim.

**

Date: 6/2005
Location: Wellington, Palm Beach County, FL      

Summary: On the morning of June 3, 2005, Jamie Daniel, 43, walked into the Royal Palm Beach Police Department and said he was contemplating suicide. He was then taken to a treatment facility under the state's Baker Act. The same day, sheriff's deputies found Daniel's wife and son dead in the family home in Wellington, FL. Both 49-year-old Renay Daniel and 17-year-old Sebree Daniel had been shot multiple times. According to a sheriff's office report, relatives had asked for deputies to visit the home because the two had not returned phone calls. The doors of the Daniels' house were locked and there were no signs of forced entry when the bodies were discovered. Police determined that Jamie Daniel was a "person of interest" in their investigation of the shootings. Prior History: Deputies had responded to the home on May 12, 2005 when Sebree Daniel was voluntarily taken into custody under the Baker Act because he told deputies he wanted to kill himself.

Source Of Information: Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, June 5, 2005; Palm Beach Post, June 7, 2005    

Date: 4/2005
Location: Colorado Springs, El Paso County, CO       

Summary: Julie Rifkin, 41, shot her two sons and then herself on or about April 24, 2005 in the family home in Colorado Springs, CO. The day before, Rifkin had been released from Memorial Hospital after a psychiatric evaluation in which she failed to meet criteria for hospitalization. Rifkin's sons, Gabriel, 12 and Nathan, 13, were shot in the head as they slept. Rifkin then shot herself in the head. A friend who came by the Rifkin home Sunday morning to take the family to church found the bodies. Julie and Gabriel Rifkin were dead at the scene. Nathan died Sunday night at Memorial Hospital. Rifkin's pastor, Rev. Ted Haggard, said she was distraught over financial problems after her husband had been laid off from MCI. Haggard said Rifkin had bipolar disorder. Prior History: One of Rifkin's co-workers called the authorities the Friday before the killings, saying her friend was distraught about the loss of her temporary job and threatening to kill herself.

Source Of Information: Denver Post, April 26, 2005    

Date: 11/2004
Location: Flint, Genesee County, MI       

Summary: Brenda Drayton, a 29-year-old woman with bipolar disorder, was charged with strangling her 2-year-old daughter Lyah in their home in Flint, MI. Police found Lyah's body on November 29, 2004, hidden in a lower kitchen cabinet. Lyah was pronounced dead on arrival at Hurley Medical Center. Doctors who examined her body said Lyah had also been repetitively sexually abused. Drayton faced trial on a charge of open murder, and the state petitioned to terminate Drayton's parental rights to her 12-year-old son, who was placed in foster care. Drayton was also four or five months pregnant, her family said, and had stopped taking her medication. Prior History: Ten years earlier, Drayton's 6-week-old son Micah died of dehydration and malnutrition. Drayton was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was hospitalized in 1997 after a case manager noted she was delusional and believed "there are snakes in her body." The petition for her hospitalization said Drayton "can be reasonably expected, within the near future, to ... seriously physically injure self or others and ... is unable to attend to basic physical needs." Drayton's mother, Lucie Murray, said that when Lyah was born, Drayton again fell ill, telling Murray "this is the devil's baby." Murray said Drayton remained hospitalized for mental health care but that the children were never taken out of her custody.

Source Of Information: The Detroit Free Press, December 17, 2004 Arizona Republic, December 17, 2004          

