Cops: Ohio family dead in likely murder-suicide.

Source: AP/MSNBC

Investigators say father's recent job loss may have been a factor in deaths.

Whitehall police did not say how the man, woman and children, ages 8 and 5, died and did not release their names. The children were home from school Wednesday for a snow day.

The deaths have "the markings of a murder-suicide" in a low-crime area to the northwest of Columbus, Sgt. Daniel Kelso said.
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A neighbor said the father recently lost his job, something that may have been a factor in the deaths, investigators said.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28907442/

There are situations in which suicide is a viable option for an individual, but there is never any reason to take your family with you.

Somehow, I'd feel a hell of a lot less disgust for that...

:hi:

. .. .there is usually horrendous outrage. Remember Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in the bathtub? There's a whole mental block against the idea of women killing children. We can't imagine what kind of "monster" would do this.

There is somewhat less moral outrage when it's a father who does the killing, especially in a case like this. Oh, still outrage and horror, but there's a less vicious attitude toward male killers in cases like this.

Now, I'm not criticizing that attitude. (Well, I am, but it's not the point of this post, as you'll understand, I hope, if you read to the end.) But one of the reasons women kill their children is that they feel they have lost control over their environment and -- regardless what they SAY is their motive -- they often react by taking control (as horrible as it is) over the one aspect of their life that they can, namely the children.

So when we express our own frustration that this particular man has taken this horrible action instead of taking his frustration out on those actually responsible for his predicament, perhaps we should look instead at how helpless he felt and how he probably believed he had no control over anything --- except over his, his children's, and his wife's lives.

I would venture to say that almost invariably, the ultimate motive comes down to control. When people feel they have lost all control over their lives, their fate, their fortunes, they do what they can, regardless how irrational it may seem to the rest of us, to restore some sense of control. and of course in the most tragic cases, the control results in the ending of lives.

More than likely, if given a choice between killing the executive responsible for his job loss or killing himself and his family, this guy would have chosen the former. He felt he no longer had control and was going to take back the only control he felt he had.


JMHO


Tansy Gold

Many, many things that people do are really due to the notion we all have that somehow we can control everything. Our society today gives us the illusion that we control so much when in reality we control so little. My parents always taught us that there is very little in life you have control over except for maybe your behavior. They also taught us that the best thing you can teach your children is to be flexible and roll with the punches. We would all be healthier emotionally if we'd let go of the pretense that we can control our lives and learn instead to be flexible when life doesn't go our way.

retain "power over" the rest of us.

Not only does education help add to our "flexibility," but it helps us to understand what issues we can control and which ones we can't. Education -- and not just "formal education" -- gives us options, choices, more venues for control. The authoritarians fear it: they do not want individuals to have that kind of control. Or indeed any kind of control. (The rightwing horror at the idea that women should have the ability to control their fertility is but one manifestation of this fear.)

There are, of course, those for whom "education" merely serves as reinforcement for their authoritarian/control attitudes. When/if we encounter these types, we are usually better off simply to walk away. There is little point in trying to reason with them. Their thought processes are controlled by their fear, and there is no "reasoning" with fear.


Tansy Gold

and yet they were able to impart some valuable qualities and lessons to their seven children. The most valuable lesson and the one drilled into our heads was to think for yourself and do not follow the crowd. They also believed that if you couldn't afford higher education, you had an obligation to educate yourself by reading everything you could get your hands on. They didn't believe in organized religion because they thought that it led to gullibility.

They were far from perfect parents but I am so glad I learned these lessons from them. I have never been a follower (but then again I'm a Leo).

And they expected us to go along with 'more of the same' tax cut proposal? Fuck them.

Four or five?

Like the guy above said, "why did he kill his family rather than the executives at his company".

If he kills himself and/or his wife...ok I could buy it, that the job loss drove him over the edge and he couldn't face the mountain of debt and was so stupid he didn't want his wife to have to deal with it either.

But, when you get fired and you kill your kids too...that just doesn't make a lick of sense. There must be much more to this story.

particularly some South Indians. When faced with disaster, the father (and a sometimes complicit mother) kill all the kids and take their own lives.

Even though the story doesn't mention it, I am afraid that these people were probably of Indian origin.

I wonder what's next.

Source: cnn



(CNN) -- A family of four has been found dead in a Whitehall, Ohio, home, in what's believed to be a murder-suicide, authorities said Thursday.
Whitehall police responded to a call around 2 p.m. Wednesday and found the bodies of Mark Meeks, 51; his wife, Jennifer Dallas-Meeks, 40; and children Jimmy, 5, and Abbigail, 8.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/29/ohio.family.dead/index.html

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yet another family murder/suicide. this is happening every day.

because they're all doing just fine.

for it to get so bad people would take their own lives and lives of others. just my opinion.

more of this as the economy worsens.