Recently in the news there has been a disturbing trend in the topics being brought to the public eye. For those who have not seen or read any news of late, there have been several stories of an alarming nature concerning crimes within families—not just crimes, but murder and mysterious “accidents.” After the first few incidents came to light, I asked myself just what has happened to our country, and ultimately, what the heck is wrong with people?
In regard to parents taking the lives of their own children, there are two recent stories that outraged me. The first involves a “suspicious” plane crash in which a father brought his eight-year-old daughter up with him in a small plane and then crashed it into his former mother-in-law’s house. Basically, this man put himself and his daughter in a plane, called the ex-wife and daughter’s mother in mid-flight, and then crashed into their house. I think “suspicious” plane crash is a bit of an understatement—perhaps the correct phrase would be “deliberate murder-suicide.” However, some special board needs about a year to investigate the situation before they can determine if the crash was intentional. This would be the most bizarre accident if it were one.
The other case took place not far from here in Springfield, Mass., which involved a man—estranged from his girlfriend and mother of his children—placing himself and two young children in a car. This vehicle was parked outside the girlfriend’s workplace, then an accelerant was used to burn the car and three bodies inside. Firefighters who were called to the scene reported that they could hear the young children screaming inside as they were being incinerated alive, and that the bodies were burned beyond recognition and were only assumed to be the man’s children.
For the two examples outlined above, my first question is what compels a person to kill, not only themselves but their loved ones, as well? And these aren’t even as simple as murder-suicide classifications; ultimately, one parent was using the children against the other parent, albeit for revenge, leverage, or whatnot. Let me make something perfectly clear: Do not have children unless you can handle the responsibility. If you do have children, they are not tools to be used to your advantage. What kind of irresponsible or mentally-disturbed person does it take to think that putting their own life and their children’s lives at stake is acceptable, regardless of their reasons for doing so? There are no tolerable excuses for such rash actions.
Some other cases have been brought up examining the relationships between spouses and how this could lead to murder. Of note, there was a man who confessed to killing his wife and dismembering her body. When he was captured by police, he gave a lengthy confession of how this horrific act was carried out and exactly where each body part could be located. Ironically, he reported his wife missing a few days after he committed the act. The only good part was that their two young children were out of the house and not harmed.
In general, I sometimes wonder what gets into people that could push them over the edge toward brutal crimes. Even more so, I cannot believe that someone could have a thought cross their mind involving harming themselves and loved ones or that they could seriously consider those actions and carry them out. It takes a great deal of responsibility to take care of one’s self, and having children or being in a committed relationship only adds to that, so perhaps people need to take a deep look inward and decide if those situations could work for them. When heated debates arise and inhumane decisions are made, people don’t understand that those actions affect a wide spectrum of people. Maybe for a change, these people could look at all the unfavorable family cases that do not lead to bodily harm and realize there are other options
