It is not that far fetched at all, unfortunately. After Jeffrey MacDonald, a so called "devoted and doting" father who had just gifted his precious little girls with Pony two month previous, murdered his wife and oldest daughter, hewent into the youngest daughters room, and stabbed her something like 45 times (sorry, don't have access to the precise number, suffice it to say it was excessive) with an ice pick in order to further his staging of an attack my crazed hippies (who apparently felt much more threatened by two baby girls than an able bodied young Marine).
Darlie Routier stabbed her two little boys repeatedly.
Susan Smith strapped her babies into the back seat of a car and drowned them (just imagine the time it took for the vehicle to go down, while their mommy stood and watched) because the guy she wanted to date didn't want kids. Even while she could have relinquished custody to the children's father instead of murdering them
Diane Downs looked her three babies in the eye and then shot them!
Those are a fraction the truly heinous cases that come to mind. Not one of those baby killers had a history of documented mental illness, violence or child abuse. Every single one of them had, at various times by various people, been
described at loving, wonderful parents.
I am not sure what it is you see in the Ramsey's that somehow sets them apart from these other cases? Patsy was so clearly a narcissist. Just like the way she kept her house, messy in the parts people didn't see, a showplace where they could, I believe she lived her life. The children were accessories.
Completely agree..no one ever knows what goes on behind another family's closed door.
I actually have a very good example, that hit very close to home, and next month will mark the 5th anniversary of the tradgedy.
For those members who live in the NY/Long Island area, this story will be familiar.
I live in a community that is very similar to the Rs lifestyle.
I knew this family in our community b/c my daughter was in the same grade as their youngest daughter. They were considered the perfect family. He was a successful real estate attorney, and coached his girls sports teams. The mom was a homemaker, who was active in the PTA, super involved with her girls and chaired several charities. Everyone knew them, and they were very well liked. My daughter used to have play dates with the one daughter when they were in kindergarten/1st grade.
5 years ago, we returned from a spring break vacation on a Sunday night. I kept my kids home the following Monday, b/c we got home late, and they both seemed to have caught colds while we were away. I was checking my email on that Monday, when an "important" notice email from the school district came in. It said, "due to the tragic death of the xxxxx family...." I couldn't understand what could have happened. Was it a car accident? A house fire? A plane crash? I couldn't think of anything else that could have wiped out the whole family, and started calling friends. The initial reports stated that while the parents and their 12 year old daughter were visiting their eldest daughter at college, the family was found dead in their hotel room. Rumors began that it was a possible murder(s)/suicide.
I knew I had to tell me own daughter b/c she would be returning to,school the next day. I didn't want her to go to school without knowing as this was a girl she knew very well. I called her downstairs, and said I have some bad news. I told her that the xxxx family had been found murdered. I was trying to be as tactful as possible, as I didn't have all the facts. She was very upset, and started asking questions. I said I didn't know what happened, just that they were found dead. She started freaking out, and crying, and said, "but mom, what if they come to our house?! What are we going to do? When will they catch these guys?"
It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to tell her, when I said, "the
police think that maybe the dad did it." Needless to say that caused even more crying, and questions.
I assumed that the father probably smothered, or possibly drugged his family before taking his own life.
I WAS WRONG....
This upstanding father, and husband had evidently gotten involved in some sort small-scale Ponzi scheme, and lost the family money, as well as the money of his friends and business associates. Why he felt the need to kill himself, and his wife and daughters will never be known or understood. But the violence, and calculation involved was frightening.
After going out to dinner as a family, their eldest returned to school, and the family returned to the hotel. That's when dear old dad went into action. The wife and 12 year old daughter were bludgeoned to death....BLUDGEONED TO DEATH!!!!
He then calls his older daughter, and says "you need to come back to the hotel." Using what excuse I've no idea. When she returns, she suffers the same fate. He "gently" lays all three down on the bed, walks across the street to a local store, buys a knife, and waits a couple of hours before using it to stab himself until he bled to death on the bathroom floor. They were found on Monday morning by the cleaning staff.
The vision that STILL haunts me is that K had to have witnessed her mother's murder. And how scared and sickened she must have felt when she knew her father was about to murder her in the same way.
Before he killed himself, the roommates of his oldest daughter called to ask if everything was ok, b/c they had expected her to have been back already. He calmly told them, "she won't be coming back." They assumed he meant she would be staying the night with her family. And I guess you could say she did.
I apologize for such a long post, but it illustrates, first hand, how these things can happen in a seemingly "normal, happy, loving" family. All b/c he was too ashamed to have everyone find out he lost his money, and the money of his friends. Looking back it's also interesting to me to remember my daughter's reaction.
In a way I think it was better that he did go though with killing himself. There was no "investigation." There was no denial by him that an intruder did it, or accusations that one of the people he cheated wanted to exact revenge, or even a BS story that he couldn't remember what happened b/c he was so traumatized. There was no trial, no drawn out media circus. It was simply over.
:crying:
, switched over here and been switching gears so fast I feel like that spun cat Bluebottle refers to. :crazy:
