UnicornTears
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I'm sorry to hear that.
It's true that crimes of any kind, especially homicide, committed by those diagnosed with one form of ASD or another, are, statistically speaking, extremely rare. Several factors in this case are atypical though—not the least of which is that this was a brutal murder committed by a female under the age of 18, yet such crimes are disturbingly on the rise; that strangulation was part of, if not the CoD is even more so atypical.
I have a hunch that as this case further develops, the unusual nature of it all may not stop with just those facts.
ASD itself is remarkable in it's phenotypic plasticity, which is why it's a "spectrum" in that it doesn't necessarily follow a predictable continuum. In this article, originally posted on the Clinical Psychiatry News website, Madelon Baranoski, Ph.D., of the department of psychiatry at Yale University, New Haven, Conn. says, "if you have seen one person with Asperger's, you've seen one person with Asperger's" meaning that every case is different, and sometimes significantly so. The whole article is here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4345/is_4_37/ai_n31616395/. Mild forms of ASD don't—as far as I'm aware—preclude or prohibit a person from having friends; it's just that because of the nature of the syndrome, social skills are interfered with to such a degree that maintaining friendships can be difficult or impossible in some cases. The degree of social-disability fall along a quite broad spectrum from one end of it—a near complete inability to relate socially, to the other end—where it's difficult for all but specialists in Autism to detect; if AB were any of those degrees it would be the latter. JMO.
Thinking of some of the more well known characteristics of ASD—like the difficulty they have behaving appropriately in social situations—it reminded me of how one of AB's close relatives had remarked on their Myspace page that AB "thinks everything is hers", in reference to an incident when AB had taken this persons prom dress without permission, and was walking around the house wearing it.
Another argument that could lend support to the theory of ASD-like symptomology in her would be the fact that AB repetitively cut herself, was preoccupied with people getting hurt, and ultimately acted upon a growing fixation of experiencing the act of killing—as evidenced by the methodical digging of graves, the stalking, murder and burying of EO. While those facts in themselves are indicative of pre-meditative homicidal intent stemming from some other form of psychopathology, they could also correlate closely with the observed characteristics of ASD, IMO. But as I said before I'm not an expert. These are just my opinions.
The only part of that behavior that is atypical of ASD, IMO, would be violence as the focus of repetition and fixation. The repetitive behaviors are still there, the prolonged fixation on a single subject is there, as is the inappropriate social behavior. Those are just things we know. Who knows what else might support that theory.
Hypothetically speaking and IMO, if AB is ASD to some degree, that might also explain why, rather than a safer SSRI, she'd been prescribed Prozac—because of it's ability to quell repetitive behaviors. If she was on the mild side of the spectrum, it might be difficult for anyone but a specialist in Autism to tell the difference between her and many of her other peers. As smart as she apparently is—someone even called her "gifted"—it's possible she might be able to hide what would otherwise have been some of the more overt signs of the disorder from professionals.
It's understandable why at AB's age it might be difficult to make such a diagnosis; at a time in her life when a good deal of her peers are exhibiting signs of sometimes marked emotional instability, depression, angst, social-awkwardness, and doing and saying inappropriate things. If you look at some of these kids Myspace pages, there's a wealth of examples that would disturb and shock you probably even more than the things that AB had posted on hers.
Granted, if this rumor ended up being substantiated, it would be highly unusual. But as you no doubt are aware, there are many things that the psychiatric community does not know about ASD. And when it comes to assessing what types of criminal behavior people suffering from this disorder might exhibit, the data there is all but non-existent. Psychiatry in general can hardly be considered an exact science especially when dealing with Autism Spectrum; what works for one patient may not work for another, as is the case with many other disorders. Handling a case involving these kinds of issues, one can see how legal council would be having a very hard time figuring out how to proceed.
Also, it was never my intention of proving AB has Asperger's syndrome or any other ASD. This was just a hypothetical I posed based on the existence of a comment someone who claimed to be a close friend of AB's had made about her being Autistic. It seemed so odd to me that of all the things someone could or would want to fabricate, AB having an ASD was highly unlikely to be one of them without it having some basis in fact. That's why I started thinking about how, in the event the rumor is ever substantiated, it might potentially relate to the case.
Finally, I'm by no means excusing what AB did. Even if she was proven to have this disorder, it would rightfully warrant her being institutionalized for the rest of her life, or at least until such time as it could be safely determined that she was no longer a threat to society, if such a time could ever be determined. And I assure you, the fact that Elizabeth is no longer with us has not been lost on me. It's hard to come across pictures of her without thinking how horrible all this is, and how sad EO's friends and family must be at this time of year with Christmas coming up to not have her with them to celebrate. The thought that there will be a stocking missing and a spot under the tree that would have been hers literally tears me up inside. But for me that's exactly the reason I need to make sense of this and so EO doesn't just disappear from our minds as a statistic.
