Julie Schenecker

I generally try to not put a lot of time between researching a case and sitting down to compose it. In the same respect I have to almost always do the all of the writing in one sitting because I get lost in remembering what I wrote previously. When it came to this case I sat down to write it and as I do sometimes as I neared the end I thought of one more thing/person to search. I ended up finding two articles that I had not previously seen and while normally that would not be an issue, in this case it was. Those two articles nearly completely changed my opinion about the entire case. So here I was … 16 pages into a Word Doc. and I erased it. The next day I tried again, but between the anger I was feeling over what I had read the previous night and the fact that I took this case a bit personal made it almost impossible to finish correctly, so once again I erased all I had. This time instead of trying again the following day I decided to research more cases and give me a little distance from this case even though every night before bed I read on a book and the book I am currently reading is about this case.

I have done plenty of cases where parents have murdered their children. I have also done plenty in which the mental stability of the defendant is in question. In some of those latter cases I agree with the defense and then there are times I agree with the prosecution. I have often said I do not agree with how the courts determine if someone is “insane” since they simply determine if the person knew the difference between right and wrong. The Andrea Yates case was sometimes compared to this one and for other reasons throughout my research I thought of her case. The Yates case is a prime example of how knowing the difference between right and wrong is not a fair assessment of someone's sanity. She knew that by society and legal standards killing her children was wrong, but in her mind spiritually it was the right thing to do.

Initially another comparison to the Yates case threw me off a bit. I saw comments on articles that spoke of Julie Schenecker's husband Parker, comparing him to Rusty Yates. Rusty Yates has been given a lot of criticism for his lack of support and care for his wife. Many believe that their children would be alive today if he had not pushed her to have more children, took her illness more serious and especially should have never left her alone the morning she murdered their children. There are many who believe he is just as responsible for what happened and should have received punishment. This seemed to also be the case when it came to Parker Schenecker when I was first doing my research but nothing I had found had really given me any reason to believe this. It was not until I had already began that first draft and did one last search that my whole attitude changed. In fact, it changed so much I was left with the feeling that if you compared Parker Schenecker to Rusty Yates, Yates came out smelling like a rose. I believe this is what made it so much more personal to me. My husband suffers from bi-polar disorder and his mother has paranoid schizophrenia. I have dealt with mental health both on personal and professional levels for many years. I have seen that the often does not work but I am a firm believer you still do everything in your power to help.

It was no secret that Julie Schenecker had suffered with mental illness for many years. Where I become torn is whether I believe that her mental illness had anything to do with her crime. However, I am no longer torn in my belief when it to comes to the lack of support Julie received from her husband. It was in one of these last two articles that I found in which Parker was quoted from his court testimony as saying “it was her illness” and “It was her responsibility to follow up on doctor appointments.” He admitted to never knowing what kind of medications she was on, that she took them or that she went to see her therapist or psychiatrist. He said all of her actions were choices, including days she could not or in his words “would not” get out of bed, no matter how long it lasted or at the times that Julie and their daughter, Calyx would argue. He described her to her family in an email as a “grown woman who acted like a ten year old” and yet he seemingly did not provide any help. This callousness that he showed through his words was more than likely expressed in other ways and had for a very long time. What I mean by this is that it is likely that their children, Calyx and Beau saw this attitude. What is certain is that the children were witnesses to little communication between their parents that were not arguments. Parker stated that he almost exclusively communicated with Julie through email because he wanted things that he said to be “in black and white.”