Date: 11/2004
Location: Plano, Collin County, TX      

Summary: Dena Schlosser, 35, was charged with capital murder on November 22, 2004 after she called her husband at work and told him that she had cut off the arms of their 11-month old daughter, Margaret, in their Plano, TX home. Police found Schlosser sitting in her living room, covered in blood, a church hymn playing in the background. An officer had to remove a knife from Schlosser’s hand. The baby was found in her crib, both arms severed at the shoulder, and died at a hospital a short time later. The night before she killed Margaret, Schlosser told her husband she wanted to "give her child to God," court documents say. Hours after her arrest, jail records showed that Schlosser was treated at a Plano hospital for a deep, 3-inch knife wound on her left shoulder. Her attorney, David Haynes, said she was apparently trying to cut off her own arms. Subsequent History: A doctor at the state hospital sent the judge a letter on May 19, 2005 saying Schlosser was ready to stand trial. Jurors had initially found Schlosser incompetent to stand trial on February 14, 2005 and the judge then committed her to a state hospital. In January 2005, court-appointed psychiatrist David Self determined that Schlosser was unfit for trial and suffered from bipolar disorder, postpartum onset. Self also evaluated Schlosser the day before she was found incompetent, and said Schlosser was often incoherent and that her depression had "grossly worsened" since he examined her last. Self also said shunts implanted in Schlosser's brain during a series of childhood surgeries for hydrocephalus could have contributed to her actions. Prior History: On January 10, 2004, the day after giving birth to Margaret, Schlosser cut her wrists in a suicide attempt and was treated in the emergency room. Several days later, an investigator from Child Protective Services was sent to the home after Schlosser was seen running down the street, followed by her then-5-year-old daughter. When police and paramedics arrived, Schlosser told them she was running from a "spirit" in the apartment. Within the next 24 hours, doctors at three hospitals determined that Schlosser was psychotic and suffering from postpartum depression. One doctor suggested she might have bipolar disorder. She was subsequently hospitalized for several days. CPS eventually closed their seven-month investigation, concluding that Schlosser did not pose a risk to her children.

Source Of Information: AP, Nov. 23, 2004; Dallas Morning News, Nov. 24/Dec. 22/Dec. 23, 2004; Houston Chronicle, Nov. 28/Dec. 6, 2004; San Angelo Standard Times, Jan. 22, 2005; Houston Chronicle, Feb. 3, 2005; Wilmington Morning Star, Feb.15, 2005; KDKA-TV, May 24, 2005    

Date: 8/2004
Location: Charleston, Kanawha County, WV     

Summary: Christopher W. Blackwell, 30, a man with bipolar disorder, fatally stabbed his daughter and his estranged wife on August 6, 2004 at his home in Charleston, WV. Three children, including two of Blackwell's own, watched him kill Brittany, 11 and Sherry Blackwell, 26, with a butcher knife. After the murders, he took pictures of the corpses and called 911. "I stabbed my wife and them," he told a 911 operator, according to a transcript. "My wife just came in and told me she was taking the kids, but I told her no and we got in a fight." The couple had been separated for a few months, relatives told police, and were going through a divorce. Subsequent History: Blackwell pleaded guilty in April 2005 and faces life in prison.

Source Of Information: The Charleston Gazette, April 19, 2005

Date: 7/2004
Location: Niagara Falls, Niagara County, NY      

Summary: In Niagara Falls, NY, a mother accused of fatally stabbing her 9-year-old daughter on July 17, 2004 reportedly told police she killed the child because "voices" told her to do so. Falisha M. Madera, 25, also told police she had forgotten to take her medication for schizophrenia that day. Madera was charged with second-degree murder. Kayla Madera had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest with a kitchen knife and was found on a bedroom floor of their apartment. Madera's mother also lived in the apartment, but was visiting family in Rochester when the girl was killed. Madera reportedly phoned her mother to tell her of the slaying, and the mother called Niagara Falls police. She was taken to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center after her arrest for a psychiatric evaluation. Subsequent History: Madera pleaded not guilty during her arraignment on July 26, 2004, and was sent to Niagara County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. Madera was then committed to Rochester Psychiatric Center in August 2004 after a ruling that she was not competent to be tried. However, state doctors in December 2004 said she was competent. She was returned to Niagara County Jail.

