Tragedies

I have been hearing from others who have family members with mental illness problems for a long time, and I am now hearing even more.  Deafening Silence tells the story of the other victims of a tragedy like this; how family members become tarred with the contempt of others for failing to prevent a mentally ill family member from doing something awful:

While she struggles, fingers will begin to point.  Bad Mother, Bad Morals, Bad Parenting, Bad Guns, Bad Movies, BadBadBad will be the chant, as pundit after pundit (from the safety of their undisturbed lives) joins the chorus of moral outrage....

In the early morning hours of July 19, 2009, 23-year-old Isaiah Kalebu climbed through an open bathroom window and proceeded to hold Teresa Butz and her partner at knifepoint for over an hour, repeatedly raping them both.  When he tired of raping them, he began slashing and stabbing them with the knife.  Her heart punctured, Teresa Butz somehow managed to break the bedroom window and jump out.  She ran, screaming, until she collapsed and bled to death in the street.  The other woman attempted to flee via the front door, but her hands were so slippery with blood she nearly couldn't turn the knob. She would find her way to a neighbor's, survive the attack and testify in court, securing Kalebu's conviction.

Just six days earlier, Kalebu had been released on his own recognizance by a Superior Court Judge, despite repeated warnings from mental health professionals that Kalebu posed "an elevated risk for future danger to others and for committing future criminal acts."