Tweet
Analyst calls Florida mom's killings 'murder out of love'
By Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY Updated 6h 3m ago
It seems unthinkable: A mother shoots one of her children. What happens next is even more unfathomable — three children who fled the house came back home to their homicidal mother.
All of them paid the price with their lives.
The Florida case of Tonya Thomas, who fatally shot her four children this week, then killed herself, is a rare category of tragedy, experts say. The children, ages 17 to 12, were older than most who are murdered by a parent. Thomas also used a gun, a weapon more likely found in the hands of fathers who kill.
Perhaps the most improbable fact in the story is that three of the children ran to a neighbors' home only to return to danger moments later at Thomas' command, when she beckoned the children to come home, researchers said.
"She knew what was going to happen when those young ones came back inside, and she was comfortable with that decision," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a retired FBI profiler who worked on many cases of family killings. "She couldn't deal anymore, but she couldn't deal without having the people she loved the most with her."
Thomas of Port St. John, Fla., murdered her four children, Pebbles Johnson, 17, Jaxs Johnson, 15, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, and Joel Johnson, 12.
Her children's decision to return home most likely means they were used to seeing their mother act unstable and may have heard her threaten to kill them and herself several times before, O'Toole said.
"They didn't want their mom to be alone," she said. "There may have been some guilt, some loyalty and certainly fear there."
Each year, 250 to 350 children are murdered by parents, according to Phillip Resnick, a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who started studying "maternal filicide" in the late 1960s.
Resnick said Tuesday's shootings in Port St. John appear to be "altruistic" — where a mother believes death is in the child's best interest.
"It's a murder out of love rather than a murder out of hate," he said. "It becomes an extended suicide."
He added four other reasons a parent may kill their child: a fatal battering, a psychotic attack with no motive, an interest in "getting rid" of the kids and revenge on a spouse.
Michelle Oberman, co-author of two books on mothers who killed their children, also says Thomas falls in the loving category of murders.
Thomas reportedly sent a text to a friend around 3 a.m. saying she wanted to be cremated with her children. The friend did not receive the message until much later.
"It's too simple to say they are monsters who hate their babies," Oberman said. "These are moms who are desperate, who are sick. … [Thomas] loves her babies. She wants to be cremated with her babies."
However, the ages of Thomas' children set this case apart. "Andrea Yates could overpower her kids," she said. "These [Thomas'] kids are so old. It begs the question, what was going on over time in that house?"
A combination of mental health issues, societal stress and a lack of support often lead to such tragedies, Oberman said.
In the years since Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Melissa Drexler and Debora Green killed their children, experts have tried to understand how to prevent such killings. In many cases, mothers feel overwhelmed by their finances and the responsibilities of children, and they have no one to turn to, experts said.
Court records portray Thomas as a woman who struggled to control her 15-year-old son, Jaxs Johnson, including one incident in which she told police the boy kicked her and threw her to the floor after she tried to wake him for school. The teen was to appear in juvenile court on a battery charge in that case Tuesday morning but was shot to death hours before.
Family members described Thomas and her children as "tight knit" and said they were shocked by the violence. Neighbors said that the mom was having financial problems, that police had visited the home several times and that the family was disruptive.
"People knew there was trouble in that house," Oberman said. "The road to prevention is turning toward rather than away from those homes."
Thomas' case should motivate people to reach out to parents who may seem like they are struggling, said Cheryl Meyer, a psychology professor at Wright State University in Ohio and Oberman's co-author.
In such cases, a conversation with a neighbor or a call from a pastor could prevent such tragedies, she said.
"The greater tragedy is that they are preventable," Meyer said of such murders. "In all cases, there is a lack of social support."
Contributing: Susanne Cevenka, J.D. Gallop, Britt Kennerly and Scott Gunnerson of Florida Today
Video and Source:
By Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY Updated 6h 3m ago
It seems unthinkable: A mother shoots one of her children. What happens next is even more unfathomable — three children who fled the house came back home to their homicidal mother.
All of them paid the price with their lives.
The Florida case of Tonya Thomas, who fatally shot her four children this week, then killed herself, is a rare category of tragedy, experts say. The children, ages 17 to 12, were older than most who are murdered by a parent. Thomas also used a gun, a weapon more likely found in the hands of fathers who kill.
Perhaps the most improbable fact in the story is that three of the children ran to a neighbors' home only to return to danger moments later at Thomas' command, when she beckoned the children to come home, researchers said.
"She knew what was going to happen when those young ones came back inside, and she was comfortable with that decision," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a retired FBI profiler who worked on many cases of family killings. "She couldn't deal anymore, but she couldn't deal without having the people she loved the most with her."
Thomas of Port St. John, Fla., murdered her four children, Pebbles Johnson, 17, Jaxs Johnson, 15, Jazzlyn Johnson, 13, and Joel Johnson, 12.
Her children's decision to return home most likely means they were used to seeing their mother act unstable and may have heard her threaten to kill them and herself several times before, O'Toole said.
"They didn't want their mom to be alone," she said. "There may have been some guilt, some loyalty and certainly fear there."
Each year, 250 to 350 children are murdered by parents, according to Phillip Resnick, a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who started studying "maternal filicide" in the late 1960s.
Resnick said Tuesday's shootings in Port St. John appear to be "altruistic" — where a mother believes death is in the child's best interest.
"It's a murder out of love rather than a murder out of hate," he said. "It becomes an extended suicide."
He added four other reasons a parent may kill their child: a fatal battering, a psychotic attack with no motive, an interest in "getting rid" of the kids and revenge on a spouse.
Michelle Oberman, co-author of two books on mothers who killed their children, also says Thomas falls in the loving category of murders.
Thomas reportedly sent a text to a friend around 3 a.m. saying she wanted to be cremated with her children. The friend did not receive the message until much later.
"It's too simple to say they are monsters who hate their babies," Oberman said. "These are moms who are desperate, who are sick. … [Thomas] loves her babies. She wants to be cremated with her babies."
However, the ages of Thomas' children set this case apart. "Andrea Yates could overpower her kids," she said. "These [Thomas'] kids are so old. It begs the question, what was going on over time in that house?"
A combination of mental health issues, societal stress and a lack of support often lead to such tragedies, Oberman said.
In the years since Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Melissa Drexler and Debora Green killed their children, experts have tried to understand how to prevent such killings. In many cases, mothers feel overwhelmed by their finances and the responsibilities of children, and they have no one to turn to, experts said.
Court records portray Thomas as a woman who struggled to control her 15-year-old son, Jaxs Johnson, including one incident in which she told police the boy kicked her and threw her to the floor after she tried to wake him for school. The teen was to appear in juvenile court on a battery charge in that case Tuesday morning but was shot to death hours before.
Family members described Thomas and her children as "tight knit" and said they were shocked by the violence. Neighbors said that the mom was having financial problems, that police had visited the home several times and that the family was disruptive.
"People knew there was trouble in that house," Oberman said. "The road to prevention is turning toward rather than away from those homes."
Thomas' case should motivate people to reach out to parents who may seem like they are struggling, said Cheryl Meyer, a psychology professor at Wright State University in Ohio and Oberman's co-author.
In such cases, a conversation with a neighbor or a call from a pastor could prevent such tragedies, she said.
"The greater tragedy is that they are preventable," Meyer said of such murders. "In all cases, there is a lack of social support."
Contributing: Susanne Cevenka, J.D. Gallop, Britt Kennerly and Scott Gunnerson of Florida Today
Video and Source:
Comment