Source Of Information: The Buffalo News, July 19 & 24, 2004; WIVB, July 21, 2004; Daily News (New York) April 13, 2005    

Date: 6/2004
Location: Stevenson, Skamania County, WA     

Summary: On June 12, 2004, 38-year-old Charlene A. Dorcy, a woman with mental illness, fatally shot her two preschool-age daughters in remote Skamania County, WA, and left their bodies in an abandoned rock pit in the shadow of Mount Adams. Dorcy called Vancouver police about 5:30 p.m. that day and told them she had killed her two daughters. She then led detectives to a rock pit in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Jessica, 4, and Brittney, 2, were killed inside the Wind River Recreation Area and driven to the old rock pit near Lone Butte. Dorcy was charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated murder, which carries a minimum penalty of life in prison and a maximum penalty of death. Judge E. Thompson Reynolds granted a request by Dorcy's lawyers for a psychiatric evaluation to determine her competency to stand trial. Subsequent History: On May 26, 2005, Dorcy pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in a plea deal that will send her to prison for 63 years. On October 1, 2004, doctors at Eastern State Hospital had determined Dorcy was not competent to stand trial. She was transferred from the Skamania County Jail to Eastern. Skamania County Prosecutor Peter Banks said he would not seek the death penalty for Dorcy after reviewing psychiatric files that documented her history of paranoid schizophrenia. Prior History: Neighbors said Dorcy spoke of suffering from mental illness and once suggested she might be thinking about killing her daughters. One neighbor said she reported this conversation to Child Protective Services, but officials declined to intervene because there was no evidence of physical abuse. Neighbors said they didn't know if Dorcy had been receiving treatment. Court records indicated she had received federal disability payments. Dorcy said in a newspaper interview in 1997 she was battling mental illness and had tried to commit suicide seven times. In the article in The Columbian, she described herself as a friendless, paranoid schizophrenic who was given medication to try to quiet the "demons" inside her head. But soon after the article was published, Dorcy - with her husband's encouragement - stopped taking Tegretol, an anti-psychotic drug, because of the serious side effects. Instead, she switched to St. John's Wort, an herbal remedy commonly used to treat depression. Studies suggest the herb can exacerbate psychosis in schizophrenics.``She had threatened to kill herself at least six times in the last year,'' her husband said. ``But then there was always a calm.''

Source Of Information: Seattle Times, June 15, 2004; The AP, June 15,16,18, 20, 2004; The Columbian, June 18 & 22, July 16, October 2, 2004; The Oregonian, June 20, 2004;The Worldlink.com, May 27, 2005    

Date: 6/2004
Location: Los Angeles County, CA     

Summary: Feliciana Reyes, 27, was arrested in June 2004 after being stopped for speeding on Interstate 5 in Los Angeles County. Her dead infant was strapped to the back seat of her car. A 5-year-old daughter was found unharmed in the front seat. The infant's cause of death was undetermined. Reyes was charged with the murder of her 10-month-old daughter. Subsequent History: On November 10, 2004, Reyes was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in Sacramento Superior Court. Reyes, who was evaluated by mental health experts and found to be suffering from schizophrenia, returns to court December 8, when a judge decides to which state mental health facility she will be sent. She will remain hospitalized until she is found mentally competent. If found competent, she will be returned to Sacramento and criminal proceedings will be reinstated, said Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely.

Source Of Information: Sacramento Bee, November 11, 2004          

Date: 5/2004
Location: North Miami, Miami-Dade County, FL      

Summary: Yusimil Herrera, who won a suit against Florida's child welfare agency for churning her through foster homes where she said she was routinely abused since age 2, was arrested and charged with first degree murder for beating her daughter to death in her North Miami, FL apartment on May 16, 2004. Police found Angel Hope Herrera, 3, lying unresponsive in the hallway outside her mother's apartment, with evidence of beatings on her body. She was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, and pronounced brain-dead two days later. Her organs were then donated to other children. Herrera, 20, who had stopped taking her medication for bipolar disorder months before, was being held without bail at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention Center. She was eight months pregnant with her second child at the time of her arrest. Subsequent History: In February 2005, Herrera gave up her parental rights to Estefany Angela Medrano, the infant girl who was born the same week prosecutors charged Herrera with killing Angel. Herrera's husband, Tomas Medrano, has custody and is raising the child in New York. Prior History: A state official said the agency's child abuse hot line had received two calls about Herrera - one in February 2004, alleging that she had stopped taking her medication and another in March 2004, alleging that she was hitting Angel. The official said that in late March the agency asked Judge Sarah Zabel of Circuit Court for permission to take Angel into protective custody. But the judge rejected the request. DCF records indicate Herrera had an older daughter who was put up for adoption. Her parental rights to that girl were severed in late 1999. Attorney Karen Gievers, who represented Herrera and her sister in a lawsuit against the DCF, said the first child was the product of a rape while Herrera was in DCF foster care. According to the suit Herrera and her sister filed in 1995, they were separated for most of the years they were in foster care, and Herrera was shuffled through 14 foster homes and institutions. Both were intermittently suicidal, it said. A jury awarded each girl $2.2 million in 1999, but an appeals court panel overturned the verdict. Herrera eventually settled with DCFS, getting $260,000. But she ended up collecting only $80,000 after repaying the state for medical care she had received.

Source Of Information: The New York Times May 19, 2004;Miami Herald, May 20, 2004; Click10.com, May 19, 2004; Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) May 23, 2004; South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 2, 2004; Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, March 15, 2005    

Date: 5/2004
Location: Port Charlotte, Charlotte County, FL      

Summary: Ruth Ann Burns, a 28-year-old woman with mental illness, was charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of her 7-year-old daughter, Hannah, in Port Charlotte, FL on June 2, 2004. That day, dispatchers had received a 911 call from the manager of the motel where Burns was living, saying a girl there was in trouble, sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carpenter said. Deputies found Hannah Burns' body there. She had been stabbed in the chest and had her throat slashed. Police then used a bloodhound to track down Burns, who was hiding naked in a wooded area about a quarter mile away. Burns was suffering from what deputies said were self-inflicted wounds when they found her. Burns' parents had been taking care of Hannah for many years, since Burns had a long history of mental illness, hospitalizations and violent tendencies, according to court records and neighbors. Burns later told investigators that she believed killing the girl was the only way she could save the child from sexual molestation. Burns also told Department of Children & Families investigators that she attempted suicide by ingesting rat poison and stabbing herself following her daughter's death. Subsequent History: On June 2, 2005, Burns was found competent to stand trial. Circuit Judge Donald Pellecchia had initially found Burns incompetent to stand trial in December 2004 and she was remanded to the Department of Children & Families for placement at a state mental hospital. Pellecchia initially appointed two psychiatrists to examine Burns, and a third doctor was later ordered. The charge against Burns had been amended to second-degree murder with no possibility of a death sentence. If convicted, Burns faces life in prison. Prior History: The Sheriff's Office wanted to arrest Burns for attacking her mother about a week before the murder. However, a judge had not yet signed the arrest warrant when Hannah was killed. Neighbors said deputies were often called to the Burns' home in Port Charlotte due to Burns' abusive behaviors. Burns was involuntarily committed to a crisis stabilization in late January 2004, under a request by her parents, who said she would not take her medication and was becoming more delusional. They said that she had threatened to shoot the whole family and was verbally abusive with Hannah. Burns was released about a week later, with no apparent follow-up care in place. Days before the killing, Burns accused her father of molesting Hannah, DCF officials said in a report, which concluded Burns made that claim after thinking spilled milk on the child's bed was semen. On May 19, Burns filed a report with the Sheriff's Office saying she had caught her 7-year-old daughter having oral sex with someone. The Sheriff's Office investigated the complaint and found no evidence of sexual abuse by anyone. The deputy who interviewed Burns noted that she appeared to be under the influence of drugs or was possibly mentally ill. A woman from the Mobile Crisis Unit told the deputy that Burns suffered from mental illness, but said there were no grounds for Burns to be Baker Acted at that time. The state Department of Children & Families was called, and that agency released the child to the custody of her grandparents, the report states. Burns had been hospitalized nine times since the age of 10. Civil court records indicated she suffers from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.

