<p>^^^ I would believe that.</p>
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<p>I think that most of us could work our way into a frenzy imagining what would happen if our children were orphaned and destitute…the conclusion MOST of us would reach would be “then I’d better not kill myself” rather than “then I’d better kill her, too.”</p>
<p>She seemed to be “saving” her daughter from the embarrassment of financial ruin and finding out her mother hadn’t really filed her college apps for her.</p>
<p>Just…Wow.</p>
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<p>^^^^^^^No doubt.</p>
<p>I think the heading for this thread is not fitting. I don’t think it was empty nest syndrome but mental illness and/or breakdown.</p>
<p>"I think that most of us could work our way into a frenzy imagining what would happen if our children were orphaned and destitute…the conclusion MOST of us would reach would be “then I’d better not kill myself” rather than “then I’d better kill her, too.” "</p>
<p>True. That’s because most of us are not seriously mentally ill like that unfortunate mother was.</p>
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<p>I am the OP and live a stone’s throw from Coppell. We heard about the story here from the get go. Before all the details were known, the early reports lent credence to the POSSIBILITY that the mother, having suffered the loss of her husband, couldn’t take the additional loss of the daughter going off to college. Hence, in the title of the thread, I stated “possible explanation.” It wasn’t until later that the reports of the possible mayoral credit card abuse and financial problems began to come to the fore.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, given the mother’s obvious instability, I’m still not sure the possibility of facing life and public scrutiny alone (as a result of daughter going off to college and moving on with life) still didn’t play into her thinking. I think rather than one issue determining her course of action, it was the overwhelming accumulation of negative events that caused her breakdown.</p>
<p>I noticed that in one of Peters’ notes she directed that the dogs be placed together or, if not, that they be “put down.” </p>
<p>Seems very similar to what Peters did once the time came when her daughter would be leaving–rather than accept the separation she put herself and her daughter down.</p>
<p>"Seems very similar to what Peters did once the time came when her daughter would be leaving–rather than accept the separation she put herself and her daughter down. "</p>
<p>There wasn’t going to be any separation. The daughter had not applied to any colleges.</p>
<p>I believe that the mother knew she would kill herself, and felt that the grief of handling her mother’s death would be horrendously difficult for her daughter to bear. Consequently, the mother did what the mother – in her delusional state – thought was a kindness: Killed her daughter.</p>
<p>The mother then did what she could – returned the rental car, put the note on the door, and maybe even cleaned the house – to keep the deaths from inconveniencing other people.</p>
<p>If the mother had realized how sick and depressed she was, she probably would have gotten help. She thought that what she was imaging was true, and her actions were a kindness.</p>
<p>I think you are right NSM. From everything we know about the mom, she was fundamentally a kind and loving person- whose judgement then went terribly awry because of the mental illness. </p>
<p>Eternal rest grant unto them, and let perpetual light shine upon them.</p>
<p>I can’t help but wonder if the mother had planned this for quite a while - years perhaps?</p>
<p>She lead the daughter to think the UT application was submitted and she was accepted- that only makes sense if she didn’t plan for the daughter to live long enough to find out that the application was never submitted. She rented a car and told her daughter it was a gift? Again, perhaps figuring, “Well she might as well be happy for a few weeks because they are the last few weeks she’ll have.”</p>
<p>I think mom couldn’t bear the thought of their lives changing after the husband died. She did what she thought she had to do to keep up the appearance that everything was fine, for as long as she could - and when it was clear the house of cards was about to fall, she ended her daughter’s life and her own, on her own terms. In the mean time, she tried to make the daughter happy by telling her she’d been accepted to what was apparently her dream school, “buying” her a car, etc.</p>
<p>In its own twisted way, it makes sense - from mom’s demented point of view. I’m sure the daughter would have thought otherwise.</p>
<p>Again, I can’t help but think that a sufficient life insurance policy, purchased by the H before he became ill, might have lead to a very different ending. Not blaming him for his wife’s inexcusable crime, but a warning to others - buy life insurance before you need it.</p>
<p>^^^When two people start a family, I believe it is their immediate responsibility to purchase sufficient life insurance. You have to have it to buy a car, to purchase a house. It’s true that not everyone who is left destitute when the primary income is cut off commits murder/suicide, but that doesn’t change the fact that in this situation, there may indeed have been a different outcome if Corinne’s college education had been assured and at least the house paid off.</p>
<p>I’ll just say that whoever decided to have the memorial service very quickly was very wise. The two were found on Tuesday night, the public found out on Wednesday morning and the service was held Friday afternoon. Since then, many many shoes have dropped…we first thought depression, empty nest, maybe the mom had cancer, enormous grief over the death of the husband. By the time of the service, news of some financial issues was leaking out. </p>
<p>But with the degree of deception perpetrated by the mother, the illegal credit card use, the killing her D a day before her own suicide, the mom is coming off as a calculating (probably albeit mentally ill) murderer. The public sentiment on Friday afternoon was so much kinder toward the mom than it is now. With everything that is known now, it would have been hard to have held a joint service for the two this week. (In the case of the murder suicide that happened with members of my church, the kids had a lovely, heartbreaking, well attended memorial service at our church and the mom had a “private burial.”)</p>
<p>"But with the degree of deception perpetrated by the mother, the illegal credit card use, the killing her D a day before her own suicide, the mom is coming off as a calculating (probably albeit mentally ill) murderer. "</p>
<p>Many people don’t realize that mentally ill people can be very calculating. One can be delusional while still being very organized and intelligent.</p>
<p>The mother also was 55. I wonder how much the mood swings of menopause also contributed to her actions. She was a mayor, had severe financial problems, was a single parent raising a teen, and was grieving a husband who died after an illness – add menopausal swings to that and that may have pushed her completely off the deep end.</p>
