Economic Woes, Debts, Depression Triggered a Man to Kill His Family

Depressing news. It's graphic it's gory it's sad. The reality of life comes in to play here. Still I know it does not excuse what the man did.

This story from Washington Post

The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.

Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings.

According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once. After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun.

Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.

"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.

A tragic and story and especially knowing the reason that the husband did it because of economic hard times. I once blogged about 12 year old girl who committed suicide because of poverty and what drives people to to things like that.

We always say that money is nothing and family is everything but. Money is causing all these anxiety and depression and and driving people to kill others, commit suicide and end lives to spare one's self or the others of the hardships. It's wrong. It shouldn't be like that. But that is reality.

The harsh realities of life is drives people in the brink of madness. Financial problems and the difficulty of where to get money, how to raise kids and put them to through school and then losing a job. All this adds up the pressures of providing the daily needs for the family in this economic hardships we're facing. Meanwhile the situation becomes a constant reminder and in turn depression sets in and it becomes too much. The end result is to eliminate the problem and not fix the cause. It's not right. Not right all.