Source Of Information: Fort Myers News-Press (FL), June 4, 2004;Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 4, 6, 8, 9, 2004; Charlotte Sun-Herald, June 4, 6, 30; Sept. 8,2004;Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 7/1, 9/8/04; Charlotte Sun-Herald, July 1, 2004; Daytona Beach News Journal, July 18, 2004          

Date: 5/2004
Location: Buffalo, Erie County, NY      

Summary: Kirsten M. Vanderlinde, a 36-year-old North Buffalo, NY resident, was charged with murdering her 7-month-old daughter, Melissa, on May 27, 2004 by repeatedly slamming the baby into a sidewalk. Vanderlinde, who has schizophrenia, had stopped taking her medication about two weeks before the murder. Vanderlinde had been diagnosed in her mid-20's with the illness and hospitalized multiple times. She was charged with second degree murder and placed on a suicide watch. Shortly before the attack, a police officer drove Vanderlinde home after finding her walking around outside in her nightgown, carrying her baby. The officer said she went with Vanderlinde into her apartment, where she said Vanderlinde answered questions appropriately. Subsequent History: On March 8, 2005, Vanderlinde was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Erie County Judge Shirley Troutman, who heard the case without a jury, cited "voluminous" records that documented Vanderlinde's frequent psychiatric hospitalizations in the years before the attack, as well as her behavior in the days that followed. While in jail, Vanderlinde tried eating a mattress and drank from a toilet, appeared to rock and feed an invisible baby and asked to make a phone call to check on Melissa, the judge noted. She ordered Vanderlinde committed to a secure mental health institution and further psychiatric evaluation. Prior History: After Vanderlinde became pregnant in early 2003, she went off at least some of her medication because she feared it could harm her unborn child, several sources said. She also stopped taking her medication several other times, deciding on her own that she didn't want to take it, her friend Shirley Ford said. "She'd be suicidal. She'd become real agitated. . . She was a totally different person when she was off her medication," Ford said. More than once, paramedics took her to Erie County Medical Center or Buffalo General Hospital.

Source Of Information: Buffalo News (NY), June 6, 2004; Brattleboro Reformer (AP), March 1, 2005; Long Island Newsday, March 8, 2005    

Date: 5/2004
Location: Longwood, Seminole County, FL      

Summary: Andrea Williams, a woman who had been committed twice in the previous year to a mental health facility, killed her three children in their home in Longwood, FL on or about May 8, 2004. Williams was arrested on May 10, 2004 in Catawba County, NC on trespassing charges while attempting to gain entry into the home of her former housemate and lover, Ashley Bishop. After her arrest, Williams eventually confessed to the county investigators that she had poisoned Ilona, 9, Ian, 6, and Ivey, 5 on Mother's Day. Subsequent History: On November 1, 2004, Williams plead guilty to three counts of first-degree murder to avoid the death penalty. Prior History: Williams had allegedly threatened to kill the children in October 2003, during a frantic call to Bishop in which she pleaded for her to return to Florida. Bishop then called officials in Longwood, and police officers went to Williams' home and hospitalized her under the Baker Act. Police reports and court files indicate she had also washed down nine Tylenol PM sleeping tablets with nine beers in a suicide attempt. Williams was hospitalized again 5 days later under the Baker Act after making a second suicide attempt by drinking a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Gary Williams then unsuccessfully tried to gain custody of his children, citing his estranged wife's hospitalizations and apparent mental decline. He argued in an emergency motion that he feared his children were in "grave danger." At a Nov. 24 court hearing two weeks after the second suicide attempt, Seminole Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh ruled the emergency had passed. She left the children in Andrea Williams' care.

