Great idea's and discussions everyone. On the staging his disappearance and being picked up by a commercial vessel thoughts..... If DK's hospitalization was more along the lines of non conformist, it's possible he met other patients with the same mind set near the same age. It would be interesting to know if he maintained contact with any after being discharged and who they were.
IIRC his disappearance was 3-4 months after his hospitalization, which I recall being mentioned as only earlier in the school year. I guessed that to be Sept/Oct but it could have been any time before the Christmas holiday break.
I also want to add that IF Dermot was hospitalized or an in-patient for "non-conforming" behavior problems, something tells me that in his mind, that was 'The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back." He was smart enough to know that going for this type of treatment was cruel and inhumane. Something tells me that if Dermot was "treated?" in this way, is was totally the father's insistence, and for Dermot, he felt that the conflicts that he experienced were not only at home and at school in relation to the type of life HE wanted to lead. I think he felt there's just no way in hell that his family life, which he probably perceived as a , is going to get any better. What changed for the worse, as far as Dermot was concerned, was the outside forces of everyone at home, school, and if Dermot was treated for non-conformity, the medical practitioners, agreeing with the parents.
It would be interesting to note why Dermot picked that day, January 30, 1972, and time, between 1:15-1:30pm to leave. My guess is that he began planning this at the hospital, IF he was there for "Conforming Therapy." Even if he wasn't there for that type of treatment, I don't think he would want to do it around Thanksgiving or Christmas, because relatives would be around, and a lot of questions would be asked, and Dermot may not have wanted a lot of questions asked. I think that he may have felt very guilty, like he was the "Back Sheep of the family." And something tells me that in the Kelly family, they created a "Norman Rockwell" portrait for the relatives around the holidays, where as I posted before, the real truth of the conflict in the family was behind closed doors. Dermot knew damn well that the family would be able to "mask" the holidays." However, I think maybe he thought "masked" happiness, might have been better than the struggles in his daily life.
I believe that a very important reason why he left was to save his family from shame as much as possible, but also to get some peace and tranquility in his own life. Leaving the family was almost not an option for Dermot, it was a requirement for him to get any chance of peace and happiness.
Even if Dermot was NOT hospitalized for conforming issues, most anything else, such as a physical ailment would be something that he could recover from. If conformity was the name of the game for the parents, school, and the hospital treatments, it's really hard to see what else Dermot could have done to gain a better life for himself in that type of environment. And if the reports of abuse in the marriage and the father being hot-tempered are true, this kind and considerate young man, looking for belonging, empathy, and love for a value system that was closer to his own, knew that for too many times in that home their was anxiety, fear, and pain. Both emotional and possible physical abuse.
And for Dermot, he may have even had moments of outward anger, even though most of his rebellion I believe was inner. However, even if he kept all of his feelings inside of him, I think his insides probably shook so much that emotionally he could have become terrified by staying in that home. Maybe in hindsight, he did the right thing by leaving. Sadly, to not know where he is, that is the most painful for so many of us. Those studying the case, the family members, and of course Dermot himself! All these ideas and issues are very important.
I think if Dermot is still out there and knew about the care and concern for his case here at WS, he would be very grateful for our help! He might even say if he had a sense of humor, "Thanks all, there's more concern for me in the pages of this thread than in the almost seventeen years I lived at home."
For you math guys out there, if the air temperature was 12 above zero the day Dermot disappeared, what would be the approximate temperature of the water in the Vermillion River? How long could a person survive in it given that air temperature?
I have moved up the hypothermia/drowning percentage in terms of what happened to Dermot to:
40% hypothermia/drowning
35% left successfully to start new life
25% suicide
Satch