Mom 'calm' in call to 911 - diaries, Bible sought to shed light on her thoughts, boys' deaths

The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 12, 2003 | By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Mom 'calm' in call to 911

Diaries, Bible sought to shed light on her thoughts, boys' deaths

05/12/2003

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

TYLER – Sunday was to be First Assembly of God's special Mother's Day celebration, but the congregation instead gathered to mourn the inexplicable – a tragedy in which two children were bludgeoned to death with rocks, allegedly by their mother, a member of the church's choir.

Hundreds filled the pews, some calling out encouragement, many dabbing their eyes as pastor Gary Bell talked of the pain of losing two of his young nephews and a third nephew's effort to cling to life.

He talked of his sister-in-law, Deanna LaJune "Dee" Laney, who was jailed a few blocks away on charges of capital murder. She reported her children's deaths in a 911 call described Sunday as calm and peaceful.

Handout

Deanna LaJune Laney

"We don't excuse what has happened. This is a brutal and horrific incident," he said. "But we all believe as family that it wasn't our Dee that did this to her children."

Ms. Laney, 38, was arrested early Saturday at her rural Smith County home near Tyler after telling the 911 dispatcher that she'd smashed in her sons' heads with rocks.

'Almost little girlish'

Sheriff J.B. Smith said Ms. Laney used her cellphone to report that God ordered her to kill her sons. He said she talked for more than 20 minutes, her voice "almost little girlish" as she gave the badly rattled dispatcher detailed instructions to her home. Sheriff Smith said Ms. Laney also called her older sons by name as she told the dispatcher how to find their bodies "near the swing" in her front yard.

"She was very calm, very peaceful," he said.

Sheriff Smith and other officials have said the incident is eerily reminiscent of the 2001 Houston case in which Andrea Yates calmly called 911 to report that she'd just drowned her five children. Ms. Yates, who told authorities that she killed her children because she feared they would otherwise be damned to hell, is serving a life sentence for the deaths.

A deputy sent to the Smith County home found the bodies of 6-year-old Luke Allen Laney and 8-year-old Joshua Laney lying in the front yard with bloody rocks the size of dinner plates on their chests.

Ms. Laney's youngest son, 14-month-old Aaron, was discovered in his crib, still breathing despite a massive open skull fracture and a pillow over his head, authorities said. A deputy found Ms. Laney wandering dazed in her back yard, her pajamas spattered with drying blood.

Relatives said the youngest son was in stable condition Sunday at Children's Medical Center of Dallas.

The boys' father, 44-year-old Keith Laney, slept through the attacks, awakening as the sheriff's deputy sent to investigate the 911 call searched the couple's neat brick home, authorities said.

Ms. Laney was being held Sunday in the Smith County Jail in lieu of bail totaling $3 million. She signed papers after her arrest seeking a court-appointed attorney. Sheriff Smith said two lawyers and her brother-in-law, the pastor, visited her during the weekend, and she remains under a suicide watch.

Mood swings reported

"She's had real quick mood swings. The jailer describes her as just peaks and valleys," Sheriff Smith said. "She's sometimes incoherent, sometimes lays in the fetal position, sometimes walks around her cell singing gospel music.

"Sometimes she prays. Sometimes she seems to realize what she's done and says, 'Oh no!' Then she just looks with a blank stare on her face," the sheriff said Sunday.

Investigators remained at the family home in New Chapel Hill, seven miles southeast of Tyler. Authorities said it might be Wednesday before they finish searching the premises.

What was she thinking?

"We're looking for anything she might have written, any diaries, birthday cards, their computer, any highlights in a Bible that might shed some light on what she was thinking," Smith County sheriff's Maj. Mike Lusk said.

Friends and neighbors have described Ms. Laney, a longtime church member, as an intensely devout woman who sang in a gospel group with three of her sisters. She often appeared in the choir during the church's weekly Sunday morning broadcasts on a Tyler television station.

She home-schooled her sons and was known in her modest, working-class neighborhood for closely supervising the oldest two, allowing them to play only with a younger cousin, who lived across the street.

Neighbors said Mr. Laney, who runs an air-compressor repair shop on nearby State Highway 64, is a hard worker who often took his older sons to play and help with chores at the family's small farm in nearby Arp, where he keeps a small herd of cattle.

