Mommy slashes her 2 kids to death,then kills self,in TX
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Over in Dallas, Texas last night, a 41 year old divorced woman named
Emily Jane Hopkins picked up a regular kitchen knife and fatally slashed
the throats of her nine year old son, and her six year old daughter. After
killing the six year old girl, inside of the bathroom in her home, Emily
then barricaded the door, got into the bathtub, turned on the water, and
then fatally slashed her own throat.
That's what I call a real rampage of familial destruction. Glad to see a
mommy doing it, seems like it's have been mostly dads who commit these
family massacres, in the past few months.
And now I really must get the final details of my trip worked out. So no
more posts this evening. Maybe I'll check in tomorrow morning, just before
I leave on the trip.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's United Press International
news wire:
Police say woman killed kids, self
United Press International
Thu, 31 Jul 1997
DALLAS, July 31 (UPI) -- Police in suburban Dallas say a divorced woman
slashed her two children to death before killing herself in a bloody scene
discovered by the children's father.
University Park Police Chief Bob Dixon says today 41-year-old Emily Jane
Hopkins left as many as a half a dozen suicide notes before killing her
9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, then herself.
University Park homicide investigators says, ``All three victims had knife
wounds to the neck.'' A common kitchen knife was used.
Police report that Hopkins gave a photo album with family pictures to a
friend Wednesday and asked the friend to give it to her former husband.
The father, Clayton Elliot, found his son's body in the kitchen Wednesday
night when he went to visit his children. He was never a suspect in the
case.
Police found the body of the daughter on the upstairs bathroom floor and
the body of the mother in the bathtub, which was overflowing water. She
had barricaded the upstairs bathroom with the shower door.
Neighbors in the town of high-priced homes surrounded by the rest of
Dallas described Hopkins as a friendly woman who walked the neighborhood
with her children.
-----------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 7/31/97 online edition of The
Dallas Morning News newspaper:
Mother, 2 kids found slain inside University Park home
Each victim had knife wounds to the neck, authorities say
07/31/97
By Stephen Power
The Dallas Morning News
UNIVERSITY PARK - A mother, her 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son
were found slain inside their home Wednesday night, police said.
Police arrived to find Emily Jane Hopkins and her daughter together in an
upstairs bathroom. The boy was found stabbed in the kitchen. All three had
knife wounds to the neck, police said.
Officers were called about 8 p.m. to the home in the 4000 block of Purdue
Street, just north of Lovers Lane, by the woman's ex-husband, Clayton
Elliott, after he discovered the bodies, police and neighbors said.
"We heard a man screaming and wailing. He came out of the house and put
his face in his hands," said Paul Pearson, 50, who lives next door.
"He was just distressed, like 'aaaahhhhh, oh my God.' Like he had just
seen something horrible."
Police Chief Bob Dixon, who was at the police station, said: "I would
characterize it as a brutal scene. Other than that, I can't describe any
more."
A detective on the scene would only say that the inside of the house was
bloody.
Police said they had no suspects.
Police were interviewing about 10 family members, friends and witnesses
and expected to continue doing so through the night, Chief Dixon said. But
authorities suspended their investigation at the scene for the night after
a brief power outage, the chief said.
Neighbors said Ms. Hopkins, 41 and originally from Van Buren, Ark., moved
to the University Park home about a year ago.
Dallas County records show Ms. Hopkins and Mr. Elliott were divorced in
1992.
Neighbor Carolyn Colombo said that around 8:45 p.m., she saw a blond woman
running up to the front of the house screaming. The woman was directed
away by police, she said.
Dozens of neighbors, some in their bedroom slippers, lined the street as
police guarded the home late Wednesday. Blood was visible on the sliding
glass door of the two-story house.
Neighbors said Ms. Hopkins could often be seen in the afternoons, walking
or sitting in a plastic chair on her front patio watching her children
play.
"She'd walk down the street and stop by neighbors' houses like she was
trying to make friends," said Mr. Pearson, who said he has lived in the
neighborhood for eight years. "She seemed kind of lonely, like she was
trying to make friends."
Another neighbor said Ms. Hopkins' ex-husband stopped by often to visit
his children or pick them up for visits.
"It seemed like they had a good relationship," said Ms. Colombo.
Many said that they never would have expected such an incident in their
neighborhood.
"They were always playing outside on their bikes in the street like normal
kids," said Ms. Colombo. "You never know what happens behind closed
doors."