<p>Today’s local paper also indicates that Peters had a $1600 car rental with Enterprise from June and the car the daughter had been driving was from Avis. </p>
<p>missypie–Peters wrapped her daughter’s head in a towel after she shot her and left her in the laundry room. </p>
<p>If Peters had botched the suicide, in a prosecution for murder these acts–the towel, the note saying “be warned” that there is something horrible inside, the delay between the killing and the suicide attempt would all be argued as evidence of consciousness of the wrongness of Peters’ conduct.</p>
<p>I disagree that there wasn’t going to be a separation since there was no college acceptance. Once the daughter became aware of the deception, Peters was at real risk that would have been a deal breaker. Apparently there were other family members in Ohio to whom the girl might have turned and I know of several upper middle class HS grads who went off on their own when they got lied to and dumped on by their parents after graduation.</p>
<p>Oh, this morning’s paper also reports a Mesquite Texas murder suicide, but spouse on spouse AND a Dallas area mom killed one child and the other child is close to death. No suicide attempt and mom did it by strangulation with a wire. Nice. So, are these murders or just crazy people?</p>
<p>NSM–the paper listed the 6 other moms in the Dallas area who killed their kids (and didn’t attempt suicide). I seem to recall that all were either in their 30s or early to mid-40s. Menopause?</p>
<p>Seeing how this is a college board and many of us are in the college application frame of mind, that’s still one of the parts I just can’t get my head around. On the Class of '11 board, folks are visiting schools and many are bugging their kids to get started on their essays. Most '11 families aren’t that on the ball, but as December 31 approaches, thoughts will turn to college applications. </p>
<p>At what point last fall did the mom decide that since she didn’t have the money to send her D to college, she would lie about handling the applications instead of telling her (1) she’ll have to go to community college, (2) she’ll be on her own to pay/take on debt, (3)they’ll fill out a FAFSA and see what happens, or (4) she can’t go to college at all. To think that the college lie started maybe last October or November and the mom has lived though all the senior milestones, knowing that on some date she’d be found out…that is quite a trap to build for yourself.</p>
<p>"NSM–the paper listed the 6 other moms in the Dallas area who killed their kids (and didn’t attempt suicide). I seem to recall that all were either in their 30s or early to mid-40s. Menopause? "</p>
<p>Obviously, not every mother who kills her child is menopausal. Some people who kill their kids are psychopaths who have been abusing their kids for years. There’s no evidence this was the case in this situation.</p>
<p>I wasn’t excusing the mothers’ behavior, but was providing more information supporting the idea that she could have been a loving mom whose behavior radically changed due to mental illness caused by a variety of things in her life. </p>
<p>“Apparently there was other family members in Ohio where the girl might have turned and I know of several upper middle class HS grads who went off on their own when they got lied to and dumped on by their parents after graduation.”</p>
<p>Who knows what the daughter would have done? Perhaps if she had turned to family members, they would have realized that the mother was mentally ill, and they would have gotten the mother help.</p>
<p>And, who knows what the mother might have told the daughter? She might have said something like, “We have no money, so you’ll have to delay college for a year.” She even might have said, “I have a serious illness, and will need your help at home.” </p>
<p>"Peters wrapped her daughter’s head in a towel after she shot her and left her in the laundry room. "</p>
<p>Exactly what I would have imagined she’d do. She was thoughtfully trying to make it easy for others to clean up. I would bet money that she also thoroughly cleaned the house. </p>
<p>She was too ill to realize what a mess she was psychically leaving her friends and family and others who knew her or who had to come to the scene.</p>
<p>"t what point last fall did the mom decide that since she didn’t have the money to send her D to college, she would lie about handling the applications instead of telling her (1) she’ll have to go to community college, (2) she’ll be on her own to pay/take on debt, (3)they’ll fill out a FAFSA and see what happens, or (4) she can’t go to college at all. To think that the college lie started maybe last October or November and the mom has lived though all the senior milestones, knowing that on some date she’d be found out…that is quite a trap to build for yourself. "</p>
<p>Her actions remind me of those of the young man I know who told his parents he was applying to a variety of colleges, and it wasn’t until April that he revealed that he hadn’t applied anywhere.</p>
<p>And then, there’s the true story of the rejected Stanford applicant who managed to get into a dorm and live there for a while after telling her family and friends and students at Stanford that she had been accepted there.</p>
<p>I think there has been at least one letter to the editor of the local paper talking about the of sexism of perception when a mother kills a child vs. when a father does. I admit that I am guilty of it. </p>
<p>I had tremendous sympathy for Andrea Yates because she was known to be mentally ill, was in “treatment” of sorts, her husband still left her alone all day with all those kids and then she killed them. But not long afterwards there was a local dad who killed his daughter after a long crazy phone rant to his ex, and I had no sympathy, just thought “terrible murderer.” We do tend to think that moms who kill their kids are mentally ill, while dads who kill their kids -not so much.</p>
<p>^ agree Missypie. and imho it is that sympathy that has us then label this case one of assumed mental illness, implying she was not responsible for her behavior, where we might label another “terrible murderer”. now clearly the majority of suicides are the result of clinical depression, no question about it and she very well may have been clinically depressed. however, stating she was “mentally ill, depressed, or delusional” because she shot her daughter to death, remains an assumption. we have no knowledge of her being delusional. sadly as other posters have said, we will likely never know… but I do not see evidence that this young woman wanted to die, and while the mother may have believed she was “saving her” were she delusional, we have no evidence of that either. I also find it sad that when she asked to borrow the other mayor’s gun he simply provided it. I do not fault him for how she then used it, but I personally find that strange that he didn’t well, find her request strange. </p>
<p>may they both rest in peace…</p>