I found only a few instances in twenty years they were together which Parker was involved, or wanted to be involved, in Julie's mental health care. While it is unclear what circumstances led to her hospitalization in 2001, Julie would spend nine months in a mental institution. This amount of time astounds me. If you look at the Yates case she was going through her issues around the same time, it all coming to an end in July of 2001. However, every time she was admitted into the hospital, no matter how severe the issues were she was released in seven to ten days. Every time that I have had admit either my mother in law, or even my husband when needed, that is the average time.... seven to ten days. Now, to be fair, while it was not said, it is likely that her care came through the military since she was former military and Parker had continued his career with the military. So, their system could be vastly different. After her release the family relocated to Germany in 2002. When they were there it was said that Parker had attempted to find a doctor familiar with the treatment she was receiving prior to the move (I was unable to determine where the family was located during her hospitalization). The last attempt on Parker's part seemingly occurred in late 2010. Parker had learned that Julie was drinking to excess. It is unclear how long she had been doing this before anyone noticed. At this point he wanted to contact her psychiatrist and let them know she was mixing alcohol with her medications. Now, whether he even knew who the psychiatrist was is unclear but he kept asking Julie to sign a wavier that allowed him to talk to and get information from the psychiatrist and she refused. I cannot say that I blame her. First, whether she signed the waiver or not he could have still contacted the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist did not have to give him any information about Julie, but he could still give them the information he had. Secondly, after nearly twenty years he now wanted to talk to her psychiatrist but basically to “rat her out.” I am unsure with his lack of support all those years that I would have allowed that myself.

In the end however, the biggest question would be was Julie so mentally ill on January 27, 2011 that when she murdered her two children she did not know what she was doing. The defense of course would say yes. The prosecution was a bit interesting in their response though. While they eventually decided not to go for the death penalty because they believed her mental health history was significant enough that a court would have not enforced a death sentence, they believed she was of sound mind when she committed her crime. In fact, the prosecutor made a quote that I have to agree with.... “being mentally ill is not the same as being insane.”

For those who are close to me that suffer from mental illness there are always signs before what I call a “full blown breakdown.” Now depending on what it is I may notice the sign this morning and by tonight it has manifested into something that there is no way a stranger on the street would not notice. For example, my mother in law will repeatedly lick her lips and take a finger and twirl her hair. To the average person that has not dealt with her they would not notice this, but for me and my husband it would jump out at us. That being said, those living with Julie should have also been able to see signs of her downward spiral, not just this time but times in the past also. Sometimes between the mentally ill person and the mental health system you are not able to get the person the care you know they need but you can at least prepare yourself for it. A few weeks ago I did the case of Jason Bautista. His mother had been mentally ill his entire life, he knew the signs when bad things were coming. His mother would refuse treatment, which was her right, but it did not stop Jason or his brother from seeing the signs. That should have been the case here also. However, what I feel happened here was that for the most part those signs were ignored or met with disdain, by both Parker and the children. When the children seemingly had enough of Julie's behaviors they would go to their father, often in email, and then he would go to Julie. But again, there was no support or help, there were rules. Like in late 2010 when it was discovered Julie was drinking to excess Parker emailed her and told her the children were scared to ride with her so she was not to transport them anywhere. To add to this Parker it seems was deployed quite a few times over the years, although how much and to what extent was not clear so Julie was the one who was in charge of the children the majority of the time. It is not impossible to believe that Parker's attitude toward Julie's illness had not trickled down to the children. It was said that Calyx resented the extra responsibilities she had to endure when Julie was having her bouts of depression. Between that, living with this all her life while moving around every time her father was stationed somewhere else, and the fact that she was a teenager more than likely all contributed to her feelings and behaviors also. Living with a teenager, especially a girl, is difficult enough without added burdens in the household as it seems there were here.

The Schenecker family settled in Tampa Bay Florida in 2008. Parker had been promoted to a Colonel in the Army and it appears his deployments were less often, for less time. At the time that Julie would murder their children it was said that Parker was “deployed.” In essence this was true as he was in Qatar but I think to use the word “deployed” is a bit unfair. Prior to his leaving for Qatar he knew it was a ten day trip. In fact, by January 27^th he was nearly on his way back, so much so that it seems Julie was convinced it would be Parker to find her and the children. Julie had been back in the home for about a month at this point after spending about six weeks in a rehab center for drugs and alcohol. It was said that Parker asked her if she could handle the ten days he would be gone or if he needed to bring in help, likely his mother who had come throughout the years to help with the children it seems, but Julie had told him no, that she would be fine.

On the morning of January 28^th the police in Tampa Bay would receive a call from Julie's mother in Louisiana. She had just opened an email from her daughter and she was concerned. She knew Julie suffered from bi-polar disorder that left her depressed from time to time and the tone of the email indicated that Julie would possibly harm herself. She had attempted to first call Julie, but had also tried her grandchildren Calyx and Beau, but received no answer. She was too far away to just run over and check on them so she was asking the police to do so. The two officers were dispatched were not prepared to find what they did.

When they got to the home the officers saw two notes on the door. One was to “friends” the other was to the “carpool.” They both claimed that the family had gone on a trip to New York. Still the officers knocked at the door but received no answer. They decided to walk around the property until they made their way to the fence in the back. They made their way in and saw a woman laying on the porch near the pool area wearing a bath robe. By all accounts it did not seem to take much to arouse Julie Schenecker but officers were taken aback when they saw she was “covered” in blood. They could see no indication that Julie herself was hurt. This told them that the blood did not belong to Julie and by the amount of blood they saw, they knew someone or more than one someone was severely injured.

One officer stayed with Julie while the other began looking around the home. An officer made their way upstairs and after knocking on a bedroom door an announcing themselves they opened the door to the first of two horror scenes. The room was splattered with blood and laying in the bed, covered with a blanket was the body of sixteen year old Calyx. She had been shot once in the head and once directly in the mouth. It was clear that she was no longer alive.

The officer checked the other rooms upstairs but did not see Calyx's brother, Beau and so they headed back downstairs. In the meantime the officer who was with Julie was getting very little out of her but was himself looking around in the general area. There were dozens of medication bottles in the kitchen and master bedroom area. All of them contained the name Julie Schenecker and there was a wide variety of them. There was Lithium; there was Hydrocodone; there was Oxycontin; there was Coumadin. It seemed clear to the officer on duty the woman he was in charge of keeping an eye on at the moment had some major issues and he was sure the alcohol cans he saw laying around did not help matters. Presumably he had also found the note Julie had left the night before on the counter so when the officer upstairs headed back down and told him what they had found upstairs they knew to look in the garage for thirteen year old Beau.

Inside the family's SUV they would find Beau's body. He too had been shot once in the head and once near the mouth, and like Calyx had a blanket placed on him. There was also a bullet hole in the windshield of the vehicle. The officers had little doubt who had committed these crimes and it seems that Julie was readily admitting it saying that she had done so because they had “talked back and were mouthy.” Of course the media ran with this sensational headline to draw in readers. But was that the reason?

I was first left with the impression that it was not until her trial in 2014 that Julie, or her defense, would come up with another motive. When she would later say that she had murdered her children to save them because she feared they would suffer from mental illness as she had the prosecutor would be quick to say that a journal found in the home, that had detailed not just the murders but the planning of them, had stated differently. It was said that after the murders Julie had written that she had shot the “mouthy mouths.” But, it was also in the last two articles that I found at the last minute that I found other quotes from the journal. Two of the many quotes I found from the journal stood out to me.... “If you wonder why I decided to take out the kids, it's to protect them from embarrassing them the rest of their lives” and “It's too possible they've inherited the DNA and live their lives depressed or bi-polar! I believe I've saved them from pain.” In my opinion it sounds as if the journal was “all over the place,” much like a later interview with police in which she would admit that she had murdered her children but then say “Are my kids coming in later?”

Obviously Julie would be arrested at the scene and charged with the murders of her children. The next step would be gathering the evidence and deciding just what to do with her. Prosecutors would believe the most damaging evidence against her was her journal in which she had showed the planning and the execution of her crime. It is true, the journal gave one an insight into her behavior and her mind, but to be fair I am unsure what side benefited more from that. As I said earlier, the prosecutor initially planned to seek the death penalty and did not change his mind until just a month before her April 2014 trial began to instead seek first degree murder charges and life in prison.

The journal showed that on Saturday January 22^nd Julie had gone to Oldsmar, the next town over, to a gun shop. Her journal indicated at that time she had planned to commit suicide. The clerk at the gun shop said she did not seem to be odd and considering her military training seemed to know how to handle the weapon. Julie apparently did not know that there was a three business day waiting period and that she had to fill out an application for the gun. There were questions on the application about having felonies and about mental illness. Some questions she answered truthfully, some she did not. Either way she did not leave the gun shop that day with the gun.

