NC - Katlin Violette, 4, found decapitated, Clayton, 12 Jan 2007 *Insanity*

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good for him. Now lets cut his head off and claim the voice of his dead daughter told us to do it.
 
Thanks for the link, teons!

I am so glad to hear of this result for a man who was most certainly mentally ill. My continued prayers for the family.
 
This case is so unusual. I agree with those of you in that it is much more common for women to kill their children due to various insanity reasons.
My question is, was he off medication when this happened? For severe schizophrenics, their illness does not go dormant. If they go off their medication, their symptoms will return, obviously noticeable. His wife did say he begged her to not go to work that morning since he thought the apocalypse was coming. She should have known that was a warning sign and got him immediate treatment, whether in a local hospital's psychiatric ward, or a psychiatric hospital. Maybe she was in denial of how ill he was? If he was fine for 8 years was it since he was taking his medication. If he wasn't taking any meds to control his symptoms, i'm not buying his insanity defense. With the bizarre elaborate reasons he gave as to why he killed his daughter, i would consider him severely mentally ill. It doesn't happen overnight, i'm sure someone would have noticed a change in him before that, as their seems to be a spectrum when a patient's medications get changed or they are relapsing. In most cases of mothers killing their children; the mothers being truly severely mentally ill, they can't rationalize enough to either leave the scene or dispose of the body properly. Cases range from women having a baby in an alleyway, leaving it there, to staying in the home with the dead children.
This man was able to RATIONALIZE enough not only to drive to an airport, yet to also fly out to Washington without arousing suspicions of absurd behavior that would be dominant in a schizophrenic off medication or having a relapse.
There is no doubt he has a mental disorder, yet if he was able to rationalize enough to drive to an airport, fly out of state without alerting anyone's suspicions, then did he know right from wrong?
It is such a horrible senseless crime, with no apparent motive, that since there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, mental illness is the best answer. It is not that hard to pull the crazy card, especially with him having been hospitalized before, he would have observed other's symptoms and be able to mimick them effectively.
There are many mentally ill people out there, schizophrenics and others who are docile, on their medication and stable, able to function in society. This man's "break" seemed to occur less than overnight. Somethings fishy about this case..
 
But - if it's not mental illness - why did this man just one day chop his daughter's head off? He had no history of abusing her sexually or physically (so it doesn't seem like he was trying to get rid of a witness or hide evidence) and was by all accounts a loving father. Also, by all accounts, he had a history of mental illness.

Some people with schizophrenia can function and have a fairly stable life, but many others can't - and plenty of them snap on a dime.
 
Thank you, Teon for that update.
 
This is indeed a strange case, and one that will always haunt me. Mental illness is the obvious answer, but as others have pointed out, it isn't a "neat fit" either. It would be interesting to know if the mother had sort of had a worried feeling in the days leading up to this horrible incident.
 
I would like to know if he had started using drugs again right before this happened. It sounds like he got into drugs when he was younger and then started having symptoms of mental illness. There is such a thing as drug induced mental illness. When the person stops taking drugs for a while the symptoms go away. I think the article said that he was on meds but stopped taking his meds...moved away..met his wife and got married. It really sounds like it was drug induced when he first started having mental problems. Even though it sounds like he had a good marriage for a lot of years and that they were happy...if he did start dabbling in drugs for some reason it might have just set him off again.

I don't understand why the way he was talking to his wife that day didn't send up red flags even if she didn't know about his history. If my husband started talking crazy and wanting me to stay home from work it would really scare me. I can't imagine what that wife is going through now with all of the "if onlys." My heart goes out to her. I wonder if that was their only child.
 
When there isn't an a motive to something so horrendous it's easy to pinpoint mental illness to explain why. Often, digging deeper, there are other factors involved that will come out, or may not come out years later. This man may not realize why he killed his daughter, maybe he can't fathom it since he is in denial and the only way he can deal is with these crazy scenarios in his head.
If he stopped taking his meds when he met his wife, that was what around 8 years ago? To not show any symptoms for years off meds? Maybe his first incident was an isolated psychotic break due to drugs. You would think the wife would have picked up on some warning signs. I think she was aware of his mental health history, from what i read she seemed to be. If she herself was in denial and wanted him to be better so bad, would she also be in denial of paying attention to him showing symptoms? He was, after he butchered his daughter, able to drive and go to an airport, to fly across the country, without alerting any "red flags" and if he were acting the least bit strange, for sure someone would have noticed, especially on an airplane, where people get paranoid of terrorists. Wasn't there a case in the past of a mentally ill man being kicked off an airplane for odd behavior?
 
Perhaps you and I would not leave our daughter with a well trusted spouse who claims the apocalypse was coming, but perhaps these pronouncements were par for the course with this tortured soul...I disagree that there is something fishy; I bet this was another case of lower/middle income folks who needed the money and too many sick days translates to loss of job or loss of money...and perhaps mom had heard this one too many times to give it any more weight this time than any other. She is a victim many times over since the guilt of this day will stay with her and torture her forever. At least it would me....talk about "what if's."
 
If she really knew what would happen, she would have never left her daughter there, she would have had to check the husband in.. she has to live with the what ifs and that is horrible.
If they were par for the course, she should have got him treatment, help. He quit his job and was spending the day with his daughter..
What triggered him to kill his daughter? If it he had started drugs again, then i could see that leading up to a psychotic break.
 
Perhaps he was simply saving her from the apocalypse...this was clearly a notion that had burrowed deep into his mind...It might have been his trigger previously for anti-social behavior...or an indication that he was slipping into psychosis.
 
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