Night before slayings

"At the present time, we don't have a clue what was in her head," Sheriff Smith said. "Their home was neat. The landscaping was all beautiful. Their friends that we've interviewed have said there was no indication, even the night before, of anything. They went out for dinner the night before with their kids."

Investigators said they have not been able to talk with Mr. Laney, who remained in Dallas on Sunday to be near his comatose son. They hoped to interview him Monday.

Mr. Bell told reporters outside his church that the Laney family "is one of the last you'd think this would ever happen to."

"They were a model family, hardworking, very spiritual. But in a moment of passion, and weakness, it seems, this tragedy unfolded," he said.

In his brief Sunday sermon, Mr. Bell said the church would stand with Ms. Laney, as well as with her grieving husband and their families. He told congregants that he'd already visited Ms. Laney in jail because he is her pastor as well as her brother-in-law.

Hurt and confusion

"All I can say is that I expressed our hurt and confusion over why and how this could happen, but also acknowledged our continuing love," he said.

He also repeatedly urged the congregation not to speculate about the case or discuss it with the media.

Authorities said a major focus of their investigation would be trying to unravel what could've prompted Ms. Laney to think God wanted her to kill her children. They said they have had no indication that Ms. Laney was on any medication or had a history of psychiatric problems.

Investigators also will review video recordings of the church's Sunday services, which air locally a week after taping.

In the service shown Sunday, Mr. Bell talked about the world's increasing terrorism and violence as signs of the imminence of the Antichrist, Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ.

The hourlong sermon pointedly referred to a string of high-profile crimes in the United States, including the kidnapping of Salt Lake City teenager Elizabeth Smart, the slaying of pregnant woman Laci Peterson in California and a case reported last month in The Washington Post of two parents accused of decapitating their three children.

"I'm sure there will be people who will resist the death penalty because it was a moment of insanity, so the death penalty will be cruel to people who kill their innocent children," Mr. Bell said of the case reported in The Post. "You explain that logic to me."

But on this Sunday, after the somber congregation flocked past a church sign that read, "a mother's heart is a child's schoolroom," Mr. Bell implored them to avoid "theologizing and judgmentalism."

Pastor Derwood Dubose of Hurst, district director for the North Texas Conference of Assemblies of God, spoke to the congregation by phone, telling them that Ms. Laney had been "overcome by some force we cannot fully identify," leaving family and friends with "a hurt that only time and God can heal."

Mr. Bell thanked congregants for all their calls, visits and offers of help, adding, "The main thing we need is prayer."

"It's a time of mourning," he told reporters after he and more than a dozen of the Laneys' other family members filed out of the church sanctuary. "It always happens to someone else, then when it comes this close to home, you begin to empathize with other people.

"The truth is, nobody knows exactly what happened at this point except Dee."

E-mail lhancock@dallasnews.com

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/051203dntexkidsslain.3de72.html

[CARepubGal]

Sola Gratia is so much healthier. (sorry Polycarp, just a Calvinist moment). Something about the obsession on the end times (premill, postmill and whatever) triggers folks teetering on the edge of sanity to simply slip off the edge into the abyss. And much as I support the idea of home schooling, some parents cannot handle the job without snapping. Added to the isolation is the difficulty of matching a mentally ill individual with the best regimen of medications and making the person take their meds. When the "give it to God" idea is applied to their situation (by a person with poor judgement to begin with), you get this kind of outcome. I had a friend who was bipolar that just stopped the meds and went natural. She began rapid cycling and the poor kids got the brunt of her rage: she was pagan BTW. When medicated, she was a sweet lady but off her meds, she was just scary.

[ladyinred]

This article seems to speak a lot about her Christianity already. Christians do not do these things because they are believers, they do them because something else is wrong somewhere in their heads.
What a terrible tragedy this is, thank God the little one survived.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Let me say this has been really a great thread. Mainly for the fact that this is how I remember Free Republic to be, (lurking since '99) a good hearty debate and no personal attacks. Seems that lately most threads have someone who just wants to have something demeaning to say.

One thing I wanted to say was, people who are mentally ill, not on any medication, can be severely agitated by discussing God. We were not able to discuss God with a family member of mine who was psychotic, it would just make the psychosis worse. This was very difficult as I come from a family that relies on God. We had to learn to just pray for the person without mentioning God to them. So it can be not necessarily the church doctrine, but just being exposed to spiritual things can affect them.