Sometime between that Saturday and Thursday Julie's plans changed. Now she was going to have a “massacre” that would not just include her children, but herself. It was even said that the journal stated that if Parker would have been home she would have included him also. It is unclear at that point what the motive in the journal stated. To be fair I am unsure where or at what points anything in the journal were stated other than her details a few hours after murdering the children. On Wednesday the 26^th Julie apparently got a call from the gun store that she could come pick up her gun... a .38 caliber revolver but she would not get it until the following day. That night it was said she made Calyx's favorite dinner but it had not apparently gone off with out a hitch. She and Calyx had been having issues for a while now, in fact, Parker was helping Calyx apply for boarding schools so she could get out of the home. According to Julie's journal Calyx had called her “pathetic” and “evil” that particular evening. It is these comments that helps lead me to believe that Parker's disdain and callousness had trickled down to his children. While teenage girls are notorious for being “mouthy” and “moody,” few could get away with or even have the nerve to say the things that she apparently did. This also was not even close to the first time she had spoken to or about Julie in this manner so for me it seems that there had never been any consequences for those actions. Now, do not get me wrong in believing that I blame Calyx for what happened to her, because I do not. But feeling bad because she lost her life does not mean we give a pass for behaviors beforehand. Even still I do not fully blame her for her behaviors either. I am sure that living with her mother was a challenge to say the least. Having to often be the parent to her parent was extremely unfair to her.

After the murders it was discovered that in November of 2010 the police and the Department of Family Services had visited the home for allegations of child abuse against Calyx by her mother. A few weeks earlier Parker had apparently put Calyx in counseling to deal with things. On November 4^th she had told her counselor that she and Julie had gone to the grocery store. Calyx had gone in and Julie had stayed in the car. Calyx's story was that after returning to the car a fight had ensued between mother and daughter in which, according to Calyx, Julie smacked Calyx repeatedly (“30 seconds”). The counselor was a mandated reporter so she had contacted the authorities who showed up at the Schenecker home two days later. Calyx would repeat the story she told her counselor and apparently Julie would admit to slapping Calyx. Julie's story was a) it was not 30 seconds repeatedly as Calyx would claim and b) the argument began when Julie inquired as to what Calyx had bought in the store and she had responded with “it is none of your business” or something like that. Calyx would also tell the officials that a few months prior to this incident there had been another in which Julie had smacked her and made her nose or mouth bleed. Again, it seems Julie admitted slapping her but said she did not recall there being blood. Because there were no physical signs of either injury on Calyx the case was closed and unfounded. I have to say that pertaining to the early November incident if I was told the story by two people I would lean in believing Julie, not just because she was the “adult” and parent, but for other reasons too. I seriously doubt that Julie repeatedly smacked her daughter for “30 seconds” as Calyx stated nor do I believe she would have sat there and let her do so. Then we have to consider whether Julie's account of what occurred was true. It is not uncommon for anyone, especially teenagers to leave out details of their own behaviors that may have contributed to the actions of others. By all accounts from just about everyone it seemed to be common for Calyx and Julie to argue. I remember the few times I had the guts to smart off to my mother, and in no way close to the way it has been described by Calyx, and I saw the back end of a hand. One time I was on the phone and the phone hit my lip which in turn hit the braces I was wearing and I did indeed have a bloody lip. One of the differences was I did not grow up in an era in which children were encouraged to report their children for every little slight they felt. It did not take me long to learn to keep my comments to my self, or at least out of the reach of my mother's hand. Again, do not take this as promoting or excusing “abuse,” I am simply pointing out that everyone plays their own role in things. But again I truly believe that this was common behavior from Calyx and had been accepted, if not encouraged, by her father. He did not respect his wife and there is little doubt the kids did not see that behavior, why would he then make them respect her?

At any rate this behavior had apparently continued on the night of the 26^th. The following evening while Calyx was in her room, on her computer, doing homework, it was time for Beau to go to soccer practice. Apparently the “rule” that Julie was not to transport the children was no longer valid. Sure she had gone to rehab for six weeks but by all accounts she went right back to her addictions when she returned home. Julie and Beau headed to practice but according to Julie he “mouthed off” to her, something less common from Beau, and she pulled the gun she had just picked up that day and fired through the windshield. Beau was obviously scared and told her to put the gun away. Seemingly while simply driving down the street she aimed the gun at Beau's temple and fired again. She then turned the car around and headed back home. Whether she fired the second shot near Beau's mouth at this point is not clear... but possible. Once home Julie went upstairs to Calyx's room and shot her first in the back of the head, killing her instantly. She put Calyx's body in her bed, shot her once more in the mouth, manipulated her mouth into a smile and covered her up with a blanket. Julie would grab another blanket and take it to the garage and cover Beau.

