Police in Buffalo, N.Y., issued an alert to law enforcement agencies nationwide and parts of Canada Thursday for a trauma surgeon and former military weapons expert suspected of fatally shooting a receptionist at the hospital where they worked.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda told reporters at a press conference Thursday that evidence now points to a carefully planned exit strategy devised by Dr. Timothy Jorden, 49, prior to the shooting.The guy they are looking for is likely to be a real problem: book smart (he's a doctor) and street smart (ex-Special Forces). He apparently planned his exit strategy, so unless his apparent mental breakdown over the last few months was drug-related, he probably has a sizable cache of money.
One of the research projects I am working on right now really reminds me of much domestic violence cases like this are a stubborn problem. These are not your run of the mill hoodlums, but often quite middle class people who are often squeaky clean before something like this. They aren't the norm among murderers (as much as gun control advocates like to pretend otherwise), but they are not completely unusual, either.
I've read a few too many news accounts of late that involved a guy who murders his soon-to-be ex-wife on the day that the divorce decree finalizes, then kills himself. I can understand the guy who commits suicide because he can't imagine life alone. But these murder-suicides on the day of the divorce decree leave me both saddened and confused.
It's seems pretty obvious to me. If you're crazy or depressed enough to kill yourself, why not take the person who made you miserable with you? Most of these divorces are initiated by the wife and a large percentage of them are frivolous. If family law stays as biased against men as it currently is, I see family court judges eventually being taken out along with these suicides. I agree it's a tragedy but it's a much deeper problem. Fix the system and this will happen less.
ReplyDeleteActually, family court judges are in deep danger already. I have seen a lot of divorces happen, and I often wanted to slap both parties into next week to get them to realize how stupid this was, but I can't recall any that were exactly frivolous. I saw a lot of very selfish people (often men, but women too) who were unwilling to admit that a good marriage requires two people to think about each other, and not just themselves.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a lot of divorces that started because a husband wouldn't give up his drug habit long enough to hold a job. I've seen a few where adultery was the starting point (usually the husband, but sometimes the wife). I've seen a few involving mental cruelty and physical abuse (usually the husband). I am aware of a couple that should have broken up over sexual abuse of the children, but the wife decided that the marriage mattered more than the children.
I hate California.
Apparently the doctor's body has been found, in a ravine near his house, with a single gunshot wound to the head. Apparently the police also found an old friend of his, a cop on disability, leaving the house with $5,000 in cash, a Rolex, and a gun. At the least, the doctor doesn't seem to have implemented much of an exit strategy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/buffalo-surgeon-kills-receptionist-girlfriend-commits-suicide-article-1.1096388
I don't think the frivolousness tag attaches to the divorce itself, but should rather attach to many of the baseless and scurrilous accusations of child molestation made by the woman in order to get full legal custody of children.
ReplyDeleteMaybe being a lawyer shows me an unsavory side of people's lives, but I know of several cases where the wife is torqued she can't live the Kardashian life and has to live in a tract house in WLA, files for divorce and wants the courts to enforce her fantasy.
It's hard to generate much sympathy for those petitioners unless you're a doctrinaire gender feminist.