The rate of murder-suicide in males over the age of 55 is twice as high as in younger males. One of the reasons that older men kill their partners and then themselves is because of declining physical and mental health in themselves or their partner such as terminal cancer, or Alzheimer’s in a spouse, this is sometimes referred to as Intimate-Ailing Homicide-Suicide. The perpetrator may not want to see their loved ones suffer or they can’t bear to live without them. Moving to or changing nursing homes, or fear of being abandoned by their spouse are also triggering factors in murder-suicides. While a small number of these tragic events may be described as a suicide pact, the vast majority of murder victims did not know what their partner was planning. The majority of murders are neither altruistic nor mercy killings, but are generally acts of depression and desperation. More than two thirds of murder-suicide cases are Intimate-Possessive whereby the perpetrator was depressed (often undiagnosed in male perpetrators), abused alcohol and/or drugs, had a history of marital conflict and/or a separation from the victim. There is often a strong history of domestic violence within the relationship, although most of the perpetrators have no prior criminal record. Perpetrators tend to be extremely jealous of their partner often without justification, they also tend to be very dominant and controlling in the relationship. In the immediate aftermath of the murder, the perpetrator may feel guilty about the crime and thus proceeds to act on a suicidal impulse.
Some of the cases that have occurred within an Irish context can be described as familicide, where a father has killed his children and partner before taking his own life. Filicide is the term used to describe the killing of children by a parent. Women are significantly more likely to kill their children but not their partner. Resnick (1969) divided filicide into five distinct categories:
(i) Altruistic – this applies when a parent kills a child because of a real or perceived threat to the child’s welfare. The parent believes that the child would be better off dead than living in this world especially where the parent intends to die by suicide anyway or where a child is suffering from profound disabilities and the parent worries what will happen to them after the parent dies. In 1993 Tracy Latimer a 12 year old Canadian with severe cerebral palsy was murdered by her father for reasons of ‘mercy’. From 1994-1998 the filicide rate in Canada increased by between 40% and 80% each year. In altruistic or mercy killings there is always an intent to kill. Sometimes the parents are suffering from a thought disorder such as psychosis but not always. They may have planned to kill themselves also but the ‘relief’ of having carried out the killing may stop them from taking their own lives.
(ii) Psychotic – when a parent kills a child as a result of a psychotic episode. This means the parent has suffered a break from reality which is characterised by seeing, hearing and believing things that may have led directly to the murder. In these ‘command’ deaths the perpetrator fully intends to kill their child. As with altruistic killings, they may stall their own suicide attempt once they’ve killed the child.
(iii) Accidental – children who have had a history of physical abuse, non-accidental injuries, and neglect account for most child deaths that are not accompanied by the suicide or attempted suicide of the perpetrator. The perpetrator does not intend to kill the child but through their actions or inactions places the child in extreme and sometimes fatal danger.
(iv) Unwanted Child – this is more likely to be a neonaticide where a mother typically kills her new born baby within the first 24 hours of birth, or an infanticide resulting in the death of an infant under the age of 12 months. Many of these mothers are suffering from postpartum psychosis.
(v) Spousal revenge – is when a parent kills a child or children to punish a partner. In reality the death of a child for this reason alone is extremely rare.
While the vast majority of murder-suicides are completed using guns, strangulation, drowning or poisoning, research has found that mothers who killed their children with guns or knives were overwhelmingly likely to be suffering from a psychotic episode at the time. It has been consistently shown that between 70 and 80% of all perpetrators of filicide-suicide have had a previous history of mood (depression) or thought (psychosis) disorders with just over 40% having had previous contact with a mental health professional.
In order to identify and prevent future murder-suicides it is important to recognise the risk factors as outlined above and to act immediately and appropriately by contacting mental health services. Access to lethal weapons such as firearms or poisons should be restricted or withdrawn when one partner shows signs of a major depressive episode. It’s important to act if you notice the person talks about feeling helpless and hopeless for the future, has a loss of interest in activities, is giving possessions away, or they fear being abandoned by their partner through marital breakdown or illness. Do not be afraid to ask them if they have ever considered killing themselves and their partner. In the case of parents, ask them what will become of their children if they take their own life. You will not be planting ideas in their heads but gaining an insight into any suicidal and homicidal thoughts they may be having. The more detailed their death and funeral plans are, the greater the risk of violence to themselves and possibly to others. Murder-suicides have more in common with suicidal than homicidal behaviour and any indicator of suicidal intent combined with other risk factors should be treated as potentially putting other family members at risk of violence