Source Of Information: Orlando Sentinel, May 12 & 16, 2004 Miami Herald, May 13, 2004 Orlando Sentinel, May 18, 2004 Orlando/Daytona Florida Today, November 2, 2004    

Date: 5/2004
Location: North Union Township, Schuylkill County, PA      

Summary: Hollie Mae Gable, 39, shot and killed her three children and her boyfriend, then killed herself after a standoff with police on May 2, 2004 in Schuylkill County, PA. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Cragle, 39, was the first to die, shot in the head while he was in bed in their home in Schuylkill's North Union Township. Kirstin Brown, 16, was found shot to death in her mother's car outside Gable and Cragle's home in North Union Township. Kelsey Brown, 13, was found shot in the back of the head along a road in Conyngham Township, Columbia County. Jared Brown, 18, was shot in the Hegins Township home of his father, who'd had custody of all three children since 1995. After Kelsey and Jared's bodies were found, 40 officers, including 20 from a state police special operations team, surrounded Gable's house. Gable held them at bay for three hours, even firing at officers, and spoke to them once by telephone, but gave no indication she would surrender or explanation for the killings. Police heard four shots, then silence. They stormed the house and found Gable unconscious and critically wounded, a .357 Magnum revolver near her body. She died later at a local hospital. Gable had also shot to death two dogs found inside the house. From court documents and interviews with friends and authorities, a portrait emerged of a devoted but troubled mother of ''limited intellect'' who was ordered to get counseling to help in her relationship with her children. She had fought their father for custody. She told a friend last fall that she was being treated for manic depression.

Source Of Information: Allentown Morning Call, May 4, 2004 The Associated Press, May 3, 2004    

Date: 4/2004
Location: Chesapeake, Chesapeake City County, VA        

Summary: Sabrina Carawan, a middle-school teacher with bipolar disorder and a history of hospitalizations, shot and killed her daughter and son and then committed suicide in Chesapeake, VA on April 2, 2004. Despite her history of mental instability, Sabrina Carawan was able to buy a gun, which police say she used to kill Kristen and Keith Carawan and then herself. Carawan had been hospitalized three times for bipolar disorder, but the hospitalizations weren't court-ordered and therefore didn't show up on the state police background check. It was unknown whether or not she was on her medication at the time of the shootings.

Source Of Information: WVEC.com, April 8, 2004   

Date: 3/2004
Location: Dundalk, Baltimore County, MD     

Summary: Denise Sims Lechner, a woman with bipolar disorder who was not taking medication, was charged with child abuse in the death of her 4-year-old son, Roy Lechner, Jr., on March 1, 2005. Paramedics were called to the Lechner's home in Dundalk, MD that morning and found Roy Jr. dead. Lechner told police that she hit the boy and he fell down the stairs. Police said that if an autopsy determined the boy's death to be a homicide, charges against her would be upgraded. Police also launched a review of the death of the couple's second child, an infant who stopped breathing in November 2004 at their home. Prior History: On August 13, 2001, when Roy Jr. was five months old, he was admitted to Akron Children's Hospital. He had stopped breathing, and his face was covered in bruises. Lechner initially told investigators that the baby had fallen off a couch, but later admitted that she had squeezed the baby's face because he was being fussy. He was hospitalized, and placed in foster care for one year. Lechner was convicted of child endangerment in November, 2001, and spent 10 days in jail. In November 2004, a second child, 6-month-old Donald Lechner, was briefly placed in foster care, and the agency unsuccessfully sought a court ruling to keep him there. Instead, he was returned to his parents' care. He died a day later. An autopsy listed the cause of the baby's death as "sudden unexplained death in infancy." No charges were filed. Baltimore County social workers visited the home more than 150 times in the two years before Roy Jr's death - but didn't feel they had conclusive evidence that the boy was in danger. The boy was treated nine times between December 2002 and September 2004 for ailments including diaper rash, blood in his diaper, cuts on his head, a burn on his leg and for possible ingestion of Depakote.

