2 children dead at S.E. Mecklenburg home

The Charlotte Observer ^ | 2005/01/20 16:22 ET | Steve Lyttle

[TechJunkYard]

	Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006
	2 children dead at S.E. Mecklenburg home STEVE LYTTLE slyttle@charlotteobserver.com Five-year-old twin girls were found dead Friday afternoon at a home in southeast Mecklenburg County, and police say they are questioning a suspect in connection with the case. The children's mother and older siblings are in seclusion while police continue their investigation. WCNC-TV, the Observer's news partner, reports a man called 911 early Friday afternoon and said he had stabbed his two children. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police spokesman Keith Bridges would not confirm if the children's father was the suspect being held. He also would not comment on the cause of death for the young girls. The deaths took place at a home in the 11200 block of Creek Pointe Drive, off Tilly Morris Road near Interstate 485. Police say they received a call shortly before 1 p.m. from a suspect who said twin children had been killed. When they arrived at the home, Bridges said, they found the suspect outside the house. Bridges said the suspect was taken into custody without a struggle.

[Alia]

Yes.

[Tax-chick]

Just nerves - I'm sending Der Prinz to buy food for James as soon as he gets up ... that will make me feel much better. Now if I can just hold together (as it were :-) until about 9:30 tonight ...

Regarding the article, I'm not thinking of a secret life so much as just speculating (with no data, of course) that a person so deeply trouble might have shown signs of it in some context before killing his children.

[LucyJo]

The horror of this is just beyond imagination.

Dear Heavenly Father, have mercy on those touched by this tragedy, and especially the children, Lord. Please surround this family with Your providential care and let them feel and know that you are with them. Please comfort, strengthen, and bless them in their every need to make it through this horror. Please guide them in the pathway that leads to a life of hope and peace in You. In the precious, merciful, and Holy name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[TechJunkYard]

The horror of this is just beyond imagination.

It is... UNimaginable. The few facts that have emerged so far make me lean toward the "just snapped" theory.

45 year-old in a high-stress job. Victims found in separate rooms. Both stabbed "more than once". Chaplains brought in to counsel the responding district cops and Medic personnel. I'm thinking lots of trauma here, lots of aggravation from a thoroughly blown top.

Imagine the wife, having gone on a routine errand ("Bye Hon, gonna get my hair done, back in a couple of hours"), pulled over by the cops a block from home, hustled into a neighbor's house and told this. She probably had no indication whatsoever.

One hopes so anyway, if she or any of the siblings had an idea that there was something going on, and no one did anything about it, that's a nagging they'll carry forever.

It will all eventually come out, but right now the whole city is absolutely stunned.

[LucyJo]

"Imagine the wife, having gone on a routine errand ("Bye Hon, gonna get my hair done, back in a couple of hours"), pulled over by the cops a block from home, hustled into a neighbor's house and told this. She probably had no indication whatsoever."

I know! The thing that highlighted the horror of it was when I read about the police taking the Bassett hound and the German shepherd from the home to keep until the family was able to take them. Little kids and pets at home with dad, older kids at school, mom off on an errand...normal, routine, everyday life, and then to return home to the "UNimaginable"!

"What if" factors into the thoughts surrounding any unexpected occurrence of death, but it seems living with the feelings of guilt associated with neglecting to do anything about signs that resulted in this would be almost unbearable...and then you think,"Who in their right mind would ever think this could happen?" God have mercy on them!

If the father did "snap" and do this horrible thing, he is the one who is going to be living the torment of hell on earth when he finally gets the help he needs and realizes how different things could have been had he sought help before he snapped.

Reading about this is emotional, so I don't doubt that the people living in the city are stunned. It has to be a real tough one for the police and all of those who are handling the situation. Everyone there is in my prayers.

[TechJunkYard]

A friend, who attends another Catholic parish, says that David was a cancer patient and was medicating for that. A news report I saw/heard yesterday also said he was seeing a doctor about depression/insomnia and was taking additional medication for that.

I was on Tamoxifen for two years, and I remember some wild mood swings and hot flashes from that drug.

May well be a significant factor here.

[LucyJo]

I read an article where his dad had been interviewed. He said pretty much the same thing you had learned.

The first thought that occurred after I read that was that a combination of X number of days of insomnia, meds for the cancer, depression meds and the new meds that he had been taking during the past week for insomnia could have triggered some sort of loss of control mentally - that he "snapped" because of it, as you said. I wondered if it could cause him to not actually realize what he was doing at the time it was happening, but to come to his senses at some point.

I've read comments on other threads about it, and some think it's making excuses for a murderer to say those things. I don't want to make excuses, but it's just so horrendous that it almost compels the mind to look for a reason other than that a father would intentionally do something like that...at least until facts indicate otherwise.

From what I've read, I got the impression that he has suffered from depression for some time. I read in one article that his first wife, and the mother of the two oldest children, had died of a brain tumor in 1993. Oddly enough, her name was also Kimberly. He and his current wife married in 1994, and moved from CA to their current location.