I've thought about this a lot. husband and I both agreed there was a time when we would not have been surprised to find out our difficult child was involved in something terrible, maybe not to this extreme, but close. That got me thinking about this parents and wondering if and when they thought the same thing. I don't think they could have been surprised at this news, although shocked and terribly sadened I'm sure. They are in an undisclosed location, I'm sure for their safety.
Look at how hard it is for us to get help for our kids. So think how much harder it would be for parents who speak no english to find what little help their is. According to his roommates, he saw this young man's parents only once when they dropped him off at school in the beginning of the year and they never came to visit and he never went home and there was never any known telephone cotact. That tells a lot.
I asked my husband if our difficult child was exhibiting those signs if we would have notified the school and we both agreed we would have. Hard as it may have been I think I would have sensed something terrible waiting to happen.
This is a tragedy of enormous proportions. Looking at those pictures he sent NBC, I have seen many exactly like this on the myspaces of aquaintances of difficult child. We have a neighbor who I would nto be surprised at all if he would do something similar some day. We need more help for mentally disturbed people. Even when teachers and roommates and fellow students turned him in, nothing helped.
Nancy