There was one thing through all of this that I was never able to determine that may have helped me in deciding if I believed Julie was in the midst of a breakdown at the time she committed the murders. As I stated earlier, when officers arrived at the home and found her she was wearing a bath robe drenched in apparently the blood of her children. I want to know when she put this robe on. Julie was known to take Beau to his practices and stay but she was not known, or I saw no reference of such, to do so in her bath robe. So my question becomes, did she leave the house initially to take him to practice already wearing the robe or did she go home and change into it before she had finished messing with the bodies? If she left the home in the robe then it would appear that she never planned to make it to the practice so her comment that he had smarted off to her seems less valid. It does not necessarily mean that her mental illness did not play a role, it just says that she never intended to take Beau to soccer practice. In the same respect, if she did not already have the robe on determining when she did put it on could say a lot about her state of mind. Did she change before shooting Calyx, giving her a “cooling off” period of sorts after killing Beau and time to think about things? Did she do it after killing Calyx but before placing her body in her bed? Was she getting “comfortable”?

Apparently after she had murdered the children and “displayed” them the way she wanted she wrote the notes that went on the door and the counter. At this point she either wrote in her journal the details, adding that she had changed her mind about using the gun on herself and her plan to “overdose” instead, or she wrote an email that she sent out to her family. This would be the email her mother would read the following morning. She would also send one to Parker telling him to hurry home because he was “missed.” Sometime after midnight she sent a text message to a friend but she too did not see it until the following day but it seemed to be a jumbled mess anyway and there was no way of determining what Julie had been trying to say. Then it appears that she took a combination of Lithium and Coumadin expecting to never wake up.

Prosecutors would point to the detail in the journal of the days leading up to and including the murders saying Julie not only knew what she was doing, she had meticulously planned the murders. They would claim that much of her motive was to get even with Parker who she had said was not supportive or compassionate to her plight. Soon after Parker had left on his trip he too had emailed many members of Julie's family. There was much discussion about her mental health issues. In at least one of the email responses from Parker he appeared to be frustrated and exasperated. While I am unsure what elicited the response he had spoken harshly to those he apparently felt were critical of his treatment of Julie and her needs. He let them know that until they lived with someone like her, with her issues, they had no way of knowing the stress and strain it put on the household. Now, on the surface I would totally agree with that statement from Parker. You cannot know what it is like until you have lived with or dealt on a regular basis someone who has mental illness. And while those who have not had this experience really should not judge his decisions, personally I feel considering I have had significant experience in this area I can judge him by saying he did very little to help the situation. At any rate Julie had somehow gotten wind of this email and convinced one of her family members to forward it to her. She would become convinced by the tone of the email that Parker had every intention of divorcing her, something that he claims he did not plan to do at the time. It was this belief and the contents of the letter found on the counter, that convinced the prosecutors that the murders of the children, and the intention to kill herself was to not only get even with Parker by killing the ones he loved but also by making it so he was the one who found their bodies.

There seemed to be no clear proof, or discussion as to whether at the time of the murders Julie had been maintaining her medications, or even her therapy. There did however seem to be proof that she was indulging in alcohol and the abuse of prescription pain medication. This is why I have remained on the fence so to speak as to my position in this case. The lack of psychiatric medications could have resulted in the murders. But, in the same respect the abuse of drugs and alcohol, not to mention in a combination with her psychiatric drugs could have done the same. I do not necessarily agree that her precise details leading up to the murders points to her not being mentally ill.

