Daniel and Katherine
June 29, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
This is a photo of Daniel Benoit and his father Chris Benoit.
This is an article about the trial of Karen McCarron, who is charged with “two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of obstructing justice and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in the May 13, 2006, death of her daughter Katherine.” On Thursday, June 28th, Tazewell County Judge Steven Kouri heard arguments regarding a defense motion to suppress the McCarron’s confessions made to police at a hospital on the day after Katherine’s death.
This is a photo of Katherine.
This is a ribbon for her. And when I wear it, I’m thinking now of Daniel too.
I have been wondering how long it would take before the “Fragile X” aspect of the case becomes mentioned every time the Benoit incident is discussed in the media.
It will be interesting to see if the fact that his son was disabled is latched onto as “justification” for the father’s behavior. So far it seems the mention has been fairly neutral, but I don’t think it will remain that way.
It seems stories like this go thru 3 phases:
1) the disability isn’t know about, so isn’t mentioned,
2) the disability is known about, and gets mentioned every time the story is told (as though the victim’s disability is pertinent to the story), and
3) there is a subtle (or not so subtle) message that the disability was the cause for the person’s abusing/murdering them.
Joe
Primary attention seems to have been developed to “roid rage” and to Benoit’s use of steroids—-this ABC News story reports that needle marks were also found on Daniel’s arms: “At the crime scene, Benoit’s son was found with needle marks in his arm and law enforcement officials initially said they believed the boy was being injected with human growth hormone because he was undersized.”
The ABC news report contains these paragraphs, the second of which is troubling.
Heart and thoughts are with both. I too, like Joe, was wondering similar thoughts that he wrote. I truly hope our justice system prevails in both.