Source Of Information: The Baltimore Sun, March 6, 2005; Baltimore Sun, March 17, 2005          

Date: 3/2004
Location: Sherman, Grayson County, TX      

Summary: Andre L. Thomas, 21, was accused in the March 26, 2004 stabbing deaths of his 4-year-old son, his 20-year-old estranged wife Laura Thomas and her 1-year-old daughter Leyha Hughes in Sherman, TX. All the victims' hearts were cut out; two were found at Thomas' house. He turned himself in and was charged with one count of capital murder. Prior History: According to Thomas's father, Thomas had gone to two hospital emergency rooms seeking help in the weeks before the killing, but either left or was released before he received treatment. Subsequent history: On April 2, 2004, Thomas was in the Grayson County jail cell when he tore his eye out of its socket with his hands, said Grayson County Sheriff Keith Gary. Thomas then quoted the verse Mark 9:47: ``And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.'' Thomas was taken to a hospital and the eyeball was put on ice, but it could not be reattached. At Thomas' trial in March 2005 for Hughes' murder, a state-appointed doctor testified that Thomas suffers from schizophrenia. He said Thomas did not commit the killings under the influence of drugs. Thomas’ older brother Donald Ross also testified about his brother’s strange behavior leading up to the murders, including drug use, an obsession with the bible, and duct-taping his mouth shut, claiming God was testing him to see if he could go a day without talking. In June 2004, state District Judge James Fry had ordered Thomas committed to a state mental hospital because two psychologists found him incompetent to stand trial.

Source Of Information: The Associated Press, April 6, 2004; Sherman Herald Democrat, June 17, 2004; KXII-TV CBS 12, March 3, 2005    

Date: 2/2004
Location: Hamilton, Butler County, OH       

Summary: Aimee Leonard, 29, from Hamilton, OH, allegedly started a fire in her mobile home on February 4, 2004 that killed her 7-month-old son Justin Johnson Jr. According to authorities, Leonard got into a fight with the baby’s father on the phone and then set the fire. After her arrest, Leonard repeatedly told court-appointed psychologist Robert Kurzhals she didn’t plan the fire, and never intended to hurt her son. Leonard said she tried to put the fire out. She also checked on her son twice, changed clothes and used the bathroom - all while the fire was burning. Kurzhals noted Leonard was “intellectually limited” and “has a history of poor insight and poor judgment.” Leonard’s attorney, Ronald Morgan said Leonard has a “bipolar condition” and was not taking her medication for two months prior to the fire. Subsequent History: Kurzhals determined that Leonard was sane when she started the fire. He also found her to be competent to stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering, according to court documents. Leonard pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted she could face up to 15 years in prison. The insanity issue will eventually be left up to a jury.

