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| Forensic psychologist, Gianni Pirelli (APP) |
It need not be said that a mother who does this is suffering
from a mental disorder known as psychosis - commonly called insanity. This is
when an individual breaks from reality and lives in an alternate universe of
their own making, unaware that it isn’t real.
A common feature of this ailment is hallucinations,
including hearing voices that instruct them to do things that would be
diabolical and inexplicable to normal people but seem quite positive and
logical to the psychotic. They might interpret these voices as coming from God
or some sort of religious figure telling them to do the unthinkable. Convincing
them that by doing it they are actually doing the world a huge favor.
This was the case with Naomi Elkins. As reported in the Asbury Park Press:
When Naomi Elkins killed her two toddlers last year, she believed their deaths would eradicate all evil in the world and bring about the coming of the Messiah, (forensic psychologist, Gianni Pirelli) testified Tuesday.
On the morning of June 25, Elkins, 27, of Lakewood, was making food in preparation for the Messiah’s coming…
Then, she took her daughters, ages 3 and 22 months, to the preschool where she worked as a teacher and where her children were enrolled... But on the car ride home, she started having dark thoughts…
‘She thought that if she destroyed her children, she would be destroying all the evil in the world,’ the psychologist testified at Elkins' trial for the murders of both of her children.
Pirelli was the only witness at the trial, which lasted about an hour and a half.
At its conclusion, Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan found that while Elkins did kill both her children, she was not guilty by reason of insanity.
I don’t think there can be any doubt about the verdict. It was the right call. But
I have to wonder - where was everybody else during this woman’s break from
reality? Insanity does not generally go unnoticed by others.
Psychosis can be treated with medication so that people with
this disorder can lead more or less normal lives. Was Naomi under any
psychiatric care? Was she given any medication for her condition? If so, was she being
monitored to ensure she was taking it?
Where was her husband during all this? Why did he not ensure
that she was being monitored while he was out of town on a business trip? How
is it possible that her psychotic delusions went unnoticed by her students,
fellow faculty members, or her principal? Did she hide all of these thoughts
all the time? Even from her husband?
I can’t answer any of these questions. It’s possible that
she somehow masked her insanity and otherwise seemed quite normal. But it’s
hard for me to imagine that her husband, with whom she had two children, never
noticed any of her psychotic delusions.
At the end of the day, her community failed her. My guess is
that someone, somewhere in her life must have known that something was
seriously off with this woman and did nothing.
And yet, it’s hard to blame anyone for this tragedy. Even if
they saw or heard some odd comments from her, there was probably no way of
knowing that it could ever lead to her killing her own children.
But still… it just seems like there is something off about this story. Something untold. As I recently noted, there are a lot of serious issues the community of Lakewood needs to deal with that are seemingly being ignored. I suspect that dealing with mental illness is one of them.
