Richard Russell: What Happened?

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If you’ve followed the sad story of Richard Russell, you have to be scratching your head and wondering what happened.

Was this a suicide mission of a man who kept it all inside?

Was Russell on a joy ride and didn’t think of the consequences? Or was it something else?

When you listen to him speak to air traffic control, you get moments where he sounds like he understands the gravity of the situation (albeit briefly)–moments of reality–paired up with moments where you wonder if he is delusional–where he has an altered sense of reality (like he is in a dream playing video games). In the delusional state, he is happy, light-hearted and doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of it all — like when he says, ““I think I’m going to try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good I’ll go nose down and call it a night.”

You could take that last statement as he knew what he doing.  OR, you could also argue this was a man who for a moment thought he was playing a video game and was going to “call it a night”.

You know how you have dream states where things from the real world are impacting you, but you aren’t totally grasping things?  That’s the feelings I get when I listen to Russell. Something feels off.  He doesn’t sound grounded to me.

I don’t believe this was a suicide and I don’t believe Russell went on a joy ride for the sake of a joy ride. And his friends seem to support this theory. Russell wasn’t a big bravado jerk who had to prove his worth, or who would want to go out with a big bang, if you will.

His friends and co-workers say he was a responsible, kind and compassionate man. None of his friends think this situation is inline with Russell’s character. On the contrary, they are very surprised and shocked.

So many things could have caused this and I’m sure investigators will explore all of them from drugs (prescription or illicit), late-age onset mental illness, and other things that can set off delusional behavior.  It will be interesting to see what they uncover.  I hope for the family they get some answers.

What do you think happened here?

Death by Text on 48 Hours: What’s the motivation?

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Tonight, CBS 48 Hours profiled the horrific story of the suicide of teenager Conrad Roy. He was encouraged through text to commit suicide by a so-called “friend”, Michelle Carter. The text between the two are sad to read. Carter is incredibly callous and cold. And you can see in the videos of Roy, he was truly a great guy.

When watching 48 Hours, what was most shocking to me was the lack of understanding about what likely caused Carter to do this. Her motive is very clear to me. While I agree that she wanted attention, as mentioned by the prosecutors, it wasn’t her main underlying motivation. None of the psychologists seem to say why she did this. They seemed bewildered, understandably.

However, as an expert in understanding human behavior, I suspect Carter must have realized at some point in her life that she could manipulate people, and she was successful at it in certain circumstances. That ability to manipulate people, I believe, gave have her a huge sense of power. She enjoyed it. She relished in it. It made her feel significant, in control and brilliant.

I believe Carter thrived on the manipulation and control, and it was her ultimate goal to see how far she could manipulate Roy. If she could get him to commit suicide, it was her ultimate, however sick, power game that would prove her superiority to herself. It would prove to her that she was very brilliant–above people in ways they couldn’t understand.

This is a common trait of someone who is psychopathic. Psychopaths realize they can read other people well, toy with them and manipulate them. They get great joy out of the power and control.

I don’t know whether Carter is or is not a psychopath, I’m not a psychologist, but she shows several indicators that support the possibility.

If you notice during her trial, the only time she felt emotions was for herself.

Michelle Carter truly gives me the chills.

My heart goes out to Roy’s family. He was a special guy. You can clearly see he was a compassionate person who was victimized by a person without any compassion. I hope and pray Carter gets an appropriate sentence and Roy’s family can somehow find peace.

Tyler Deaton on 48 Hours

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Did you catch 48 Hours this weekend? It’s a mystery as to what actually happened to Bethany Deaton. Did she commit suicide or was she murdered?

Bethany was found in her van with a bag over her head. She had inhaled the bag into her mouth, according to reports, and died with her eyes open, which according to investigators, was unusual.

Bethany was married to Tyler Deaton, and their relationship involved a lot of twists and turns with stories of Tyler running a cult to ultimately identifying himself as gay. He claims to have never consummated his marriage to Bethany, and yet with these weird circumstances calls himself “charismatic” oddly.

One thing is clear:  Tyler was able to get people to follow him through the guise of religion and he got people to do what he wanted. I am not sure “charismatic” is the term for that, but it seems to be Tyler’s word.

Tyler demonstrates in his interview with 48 Hours that he is very comfortable bending the truth when it suits him.

“You manipulated several men into having sex with you. Is that right?”  Troy Roberts, on 48 Hours, asked Deaton.

“[Laughs] No. That’s not correct,” Tyler replied.

“Well, correct me,” said Troy Roberts.

“I’ve never had sex with anybody,” said Tyler.

And yet Boze Herrington, one of his cult followers, said, “He told us that he had been … practicing for his honeymoon with another guy but not in a sexual, just a physical way.”

You can clearly see the manipulation here.

He later admitted to having oral sex with a guy, but not “sex”.  Yeah, right.

So what happened to Bethany?

I do not believe that Bethany committed suicide.

And I can say this:  I do not trust Tyler one iota. His reactions to what happened to Bethany make absolutely no sense, if he is uninvolved as he wants us to believe. What level of involvement he has, I would need to see more interviews.

I am happy to hear the police are continuing to investigate this case.