Why Do Fathers Kill?
There are certain factors that can fuel a father's slaying of his wife and children. Some of which are financial difficulties and mounting pressure over his inability to support them, marital problems, or feeling that he is losing control over his family or personal life.
"There are two types: Type 1 is the father who is an abusive or a controlling figure who feels some loss of control of his household and his family, and feels that killing his family would be the ultimate expression of his control over them," said Keith Durkin, associate professor of sociology at Ohio Northern University.
"Type 2 is seen in a 'reversal of fortune' situation. He may have started a business, and the business may have started going sour recently. … He is a person who sees himself as saving his family from further disgrace and humiliation by killing them."
Financial Hardship--The Case of Christian Longo
Financial hardship overwhelmed Christian Longo, an Oregon man convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his wife and three children. Longo never admitted to killing his wife Mary Jane, 35, and their children Zachery, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2. But he told investigators that the family had led a transient lifestyle, moving from motel to motel and living on Ramen noodles and bread in the weeks before the slayings.
Longo said his family had been used to spending $200 on groceries and not thinking twice about it — after all, he had once operated a construction cleaning business in Michigan. However, his business reportedly folded under $30,000 in lawsuits.
By the time the family moved to Oregon, Longo was wanted for forgery and passing bad checks. He told detectives that he was feeling the pressure of not being able to support his family. "I was thinking that they were in that situation too long with me," Longo said in one of the interviews ... "that they deserved much better. I didn't know if I could give it to them."
Murder-Suicide--The Case of Robert Bryant
Many fathers who kill their families also tend to kill themselves. That was the case with Robert Bryant, who killed his wife and four children before shooting himself to death in their McMinnville, Ore., home in February 2002. Bryant had filed for bankruptcy in his landscaping business in California before moving his family to Oregon and looking for a new start. However, after finding initial success in his new roofing business, he seemed to crumble under the weight of financial woes and his perceived failure as a family provider.
Often Missed Warning Signs
Familicide often takes loved ones and communities by surprise, as people find it too incomprehensible and horrible a crime. Unfortunately, in many cases in which fathers kill their families, the slayings take everyone by surprise because, experts say, the warning signs either never surfaced — or were overlooked.
"What we've had is that many times, you'll see families and neighbors say, 'We're shocked. He was such a family man. He was so devoted to his family.' Many of them [fathers who kill their families] come off very well. They seem so normal," said Thomas Gitchoff, professor of sociology at San Diego State University. "It's the normalcy that's the confusing factor. … We're so used to the stereotype of these men looking scary, and many of them look and appear so normal, like any common man."
If I Can't Have You--The Case of Willie Davis
In December 2002, Bayonne, N.J., police say Willie Davis stabbed and slashed the throats of his 23-month-old daughter and infant son. The mother, Melissa Mirlas, and Davis were having trouble in their relationship, and at the time of the slayings, Mirlas and the children were staying at her mother's place. Mirlas had often taken the children and stayed with her mother when Davis drank heavily and physically abused her. Mirlas was running errands when Davis killed his children. Mirlas arrived at Davis' place and made the gruesome discovery.
"For someone to do this kind of thing, you have to consider that they must be extremely mentally imbalanced. Whether it was self-induced through alcohol or drug use or severe mental depression, it's horrible," said Gitchoff. "The other angle to consider is when there is trouble in the marriage and the wife threatens to leave, and someone gets so jealous they figure, 'Well, if I can't have you, then no one will.'"
Don't Believe a Professional Liar
Some experts believe that investigators cannot always trust what a familicide suspect says. They may be trying to lay the groundwork for their defense at trial. "It's often very difficult to get to the truth in these kinds of cases because the suspect could tell you anything as an excuse," said Pat Brown, criminal profiler and founder of the Sexual Homicide Exchange.
"'Oh, I was having financial difficulty.' 'God told me to do it.' Or they can say they were hearing voices or 'the devil told me to do it.' They say things to make them look nuts so that they can get the insanity defense."
Double Standards?
Brown noted that fathers who kill their families have problems before the slayings that they either hid well or were ignored. Often they come off as devoted family men but are living a lie. They secretly may not relish their family life, may be disappointed in the way their lives have turned out and grow to see their wives and children as obstacles to goals and desires — and the reasons for setbacks. Still, fathers who kill are much less sympathetic to juries than mothers who kill.
Mothers Who Kill
When mothers have killed or harmed their children, postpartum depression and other mental illnesses such as Munchausen syndrome by proxy — in which a mother intentionally harms her child or fabricates a child's illness to draw attention to herself — have been frequently cited.
"People think, 'Oh, she must have been crazy. She must have been out of her mind to do such a thing,'" Brown said. "We'll give a guy the death penalty in a second, but women will come away with lighter sentences, like life in prison."
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