I saw the Oprah show yesterday about this case. Oprah had the wife on and interviewed Crespi from prison. She asked him many questions in what I thought was an attempt to get him to honestly step up to what he's done, which he really doesn't seem to do, imo. He repeats the canned lines he has re: his mental illness which was said to be depression, and is very evasive about things like "Why didn't you get help when you kept having thoughts about killing your family?" At first he said "Because it wasn't real, I didn't think I would actually do it," but Oprah stuck with it and he finally (sort of) admitted that it was partially because he knew if he revealed those thoughts people would think he was "crazy" or "take his kids away." This shows he knew right from wrong, in my book, and made choices.
The wife was forgiving, still visits him, still says they have a "great marriage, though different now that he's imprisoned," and defers to his mental illness whenever explaining the killings. The expert on the show mentioned that the father had already "disconnected" with the girls when he killed them and in some ways I think the wife has now done that too. She got teary eyed when remembering them in various spots in the house (like their room and where they were stabbed, etc.) but other than that she talked very little about them or what they must have gone through. It was all about this "dark" place the depression had driven her husband to, and how she has chosen to stick with him now. Considering that they were well-educated and had many resources, I find the case just tragic. How could he have thoughts of killing his kids and not tell his therapist and wife, if he was really serious about getting better and cared about them? Also, how often does depression lead to homicide? To me, the things he said were so lame. He said when the girls asked him to play hide and seek that day he thought it was a sign that he should kill them. This is depression? It sounds more like a psychosis of some sort. Anybody else see it?
Eve