Why Fathers Kill Their Families

Jan. 14, 2003 -- Like other families who have faced similar situations, the last thing Edward Morris' parents ever expected was that he would be accused of killing his own wife and children.

Authorities seemed to almost immediately suspect Morris when the bodies of his pregnant wife Renee and their three children, Bryant, Alexis and Jonathan, were found Dec. 21 in an Oregon forest, and Edward was nowhere to be found.

A two-week manhunt followed and ended Jan. 4 when two people spotted Morris driving his 1993 Dodge Caravan. He surrendered to police peacefully at a Baker City, Ore., drug store.

Morris' father — and his neighbors — were stunned that he could ever be suspected of killing his wife and children, describing him in reports as a devout Christian and a doting father.

Paul Morris has said that he finds it "incomprehensible" that his son could have committed the crimes he is accused of. There were no apparent signs of domestic discord, no known past threats or incidents that foreshadowed his family's slaying. There were only reports of some financial hardship, but many neighbors described Morris' wife and children as "well-cared for."

Unfortunately, in many cases where fathers kill their families, the slayings take everyone by surprise because, experts say, the warning signs either never surfaced — or were overlooked.

"What we've had is that many times, you'll see families and neighbors say, 'We're shocked. He was such a family man. He was so devoted to his family.' Many of them [fathers who kill their families] come off very well. They seem so normal," said Thomas Gitchoff, professor of criminal justice administration at San Diego State University. "It's the normalcy that's the confusing factor. … We're so used to the stereotype of these men looking scary and many of them look and appear so normal, like any common man."

‘Saving’ the Family From Humiliation

Experts say it is difficult to categorize fathers who commit "familicide" because the cases tend to be very individualized. However, two factors can fuel a father's slaying of his wife and children: financial difficulty and mounting pressure over the inability to support them and marital problems, combined with the feeling that he is losing control over his family.

"There are two types: Type 1 is the father who is an abusive or a controlling figure who feels some loss of control of his household and his family and feels that killing his family would be the ultimate expression of his control over them," said Keith Durkin, associate professor of sociology at Ohio Northern University. "Type 2 is seen in a 'reversal of fortune' situation. He may have started a business and the business may have started going sour recently. … He is a person who sees himself as saving his family from further disgrace and humiliation by killing them."

Financial hardship may have overwhelmed Christian Longo, the Oregon man awaiting trial for allegedly killing his wife and three children and leading the FBI on a two-week manhunt last year. In transcripts of his interrogation by detectives, Longo never admits killing his wife MaryJane, 35, and their children Zachery, 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2. But he tells investigators that they led a transient lifestyle, living from motel to motel on Ramen noodles and bread in the weeks before the slayings.

Longo said his family had been used to spending $200 on groceries and not thinking twice about it — after all, he had once operated a construction cleaning business in Michigan. However, his business went bankrupt and he reportedly owed at least $30,000 to his creditors.

By the time the family had moved to Oregon, Longo was wanted for forgery and passing bad checks. He told detectives that he was feeling the pressure of not being able to support his family.

"I was thinking that they were in that situation too long with me," Longo said in the interview. "That they deserved much better. I didn't know if I could give it to them."

The Domineering Controller

Many fathers who kill their families also tend to kill themselves. That was the case with Robert Bryant, who killed his wife and four children before shooting himself to death in their McMinnville, Ore., home last February. Bryant filed for bankruptcy in his landscaping business in California before moving his family to Oregon and looking for a new start. However, after finding initial success in his new roofing business, he seemed to crumble under the weight of financial woes and perceived failure as a family provider.

Familicide could also be rooted in domestic squabbles. Last month, Bayonne, N.J., police say, Willie Davis stabbed and slashed the throats of his 23-month-old daughter and his infant son. The mother, Melissa Mirlas, and Davis were having trouble in their relationship, and at the time of the slayings, Mirlas and the children were staying at her mother's place. Mirlas had often taken children and stayed with her mother when Davis drank heavily and physically abused her.

On Dec. 10, Mirlas was running errands when Davis picked up the children from her mother. She then went to Davis' place and made the gruesome discovery.

"For someone to do this kind of thing, you have to consider that they must be extremely mentally imbalanced. Whether it was self-induced through alcohol or drug use or severe mental depression, it's horrible," said Gitchoff. "The other angle to consider is when there is trouble in the marriage and the wife threatens to leave, and someone gets so jealous they figure, 'Well, if I can't have you, then no one will.'"

The Reality Behind the Illusion

Still, some experts believe that investigators cannot always trust what a familicide suspect says. They may be trying to lay the groundwork for their defense at trial.

"It's often very difficult to get to the truth in these kind of cases because the suspect could tell you anything as an excuse," said Pat Brown, criminal profiler and founder of the Sexual Homicide Exchange. "'Oh, I was having financial difficulty.' 'God told me to do it.' Or they can say they were hearing voices or the devil told me to do it. They say things to make them look nuts so that they can get the insanity defense."

Brown noted that despite shock expressed by families, friends and relatives, fathers who kill their families have problems before the slayings that they either hid very well or were ignored. Often, she said, they come off as devoted family men, but they are really living a lie. They secretly may not relish their family lifestyle, be disappointed in the way their lives have turned out and grow to see their wives and children as obstacles to goals and desires — and the reasons for setbacks.

"It goes to show that a guy can father a child, but that doesn't make him a father," Brown said. "But he comes off as cherishing his role because it makes him look good to others. Maybe he is frustrated with the way his life has turned out and instead of seeing his wife and children as the loving support group that they are, he grows to see them as a burden, the cause of his problems, and getting in the way of the things he really wants to do."

In cases where mothers have killed or harmed their children, postpartum depression and other mental illnesses such as Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy — where a mother intentionally harms her child or fabricates their illnesses to draw attention to herself — have been frequently cited. But though the reasons and circumstances surrounding their killings may differ, fathers and mothers, Brown said, lash out for one essential reason: to regain a level of power and control they believe was taken from them.

Still, fathers who kill are much less sympathetic to juries than mothers who kill.

"People think, 'Oh she must have been crazy. She must have been out of her mind to do such a thing'," Brown said. "We'll give a guy the death penalty in a second, but women will come away with lighter sentences, like life in prison."

Edward Morris and his relatives hope a jury will be sympathetic. Police have neither offered a motive nor indicated what evidence they have that proves Morris killed his wife and children. He is scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges Jan. 24.