What kind of person jumps off a cliff with two children? **MNHQ warning: upsetting content**

[Leafyhouse]

I've been really shaken by that story about the woman stabbed at home, and the father found at the bottom of the cliff with 2 dead children, 10 and 7.

Their home is about 400 yards away from me. I also have 2 DS's, aged 8 and 10. It's just made me sick to the core. Police and forensic officers all over this lovely house, in a really nice area - and for what? Why would someone do that? Have your own problems, but why take the children?

Just reeling at the moment, am going to hug my kids extra tight tonight. This one's just so very close to home.

I’d presume someone mentally unwell or very scared and not thinking straight. They could even have thought they were protecting their children (not necessarily this case) and believe that takingtheir lives is the best option. Mental health can be scary and sad and unfortunately I keep hearing that there isn’t enough support from anywhere.

I don't feel any sympathy for him, he's a coward.
These stories make me so angry

Unwell or desperate?

Okayyy.

I'm feeling unwell and desperate, I know, I'll annihilate my family.

No, it doesn't work like that. Stop making excuses for killer men.

Or, he could just be a sick arsehole. Until we know we shouldn’t assume too much.

Maybe he was unwell. Maybe he was just an evil bastard.

Seriously can't comprehend how anyone could do this. Those poor kids.

I wonder how many women become family annihilators?

if he was mentally ill he should have been seeking help

I had a friend, she was a mental health nurse, she was literally surrounded every day but HCPs in mental health.
Didn't stop her taking her life.
a) resources are scarce and what does exist is piss poor.
b) even if you can access the help, the waiting lists are months, sometimes years long.
c) some people are so unwell they are totally incapable of seeking that help for themselves.

An evil person. There are plenty of people with mental illness who seem to get through the day without murdering their wife and children. Saying he was unwell is excusing what he did.

There are many many stories of women who've taken their lives with their children. this isn't about him being a man.

@TheOriginalEmu but how many of women also killing their partner/husband?

There is an article by surviving sons of a family annihilator (killed himself, their sister and their mum) who express dismay at how the media & public portrayed him as a victim of mental illness. He had been a controlling bastard all their lives.

He was an abuser and killing them was murder and an expression of his ownership of them!

A sick fuck.

Poor man, he must have been desperate. So very sad.

Ask yourself...what would you have to believe was happening in order for you to do the same thing?

I would jump off a cliff with my DD if I thought a psychopath bent on torturing us both to death was chasing us. I would choose a swift end over torture...or at least I like to think I would be strong enough to do that.

So maybe that's what he thought was happening. Psychosis is a real thing...and when untreated can result in seriously awful outcomes.

It's horrible, isn't it? But I guess that in this man's unwell mind he felt that it was actually the answer to his problems. We can never fully know what is going on in someone else's mind. No matter how nice the neighbourhood, nor how lovely things can seem on the outside, there's sometimes terrible sorrow and desperation behind.

I'm not sure about the mental illness - in most cases like this, it's about control. At the ultimate level.

It's utterly sickening, and I can't even bear to think of what those kids and woman went through.

I am staggered at this thread.

The guy who shot his wife and daughter at a swimming pool- long history of dv.

The guy who battered his son with a cricket bat- (Australia) long history of dv.

The guy who set fire to his boys in their loft- long history of dv.

MN's verdict- oh dear, let down by the mh services. Wtf.

This is an interesting article about family annihilators- mostly men and often not known to mental health, and 20% in August (not sure why) www.wired.co.uk/article/family-killers

I'm afraid I'm in the 'controlling, most likely violent' camp.

Yes, women do take their own lives, together with their children sometimes. Many, many more men take their partner's life, along with their children's and their own.

This is absolutely about men. Because most violent crime such as this is committed by men. And I love my dh and ds with everything I've got, I'm absolutely not a man hater.

if you really do live 400 yards away from the house that this tragic family lived in, then i'd get MNHQ to edit your post and mine, as it's very identifying.

Why is it almost always men who do this?

Poor children. They must have been petrified. I wonder if they knew their mother was dead and what he had planned. 😢

Either someone who is very unwell, or someone who is an evil bastard who deserves to burn in hell. Hard to tell which.