Thank you! I lurk more than post but upon seeing this linked on FB I just had to add my little essay. A lot of it can be corrobated by previous links to the drug as well as Wikipedia. I've recreationally used DXM in the same exact medication he took for the last ten years, on and off. I'm not proud but it did begin a passion for medicine and my studies as an adult now.
I finally listened to the audio and read the articles. He sounds genuinely shocked and saddened, but I'm having an issue here with his claims that "I took too much because I heard it makes you feel good and helps you/me(?) sleep at night."
He's taken it before. He likely has a tendency towards addiction to seek some kind of emotional high in an OTC medication. He's likely been treated and/or medicated in the past for insomnia, depression, or addiction- hence his emphasis on religion. But knowledge of DXM is very underground and not common like alcohol or weed. You have to happen upon it somehow; I was unfortunately introduced to it at 15 in Freshman year of high school by a fat senior kid who used it to incapacitate me before asking me out (moron).
So he intentionally overdosed but I still wonder with exactly how much and what else was in his system if anything? It's not the strangest thing for an active Christian to use substances, but why DXM- and TO SLEEP? LOL. I don't want to base my post on personal experience as I know it's a bit biased but I can't sleep for days on end after intentionally overdosing. Maybe he can, obviously he did at some point. Blacking out is standard and dependent on how much he took. I've had the dream effect of walking home late at night and being unable to walk very well to thinking I was in my bed asleep up until I reached my front door. It's scary stuff when the brain somehow separates one's consciousness like that and there's a good chance that is what happened here.
But I'm also skeptical about the 911 call. Again depending on how much he took and his emotional responses, I'm confused as to how he just immediately comes to his conclusion and confesses before becoming emotional and distraught over his wife's death. It was still fairly early and he's obviously still high with enough of it in his system to make me suspect of the sudden tears. Here's why:
DXM being a dissociative literally turns off your emotions. Period. The dream can easily have been a hallucination while he killed her, but I doubt he'd be capable of such a devastated emotional response until the next day or maybe even after. I specifically was drawn to DXM for this very mechanism of numbing my emotional state as a way to "cope", which works nicely at first until you either peak and reach psychosis or you come down into debilitating depression for days.
Or, you know, you wake up to having stabbed someone you love. That, I luckily I have zero experience in.
The antihistamine Chorph-something Maleate that accompanies DXM hBR in this exact brand of cold medicine makes me sleep for a day sometimes once I "come down" but it took 12-36 hours depending on how much and how frequent my dosing was. The weepy emotions don't hit me until Day 2 or 3 of detox, because I finally reconnect with normal levels of serotonin and anxiety/depression comes rushing back to my now sober state. This is all personal anecdote I realize but it makes me suspicious of his story, his alleged altered state, and then the emotional response in the 911 call that I doubt he would be capable of. I'd be more convinced if he acted monotone, robotic in unlocking the door, etc, even after discovering his dead wife's body and believing his dream pointed to him. Why?
Because that's what drugs do. They complete de-regulate our normal responses to positive or negative stimuli and this so far doesn't exactly match the typical mechanism of what DXM does. You don't sleep and you certainly cannot cry. But that's only been MY experience of ten years, anyone else could certainly respond differently when it comes to emotional stuff and drugs. I definitely haven't killed anyone in my escapades so there's that difference right there.
Ultimately, I'm saddened by this case on a personal level. Especially if he is being truthful. But I sense previous drug abuse in his past for having ANY knowledge of DXM "making you feel good". The lack of medical information on the long-term effects of abusing Coricidin is actually something that has hindered me from being able to find a licensed professional who is even REMOTELY familiar with DXM abuse. It is not physically addicting, it is cheap in the U.S. and very accessible over the counter. Other countries have way more awareness on this than we do in the US because some require a prescription for any DXM product purchase and some track how much you buy like they do with allergy med ingredient pseudoephedrine, a stimulant found in most methamphetamine recipes. We're so occupied with fentanyl/heroin crisis and marijuana (-_-) being legalized that DXM just gets swept under the rug until mass amounts of preteens are ill at school and dying from fractions of amounts I've taken and survived somehow.
That's also why I don't get how he's like ... okay? Was he triaged by ambulance and/or admitted to ER for intentional overdose? His pulse would likely be 100-140 bpm or his BP would be high enough for an automatic admission. It's happened to me many times in the past where EMT took my vitals and I instantly wheeled off in the dangers of impending seizure/CVA/cardiac arrest/coma/death.
Does anyone know when he was arrested versus when this happened to determine how long he was admitted/treated medically as an OD would automatically call for? Also I don't know NC legal process on 5150 or uk2000 laws we have in CA and NV where if intentional overdose is verbally admitted (which he did) or suspected, its instant psych ward custody for minimum 72 hours if ER doctor agrees to send him off. Which he'd likely be in legal custody of Psych ward then arrested, or perhaps vice versa.
I see a history of mental/emotional issues here (insomnia, depression), drug abuse (just KNOWING of DXM implies some sort of experience with substances and street knowledge), and a possible insanity or "I was blacked out on something" defense which won't bode well if prosecution finds family/friends/church testimony of Psych issues even if not exactly abusive to wife. It could go either way if he's being honest. Or he could face researched the ish out of this drug that is NOT a common thing to experiment or abuse, and come up with an instant alibi while playing out his role on 911 call as shocked, high, sleepy, hallucinating, and then crying husband of randomly dead wife who "didn't deserve this".
And she didn't. She really didn't. Whatever the cause of such a heinous attack, I'M shocked and saddened by this case that involves something that has ruined my life and then some. I've only been "clean" after a recent implosion of a DXM spiral for 5 days from this crap. This story solidifies my hatred for it and this is just a shocking reminder that the brain and all its functions, is NOT a toy. Neither is drugs.
So perp is either a complete idiot whose tragic decision to play with a rare OTC drug resulted in the premature death of his wife, or he's an evil SOB with underlying motive to fake being blacked out and sob on 911 after stabbing her to death.
I see a defensive wound on his nose and right corner of mouth. I think she tried to fight back. I think there's hidden parts of his past she was unaware. Only married for under a year, no known criminal history or domestic violence.
What a mess. Thank you for reading my way too long posts and welcoming me to WS. I'm starting to shake and tear up over all of this so I need a break. And this is after the Toybox and Toolbox Killers rabbit holes yesterday where I was pissed off but never about to be in tears after skimming THOSE insane, chilling crimes. Wow.
Feel free to ask me any questions about my experiences on this btw. I have a lot unfortunately but he could be lying or responded differently. I just don't know.