[dsutah]

Rightly so! My own younger daughter was diagnosed with post-natal depression and anxiety disorders, and she is on medication for it now. She wasn't as severe as this lady or Andrea Yates, but her situation was indeed worrisome. She is rather young; only 22; and she had two little kids in about 2 1/2 years time.

Her older sister had these disorders in her teens. (not maternity related-she has no children yet)But she is almost 26 now, and is doing a lot better. However, she still has to take medications for it.

We're beginning to think now that it runs in the family on my Mom's side. She, (poor thing)didn't have these medications in her younger years, so she drank. When I think of the health problems, and the sad things that happened to her and us from that, if only they had those medications. Thankfully, because of these medicines, she is alcohol-free, and in spite of old-age problems, she does pretty darn good for a lady of 76!

Incidently, some of you might be interested to know that even one of our patriot founding-fathers was married to a lady who suffered from post-natal depression! Patrick Henry's poor wife, whom he'd been married to since they were both in their mid-to-late teens, lost her mind after her last baby was born!

I read in the newspaper a story once about his home. It was mentioned in there that he had to keep his wife in a locked room. He and a servant would come and see her, and take care of her; because in those days, a mental hospital was no place for a lady! He loved her very much, and didn't want to put her there.

They didn't say whether she hurt or killed anyone, just that she had become hard to control. It was really sad!

[godlovesrepublicans]

I do hope this was a sarcastic post, but I doubt it is.
I totally agree with sending her to her maker. No excuse for this. She has forfeited her life.

As for the apology, that was pretty funny. For a nanosecond I thought you were serious.

[HELLRAISER II]

Tell'em about X, anyone that is capable of killing their own child deserves nothing but my scorn & hate and even though I'm not a hateful person I can't help feeling this way. What use is a woman or man that can do this to their own flesh & blood, she deserves the chair in my most humble opinion. By the way your pic's rock.

[HELLRAISER II]

Hate & hateful deeds deserve hate & hateful deeds done back to them. I'm sorry I cannot turn the other cheek to this type of crime, she deserves the chair just like that woman Andrea Yates also deserved to die. But Bleeding heart liberals & Bible thumpers seemed to think she didn't, I feel no sympathy for them. I raised two kids and yes they could drive you nuts at times, but never have I ever hurt my child. You do not hurt the ones you love, period.

[MineralMan]

"She still needs to be locked up in a facility for the criminally insane for the rest of her life, though."

I'm sure she will be. Once she is stabilized on medication, this act will become a horror for her. It's incredibly sad.

[MineralMan]

"Didn't you state recently you are an atheist? Or was that someone else?"

Yes, I am an atheist. That, however, does not mean that I do not understand the Christian scriptures, as well as the scriptures of several other religions. When I use scripture in my messages, it is to make a point regarding the religion of that scripture.

In this particular case, there is much teaching, supposedly in the direct words of Jesus Christ, that says that one must not judge others. Judgment, according to the Bible, is reserved for the deity of that scripture.

One need not be a Christian to quote the Bible.

[MineralMan]

"What I didn't know until reading this thread was that the A of G discourages psychotropic drugs. "

To be more accurate, it is not the Assembly of God overall organization that discourages such use. It is individual ministers who sometimes do that. It's a church-by-church thing. I was not able to ascertain from the web site of the Tyler church what their point of view in this matter is.

[cgk]

I wasn't trying to insinuate anything other than the question I asked. I merely thought I had remembered you saying something about it before, but saw you talking about Christ on the thread, so thought I was mistaken and had confused you with someone else. Which is why I asked you the question.

[Bigg Red]

Okay, thanks for the explanation about the kids. How awful for them. The article states that the father was sleeping.

[kuma]

I could be construed(sp?) as a bible-thumper. However, a murderer is a murderer no judgement passed just the plain truth on the surface.

I do get what your saying though. It's stated in the article that there were NO previous indications of any mental illness. I can conceivably see that this woman could play up such things. Of course in our double-standard society where women are always victims, no one seems to want to hold her responsible for her actions.

Back to blaming the husband again.

[MeekOneGOP]

You're welcomed.

The article states that the father was sleeping.

It sure does. How'd I miss that? Thanks !

[Buzzcook]

"The woman was obviously mentally ill. I suspect she was untreated, though, and that's a darned shame."

Many charismatic or end times christians attribute mental illness to satanic influence. They are also in complete opposition to psycotheropy and medications.
It very well might be the case here.
I sometimes think the fate of Christianity was settled in the 3rd century and the good guys lost.


Buzz