David Zentz, AP
The current economic crisis has brought with it a national foreclosure rate that's risen 67 percent from last year, skyrocketing unemployment and a plummeting stock market. But the latest and most appalling consequence of the recession may be the potential for an increase in murder-suicides. In the past year, Southern California has been plagued by five separate incidents of homicide followed by suicide, including the Lupoe family mass murder and suicide. A vigil at their home is pictured, left. As the economic strain continues to push families to the brink of depression and desperation, these horrific tragedies may just be "the tip of the iceberg," says University of Buffalo sociologist, Sampson Blair, Ph.D.
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Family Murder-Suicide
A disturbing trend
A particularly horrific case of murder-suicide in Wilmington, Calif., occurred when 40-year-old Ervin Lepoe (pictured left) killed his wife and five children in the early morning of January 27, 2009, before taking his own life. A history of bankruptcy and financial troubles had reached a tipping point when Lepoe and his wife both lost their jobs in December. They planned to relocate to Kansas to be closer to family, before a bounced check to the Internal Revenue Service may have pushed Lepoe over the edge. Lepoe's suicide note read, "…we have no job and five children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are."
"There's almost always some precipitating episode -- some catalyst, some triggering events -- that precede the massacre," says Jack Levin, Ph.D., criminologist at Northeastern University and author of "Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder." "It's almost always from the point of a killer a catastrophic loss."
A particularly horrific case of murder-suicide in Wilmington, Calif., occurred when 40-year-old Ervin Lepoe (pictured left) killed his wife and five children in the early morning of January 27, 2009, before taking his own life. A history of bankruptcy and financial troubles had reached a tipping point when Lepoe and his wife both lost their jobs in December. They planned to relocate to Kansas to be closer to family, before a bounced check to the Internal Revenue Service may have pushed Lepoe over the edge. Lepoe's suicide note read, "…we have no job and five children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are."
"There's almost always some precipitating episode -- some catalyst, some triggering events -- that precede the massacre," says Jack Levin, Ph.D., criminologist at Northeastern University and author of "Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder." "It's almost always from the point of a killer a catastrophic loss."
AP
What Drives People To Kill Their Families
By Ashley Neglia
The current economic crisis has brought with it a national foreclosure rate that's risen 67 percent from last year, skyrocketing unemployment rates and a plummeting stock market. But the latest and most appalling consequence of the recession may be the potential for an increase in murder-suicides. In the past year alone, Southern California has been plagued by five separate incidents of homicide followed by suicide, such as the Lupoe family mass murder and suicide. Most recently 28-year-old Michael McLendon went on a murderous rampage in Alabama, killing 10 people, including five relatives, before committing suicide. As the economic strain continues to push families to the brink of depression and desperation, these horrific tragedies may just be "the tip of the iceberg," according to University of Buffalo sociologist, Sampson Blair, Ph.D.
AP
What is a family annihilator?
"A family annihilator is someone who kills most if not all family members either through a lust for revenge or a perverted sense of altruism," says Jack Levin, Ph.D., criminologist at Northeastern University and author of "Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder." Thirty percent -- the majority of mass killings -- occur in the family, followed by the workplace and then school, says Levin. In 2006, the Washington, D.C.-based Violence Policy Center released a study that revealed that more than 10 murder-suicides occur in the United States each week. Ninety-four percent of offenders were male who murdered not only their spouses or girlfriends and children, but also other family members, before killing themselves.
Photodisc
A disturbing trend
A particularly horrific case of murder-suicide in Wilmington, Calif., occurred when Ervin Lepoe, 40, killed his wife and five children in the early morning of January 27, 2009, before taking his own life. A history of bankruptcy and financial troubles had reached a tipping point when Lepoe and his wife both lost their jobs in December. They planned to relocate to Kansas to be closer to family, before a bounced check to the Internal Revenue Service may have pushed Lepoe over the edge. Lepoe's suicide note read, "…we have no job and five children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are."
In a similar California-based incident, after being unable to find work, Karthik Rajaram, 45, shot his mother-in-law, wife and three children before killing himself in October 2008. And in Iowa, Steven Sueppel, 42, a banker facing embezzlement and money laundering charges, murdered his wife and four young children before killing himself in March 2008. "There's almost always some precipitating episode -- some catalyst, some triggering events -- that precede the massacre," says Levin. "It's almost always from the point of a killer a catastrophic loss."
Steve Pope, AP
Is the economy to blame?
A 2003 study from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing found that unemployment is the single strongest predictor in cases where men murder their wives and increases the risk of femicide -- the killing of women -- fourfold. "Family annihilator syndrome is very often associated with economic problems," says Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center. "It coincides with a reduction of services that are available to people to cope. As they run out of unemployment benefits or they don't have food banks, all those things could coincide to obviously make people more desperate and more likely to act on these urges."
PictureQuest
Over the edge
Murder-suicides sometimes occur when a man -- as the sole breadwinner for his family -- loses his job or faces certain financial ruin. "He feels responsible for the wellbeing of his wife and children and decides that they would all be better off reunited in the hereafter," says Levin. "There's a misguided sense of altruism."
Veer
Misguided altruism
In response to this type of murder, neighbors and surviving family members are typically shocked by the unforeseen tragedy and describe the killer as a dedicated father and devoted husband. "That is precisely the reason why he kills or eliminates the family unit," says Levin. "He feels personally responsible for their wellbeing and feels he has to do something about their happiness … this life is so miserable on earth that they're better off dead."
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Revenge
"The majority of murder-suicides are committed by husbands and fathers who seek revenge. They blame their wives for all of their personal miseries," says Levin. Typically, the catalyst for this extreme and violent reaction is a particularly nasty separation, divorce or custody battle. "They consider their spouse to be evil. She's to blame for all of his problems, and he decides to get even by killing the family unit," says Levin. In order to destroy everything his wife loved and everything that he identified with her, a family annihilator will not only take the life of his wife but their children as well, he says.
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Frustrated and depressed
Men who commit suicide after committing homicide are typically middle-aged and suffer from years of chronic frustration and depression. Steven Stack, Ph.D., sociologist at Wayne State University, notes a particular study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry that found that 75 percent of offenders were depressed in comparison to zero in the non-homicidal group. "It takes decades of accumulated miseries to get a guy to the point where he wants to kill," says Levin. "At the very time in his life where he feels he should be reaching the pinnacle of success, he loses his job, is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and he feels he's sliding backward fast."
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Externalization of responsibility
"If he only blames everything on himself, he would commit suicide," says Levin. "Instead, he blames everybody but himself. It's his wife. It's his boss. It's his co-workers. It's society at large." During McLendon's killing spree, not only did he shoot and kill five family members but also took the lives of five others whom he didn't even know, before killing himself. "Most of these guys who commit family annihilations are on a suicidal rampage," says Levin. "They really want to kill themselves, but first they want to take out everybody they feel is responsible for their problems."
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Social isolation
Social isolation combined with a calamitous event is often evident in those who commit suicide and homicide. "He has no place to turn when he gets in trouble," says Levin. Not only do they not have family and friends around for support, but they also do not take any help from anyone, he adds.
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