Julie's trial was delayed several times over the next few years. One of the delays came when Parker wasted no time in filing for divorce and argued against any marital assets to be used in her defense. The assets were frozen by the courts during this time and Julie would be represented by a public defender. I mentioned the Andrea Yates case earlier. This is one of the areas in which Rusty Yates and Parker Schenecker surely differed. While both men were devastated by the murders of their children it appears that Rusty Yates understood or believed that Andrea's mental illness had been the cause and attempted to continue to support her in any way he could. Parker Schenecker did not feel the same way. He obviously blamed Julie for the deaths of their children, which was obvious, but he lent no sympathy, let alone support, to her what so ever. In fairness I cannot say that he publicly chastised her necessarily either but his testimony at trial spoke volumes. Not once did he even call her by her name. He always referred to her as “the defendant.” Their divorce would become final in May of 2011 but it was unclear what Julie may or may not have received in the settlement.

In August of 2012 both the prosecution and the defense would say they needed another year to go through all the files on the family computer. Keep in mind that there were hundreds and hundreds of emails for them to go through. They had all of Parker and Julie's communication not to mention communications between Parker and the children as well as others. A year later the defense still needed more time. Hence her trial never began until the end of April of 2014.

Prosecutors were sticking to their guns that Julie was sane at the time of the murders. They pointed out that she had gone to another town to buy a gun indicating she was making sure no one she knew saw her attempting to buy a gun. To them this said she knew people would talk, maybe word would get back to Parker. And if Parker found out who knew what he would do. For one her plans would be shot to hell. At least that is the way the prosecutor saw things. They also believed that while she had told the gun clerk that she needed the gun for self defense she had expressed in her journal that she did not lying to the clerk. That too they said led them to believe that she knew what she was doing was wrong and yet she continued to do it. As they would say, they knew she was mentally ill but was she was not so sick that she was not in full control. They would claim that Julie did not want to seek help for her issues indicating that maybe she was not keeping up with her appointments but there was nothing solid pointing to this. But, for me, even if this statement were true in the fact that she did “not want to seek help,” it does not mean that she was not mentally ill.

Of course the defense saw things much, much differently, and they had three experts of their own who would testify that in their professional opinion Julie was not sane when she committed the murders. They brought up her history of hospitalizations and medications. They also apparently would shine a light on the lack of support she received just within her home. There was testimony that stated she had been molested at both the ages of six and seventeen. One article mentioned that she had actually testified in court in the first case, but nothing was specific. They also attempted to show the control levied in the home. Remember, this is a military home. Yes, they had both initially been in the Army when they met, but Julie had left to be a wife and mother. The defense would say that Julie had wanted six children; Parker wanted two. Without discussion after two Parker went and had a vasectomy. It fully appears that no matter how many times or for how long he was gone Parker was in control of everything. Everything that is except her mental illness. Maybe this is why he seemed to care so little and give little effort to learn how to help Julie. It was something that he could not control himself so he put all of the responsibility on Julie.

On May 15, 2014 after only two hours of deliberations the jury returned with their verdict. Despite having several options they had decided to find her guilty of the most serious... two counts of first degree murder. Her sentence was a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.... times two. After her conviction it was said that she stood and made a “long and at times bizarre statement” in which she apologized for her actions and took responsibility but had no answer as to why she had done it. Just what was “bizarre” about her statement was not made clear.

In April of 2015, nearly a year after her conviction Julie would speak to the media herself for the first time. One of the first things she apparently stated was that she did not regret killing her children. This seemed to be a direct contradiction from her statement at her sentencing. She had long recanted that she had murdered them because they had been “mouthy.” In the interview she would claim that she had murdered them to “save them.” Save them from what? Julie was now saying that Beau had been sexually abused (something she had claimed for herself in her childhood) and that Calyx had “disclosed” she was bi-polar. Neither of these allegation have been or apparently can be proven and according to the article when pressed Julie refused to give any more details as to what led her to these conclusions. She continued to say that had she been able to get the gun on the day she first went to the gun shop that she would have only killed herself.