Source Of Information: Hamilton Journal News - 6/2/04            

Date: 2/2004
Location: Miami Township, Clermont County, OH     

Summary: Christina Miracle, 25, a woman with mental illness, killed her 6-year-old son on February 6, 2004 after she stopped taking her psychiatric medication. The Hamilton County coroner who performed Brandon Lehn's autopsy said the child had a pattern of bruises on his back consistent with a beating. Prosecutors said Brandon died from asphyxiation, either suffocation through strangulation or drowning. Authorities weren't able to determine Brandon's exact cause of death. Immediately after the boy's death, authorities took Miracle to University Hospital, and she was later admitted at Summit Behavioral Center in Cincinnati for treatment. Subsequent History: Miracle was eventually indicted on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said Brandon died in a bizarre religious ceremony in which Miracle thought she was bringing her dead brother back to life and baptizing her son. On October 12, 2004, Miracle was determined by a court psychiatrist to be criminally insane and suffering from bipolar disorder when she killed her son. On Feburary 28, 2005, Clermont County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ringland found Miracle not guilty by reason of insanity. Ringland had earlier found Miracle competent to stand trial after a psychiatrist testified that she was stabilized on antipsychotic medications and able to assist in her defense. Since her arrest, Miracle has been treated at Summit Behavioral Center in Cincinnati. Miracle cannot be released unless Judge Ringland approves it. Prior History: In March 2003, Miracle began acting irrationally and expressing paranoid fears that somebody had poisoned her water, family members said. Miracle was admitted to a psychiatric ward for two days and then released. In the following days Miracle was re-admitted to the hospital and stayed for a week. Hospital officials told Miracle's family she suffered from major depression and sent her home with medication and orders to see a counselor. Miracle never sought additional treatment and discontinued her medications.

Source Of Information: Cincinnati Enquirer, September 23, 2004;Cincinnati Enquirer, October 13, 2004; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 1, 2005; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 9, 2005.   

Date: 1/2004
Location: Brecknock Township, PA             

Summary: Richard Jenks, a school bus driver with a history of domestic violence, shot and killed his wife, Kathy, 47, their daughter, Kimberly, 18, Kimberly's boyfriend, Jason Stewart, 24, and finally himself on January 23, 2004 in the family's Brecknock Township, PA home. The previous week, Jenks, 63, had threatened to kill his family and himself and was committed by his son to Reading Hospital's psychiatric unit. Three days later, Jenks was released.

Source Of Information: The Reading Eagle (PA), May 3, 2004    

Date: 1/2004
Location: Fitchburg, Worcester County, MA     

Summary: Brian Martel, a 43-year-old man with mental illness who was not taking his medication, stabbed his two sons, killing one and wounding the other, in his Fitchburg, MA apartment on January 16, 2004. Psychologists who evaluated Martel at Bridgewater State Hospital deemed him competent to stand trial. Martel was charged with first-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for stabbing 9-year-old Garrett and 13-year-old James. Garrett died in the hospital shortly after the attack. James suffered a serious stab wound to his chest but survived. At Martel's pre-trial hearing on January 20, Judge David Despotopulos ordered a 20-day psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater for Martel. He was initially found competent, but kept for further evaluation due to ''significant'' mental health issues, said his lawyer, Margaret R. Guzman. Subsequent History: On August 30, 2004, Martel pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, saying he was in the grip of a psychotic episode when he attacked his sons. Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman sentenced Martel to 12 - 13 years in state prison. Martel also pleaded guilty to assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was placed on probation for 20 years, to begin upon his release. Guzman said psychiatrists found that Martel's manic and psychotic episode probably drove him to commit the attacks. Nonetheless, Martel opted not to use an insanity defense. Martel had stopped taking a most of his medications, including lithium, before he attacked his sons, Guzman said. At Guzman's request, Judge Hillman agreed to recommend to the state Department of Correction that Martel serve at least part of his sentence at Bridgewater State Hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment while awaiting trial. Martel's family is setting up a nonprofit agency to help others who live with bipolar disorder, and are developing two websites -- garrettmartelfoundation.org and garrettmartel.org. Prior History: Bob Martel said his brother had been diagnosed 10 years earlier with bipolar disorder after experiencing a psychotic episode and was twice hospitalized against his will (in 1997 and 1999) after experiencing grandiose religious delusions. Bob Martel said there were no warnings of the attacks and that his brother had never been violent.

Source Of Information: Boston Channel.com (MA), 1/19 & 8/31, 2004; Boston Herald, January 19 & 21, 2004; Boston Globe, January 21, 2004;Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg, MA), 1/26/04, 4/28/04, 9/4/04; Telegram & Gazette (Worcester), 2/11/04; 3/3/04; 4/13/04; 8/31/04            

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