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By Jillian Jorgensen
jjorgensen@eagletribune.com
Last month in Lynnfield, a man shot and killed his pregnant girlfriend in a dispute over their baby's last name, before killing the woman's sister and then himself. A crime like that is always shocking — but similar tragedies seem to be happening more and more often these days.
In October 2009, Binh Vernet murdered his wife, Suzanne, in Londonderry. He was found a day later in the woods in southern Massachusetts, where he had hanged himself. Less than a month later in Derry, Claude Roberts, 76, shot his wife, Judith, 73, and then himself.
Not long after, in January, there was yet another murder-suicide in Londonderry. Michael McCartney, 49, shot his girlfriend Doreen Malek, 49, in the chest before taking his own life.
It's hard to say for sure if murder-suicides have spiked in recent years, said Ted Kirkpatrick, a criminologist and director of University of New Hampshire Justiceworks, a consortium that conducts research in justice studies. But he said people can't help but notice from reports in newspapers and on television that they seem to be occurring more frequently.
"The reasons for them vary," he said. "Every case is its own story."
Murder is rare, and so is suicide, Kirkpatrick said. Taken together, it becomes an act that requires the killer to "get to a point where they see it's not only a reasonable response to my circumstances to take my own life, (but) things are so bad that I'm going to take the wife, or my spouse, or my partner, or my children with me."
How a person gets there can differ, he said. They can want to end their lives and that of a loved one out of what seems to them an altruistic reasoning — that the world is so horrible or painful that their loved one shouldn't have to suffer it anymore. Or it can be out of anger, because of the feeling that the loved one is making their world miserable.
After the death of Suzanne Vernet in Londonderry, the New Hampshire attorney general released a report saying that the murder-suicide stemmed from a "domestic violence incident."
Binh and Suzanne Vernet were having marital troubles before their deaths, and though they were separated, the two continued to live in the same house on Fiddlers Ridge Road, according to the attorney general's report. Police arrived after one of the Vernet's four children, their 16-year-old daughter, called and said her mother had been injured and her father had left, carrying a knife and saying he was going to kill himself.
The couple's 13-year-old daughter told police she had heard her parents arguing behind closed doors and became so worried that she tried to get inside their bedroom. When she couldn't, she called her older sisters and asked them to get home, and together the three of them broke inside.
They found their mother gravely injured and bleeding heavily. They called 911, but Suzanne Vernet didn't survive the wounds that authorities say Binh Vernet caused with two dumbbells found in the bedroom, and a knife police later found by Vernet's body in the woods in Rehoboth.
Suzanne Vernet had called Londonderry police Oct. 15, about a week before her death, saying her husband had stolen her cell phone, was very controlling, and had assaulted her four months earlier. Her husband hired a lawyer, and police weren't able to interview him before the Oct. 21 killing. Police also discovered that Binh Vernet had hired a private investigator to find out if his wife was spending time with another man.
Helpless and hopeless
Suzanne Dubus, executive director of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in Newburyport, said when someone is "bound and determined to kill their partner no matter what happens," it is often retribution for the victim trying to assert his or her own desires or needs by leaving or changing the relationship. About 30 percent of domestic violence homicides end in suicide, she said.
"I really don't know what happens in those last minutes, but it feels to me that they've lost all control over their surroundings," Dubus said. "They don't know what else to do."
James McCarthy of North Andover lost his sister, Ellen (McCarthy) Abruzzese, to a murder-suicide in the suburbs of Richmond, Va. last year. He said it is frustrating to see other people fall victim to the same crime — often at the hands of a loved one.
Abruzzese, 42, was killed by her husband in April of 2009, before he turned the gun on himself.
"They are just locked in this helpless, hopeless situation," McCarthy said. "I think usually you're going to find that it comes down to a financial decision: 'Where am I going to go?' Especially if there are children involved, like with my sister."
Ellen Abruzzese's husband, William Abruzzese, 58, moved the Haverhill High graduate away from her family and took control over most aspects of her life. When a police officer who lived next door asked Ellen if she wanted to press charges against her husband in a previous instance, she declined. One of Ellen's children later told James McCarthy they had planned to come up to Massachusetts for a visit — but William stopped them.
"He put the stops on it, and you're not going," he said. "You're not leaving."
Ellen outlined her husband's abusive behavior in a letter she wrote a few years before her death, expressing her fear that he would one day kill her.
"If something happens to me within the next 7 days, please make sure you look into my death. My husband has threatened me with a gun on several occasions, even pointing it at me in front of our children," the letter began.
James McCarthy said horrific incidents like what happened to his sister raise awareness — but it doesn't always last.
"I think it's almost like 9/11. Everybody was nice right after it, after it all happened," he said. "Then they go back into this mode where they're back to where they used to be."
For the surviving family, including Ellen's three children, it is all still difficult to make sense of.
"It leaves you with so many unanswered questions," James McCarthy said. "I mean, it was a shock that the situation at home was as bad as it was, because Ellen never told us."
'It's not just one thing'
Brian McCarthy, clinical supervisor at the Center for Life Management in Derry, said murder-suicides often come down to resiliency and vulnerability factors.
"It's usually a constellation of factors that contribute to something like that," he said. "It's usually not just one thing."
Those factors can range from economic ones, like unemployment, to health problems. But when they keep coming and a person is unable to bounce back, "that then leaves them more prone to doing something extreme," McCarthy said.
Michael McCartney, who shot his girlfriend Doreen Malek in January and then killed himself with the same shotgun, left behind a note. He wrote that he was concerned over Malek's health problems, and an investigation found he had also been worried about financial issues, according to the attorney general's office. But nothing authorities found indicated Malek knew about or sanctioned McCartney's plan.
Claude Roberts was also concerned about medical problems when he shot his elderly wife last November before calling police to his 10 Shilah Drive home in Derry and then shooting himself. His wife, Judith, was dealing with several significant health problems, including dementia, and Claude was scheduled for surgery the day after the incident, authorities said. The couple were going to live with one of their daughters while he recovered.
CLM's Brian McCarthy said people should become concerned if someone has a change in mood or behavior, begins talking about death and suicide, withdraws from groups, or loses interest in what once engaged them. Isolating behavior and impulsive actions, or talk of being trapped without a solution can also be a sign someone is considering suicide or violence.
But Kirkpatrick, the UNH criminologist, said it's often difficult to tell when people are suffering enough that they might begin to think about harming themselves or someone else. And while stresses like medical issues and financial burdens can fuel these conflicts, not everyone who is ill or depressed or loses a job turns to violence. One thing that can help, he said, is a strong support network.
"You're definitely better off with stronger support structures — whether it's family, or your religion, or neighbors, or your extended family — than without them," he said. "That's a very powerful buffer."
RESOURCES
Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center 24-hour hotline: 978-388-1888
A Safe Place 24-hour New Hampshire hotline: 800-854-3552
National Hopeline Network: 1-800-SUICIDE
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
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