I have more than a few problems with this interview she gave. Odds are that Julie is receiving medication while she is incarcerated. Now, whether it is the proper medication and dose, and she takes it as she should could be questionable. One of the most important things for the mentally ill is to be completely honest and transparent with their doctors. Above that, the absolute most important thing is to accept you have issues, not just say you do; not use them as an excuse; not use them as a crutch but honestly and truly accept the fact. Only then can you make sure you get the care you need. With that said I call BS on most of what she said. The only thing I think I do believe that she said was that she did not regret killing her children. As far as her statement about Beau being sexually molested I believe that would have come out in her trial. Even if her defense attorney's had no proof of her allegations they would have presented it in a way in which they told the jury she believed it was true whether it was or not. That is the whole idea of an insanity plea and defense. Even in the interview she would not give details or anymore information other than this blanket statement.

Then there is the comment about how Calyx “had disclosed” she was bi-polar. Again, I call BS. First, doctors do not diagnose teenagers, especially teenager girls with bi-polar disorder. They are actually “forbidden” from diagnosing a minor with these sorts of diseases. Now, that does not mean they do not have them or have the tendencies, it means they cannot be officially diagnosed with them. However, secondly, what does she mean “disclosed”? She was her mother. I realize her husband did not communicate with her properly but one of them would have had to have taken her to the doctor to get this supposed diagnosis and received that result from the doctor themselves, not from the sixteen year old daughter. And, despite how I may or may not feel how Parker dealt with Julie and her illness I still do not see him not sharing this bit of information with her and again if this was the case it would have been exposed at her trial. But, I want to address this issue a bit more.

Being the child of a parent who is mentally ill is very taxing and has long term effects. Calyx may have never gone on to develop bi-polar disorder, but the fear would always be there, that fear and paranoia alone could create issues of their own. But, I also believe that Calyx would have had it especially hard as an adult to accept and get treatment for a variety of reasons. When the mentally ill parent does not seek treatment when needed or properly take care of their illness the child sees it as much more of a burden than maybe it needs to be. For example, I have spoken of my mother in laws issues. It was after many years of dealing with her and her illness before my husband came to realize that her issues had all been self induced. He believed that she would all but become immune to her medication every few years and would require hospitalization to bring her doses up to proper levels again. He believed, through his experience that this was how mental illness worked, at least in her case. So when he began having his own issues he refused to treat them and became convinced he could “handle them” because he did not want to be like his mother who's medication use is highly visible and seemingly affected her in negative ways. He later learned that each one of her incidents had been caused by her stopping her medication. One time she did it to get the attention of her two other sons. One was talking of moving out of her home and the other had recently signed up through the military and she did not want him to leave. Another time she stopped taking her medication because someone had told her that her psych medications “messed” with her sugar and instead of eating properly or possibly having to take insulin she decided the better choice was to stop the medication that may have caused the issue. I could give you ten other examples of this that have occurred over the years. Each time she would go to the doctor and lie and say she had not stopped the medication and so they would up her doses. Finally my husband realized that he could no longer control his own behaviors alone and without medication and sought help. He likely would have done so several years earlier if his mother had been accepting and honest of her issues.

So Calyx not only had a mother who seemingly did not accept and control her mental illness, she had a father who not only did not understand mental illness, apparently had no desire to do so and looked upon her mother with disdain. If at any point Calyx imagined she had any sort of mental illness (later in life of course) the odds of her attempting to hide it would have been great. But, the idea that ANY doctor would have diagnosed a sixteen year old child with a disease that is characterized by “mood swings” would have been irresponsible, and any parent accepting such diagnosis should be examined themselves.

Parker had retired from the military prior to Julie going to trial. He keeps the memory of his children alive through social media memorial pages and through a scholarship fund he created in their names. Beyond that I cannot tell you what he has done with his life. I do hope though that he has also educated himself on mental illness and I would like to see him speak about that once in a while.

So, was Julie Schenecker mentally ill when she murdered her children? Did she do it because they were “mouthy” or because she wanted to “save them.”? Did she murder her children because she wanted to get even at their father as the prosecution claims? It really is difficult to say. As much as I advocate for the mentally ill, in treatment and rights, I also do not believe it should be a pass to do whatever one pleases. Then again it is not always that way. Two prime examples are Andrea Yates, who, seventeen years after she drowned her children is still institutionalized and John Hinckley Jr. who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981. Hinckley was found guilty but mentally ill and served over thirty years in a mental facility. Is that where Julie Schenecker should be or is prison where she belongs? I am just not sure!