Joyce Hopkins of Van Buren, who is not related, said Ms. Hopkins was part
of a close-knit family that owns a nursing home and several furniture
stores in the Arkansas town of 15,000.
"Oh, Lord, I'm sorry," she said when she heard about the deaths.
Neighbors described Ms. Hopkins as pleasant.
"She was just a nice, normal person. There was nothing to indicate
something like this would happen," said a 55-year-old neighbor who lives
across the street and did not want to give his name.
Late Wednesday night, a handful of friends gathered at the police station
waiting for information. One man said they hadn't heard anything except
that there was an emergency at the home.
Slayings are relatively rare in University Park. The most recent one was
in January when a woman fatally shot a man with whom she lived and who she
said had attacked her. The most famous one was when former Dallas Cowboys
punter Colin Ridgway was found slain in 1993. His murder remains unsolved.
Madacy
>"She'd walk down the street and stop by neighbors' houses
> likeshe was trying to make friends," said Mr. Pearson, who
> said he has lived in the neighborhood for eight years. "She >seemed kind
of lonely, like she was trying to make friends."
Hi all,
This is so sad. Maybe a bit of kindness, a bit of notice on someone,
anyones part could've prevented this. I miss the days when we knew our
neighbors and people talked.
So if you're walkin' down the street sometime
Spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don't pass them by and stare
Like you don't care
Say hello in there
Hello
Say hello in there
Hello
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^John Prine - 1971
Take it easy,
Madacy
PD
Please.... you have got to be kidding! This woman was mentally ill! Her
family had warned the kid's father to get the kids out of there because
she had been acting erradict for the past few weeks. In fact, the dad had
just gotten back from taking the kids to Disney World the weekend before,
returned the kids on Tuesday, got the message from her family after he
returned the kids, then went to get them on Wednesday and they were dead.
This woman also had a twin sister who several years ago had poisened her
own two children (unsuccessfully). In fact, it was her twin sister's
husband who alerted the father of his sister-in-law's behavior. This
woman was not lonely, she was mental! I don't understand why she didn't
just kill herself while the kids were at Disney World, no she had to wait
until they came back from having fun. BTW...The police also found some
blood in the backyard which indicated that one of the kids got out briefly
but apparently brought back in the house. The other sad thing about this
story, is that the neighbors heard the kids yelling and screaming, "no
mommy" and did nothing.
Later...PD
In article <19970801085...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, mad...@aol.com
(Madacy) wrote:
> >"She'd walk down the street and stop by neighbors' houses
> > likeshe was trying to make friends," said Mr. Pearson, who
> > said he has lived in the neighborhood for eight years. "She >seemed kind
> of lonely, like she was trying to make friends."
>
>
Stephen Pace
PD wrote:
>
> Please.... you have got to be kidding! This woman was mentally ill! Her
> family had warned the kid's father to get the kids out of there because
> she had been acting erradict for the past few weeks.
<snip>
>
> In article <19970801085...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, mad...@aol.com
> (Madacy) wrote:
>
> > >"She'd walk down the street and stop by neighbors' houses
> > > likeshe was trying to make friends," said Mr. Pearson, who
> > > said he has lived in the neighborhood for eight years. "She >seemed kind
> > of lonely, like she was trying to make friends."
> >
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > This is so sad. Maybe a bit of kindness, a bit of notice on someone,
> > anyones part could've prevented this.
<snip>
> >
> > Madacy
It seems obvious that the woman had to be suffering from mental illness.
Chemical balances in the brain can get screwed up and these people lose
the ability to distinguish between what's real and what's imagined.
I never knew this could happen until a few years ago, my husband
defended a woman who threw both her small boys off a bridge and then
jumped herself. No fewer than 5 psychiatrists examined her and all
determined she had a severe case of postpartum psychosis. One of the
doctors (William Vicary--he's worked on lots of high profile murder
cases and I've seen him on TV on the Menendez murder case and others)
told me she had one of the most severe cases he'd ever seen. After she
was arrested, she was given some pretty heavy doses of psychotropic
drugs and after about 4 months, she stopped hearing voices and believing
in bizarre things like "invisible people from the Federation".
Also, this woman's husband KNEW how sick she was, but did nothing to get
any help for her. (He claimed she "wouldn't go anywhere with him", but
a few weeks before the bridge incident, when he discovered she was
pregnant with their third chld, he decided she couldn't handle the
pressure of another baby, and she DID go with him to have an abortion.)
Pilar Pace
