Detroit Free Press blames Autistic adult for his murder

Post Reply New Topic

Trigger Warning
Melvindale murder-suicide shows heartbreak of autism

Please flood the comments section with outrage

There doesn't seem to be a comment option. (Many media outlets have stopped offering commenting on their articles due to the large number of trolls.) The problem isn't really with the Free Press per se, but with this "Autism Alliance" group. It sounds like it's yet another "autistics are so bad that we can't blame the parents for killing them" type organization.

There are already 21 comments in the comment section from what I can tell and there's an option to make more. You have to click the comment icon to view the comments.

Being tied to a chair, drugged out on antipsychotics in a Detroit group home, beats a bullet in the head. I guess.

Michigan offers very little to low income autistic, low functioning adults. The state makes it so hard to get any help, and would love it if the parents would have a cup of STFU and just deal.

We have almost nothing in emergency services. If the man was aggressive on top of his autism, the pool shrinks even smaller. Our services are delivered by country. Melvindale is in Wayne County, which also has the City of Detroit. Our community mental health unit is the Wayne County Jail. That is almost not a joke. Easter Seals has an ungodly wait, and community mental health's "emergency" appointments are a 4 week wait.

The parent had two choices. A drive and dump to the local ER and let social services sort it out, or the police station. That is really the only way to light a fire under the ass of social services. If the father was ill, where the hell where HIS doctors? I'm sure they knew about his son. So many people dropped the ball on this one.

The father could have punted the son to adult social services. He would get a medicaid group home, most likely in Detroit, and then a medicaid nursing home. That takes months, and if you are suicidally depressed, I'm guessing you aren't going to wait.

So all the righteous rage should really be at the Michigan social services who does nothing. To the people who b***h about their taxes being raised and how they want NO adult group homes in their nice neighborhoods. To the people who decide low income, autistic adults should get the bare minimum in services, and see no problem warehousing the poor in nasty group homes.

The father was flat out wrong, but we all have a hand in this mess too...

The way I took the article was that they were blaming lack of services for adults. I can't imagine a parent ever killing their child for any reason, so I can't wrap my mind around the situation at all, but I saw the blame placed on the lack of services in the article. Just my viewpoint of it though.

I saw it the same way too. I also cannot see malicious when a parent kills themselves after the murder. If there was malicious there, then wouldn't the parent try and cover it up and get away with it and live on with their perfect life they wanted? Why even kill yourself too? What I see is fear and someone who couldn't handle it so they end it and they take people with them sometimes. I have had those thoughts too but what stopped me from doing it was knowing I would be hurting my parents and my in laws and I would have to take them with me too and then my brothers and sibling in laws would be hard and their relatives and I would have to take them all with me and then more people will be affected by it and where does it end?

LG, sometimes they pretend to attempt suicide, like for example taking enough pills to land themselves in the hospital but not enough to kill them.

What was objectionable was the entire article was about the parents suffering, not a word about the autistic adult suffering from lack of services. Even if services become available at some future point Nicholas Richett won't be able to take advantage of them because his dad decided to murder him. But to the writers of this article and the expert quoted Nicholas Richett was not a person just a symbol of the burden of autism to families.

I see they decided to change the title of the article from emphasizing burden to emphasizing lack of services apparently because unlike here a lot of commentators felt the way I do

You brought up a valid point, why do these stories offer up so little about what the murdered Autistic person was like?

I have a friend who does news stories (not the above paper). He said the laws that protect you from others knowing your business (HIPAA), also hamper reporting.

Any services Nicholas received, those workers can not talk to a reporter. Family members will almost never talk, unless there is a lot of conflict, and an axe to grind.

I'm guessing almost all of Nicholas in real life contact with people was service providers, and maybe some family. If his friends are non verbal, and under guardianship, you won't get a quote there. My reporter friend said all most all you have to work from is the police report and maybe a non family friend of the murderer/murdered person. If you can find someone who will talk. There is usually no obit in the paper either.

The sadder issue is this story had no run in the news here. I think I heard the initial breaking story (two men dead in Melvindale), on the radio. It was not mentioned more than that. The story was buried in a county related section of the newspaper online. It didn't even make above the fold.

The only reason I know about it is because of your post.

Until case workers can openly talk about clients, you will never get more than what is offered up. My reporter friend says you get the police report, call a few organizations, try and find anyone else to talk. Most won't because dead is dead and what good will it do. (I don't agree with that view point).

Reporters would love to write more, but there is only so much one can do with scraps of information.

If the victim is deemed interesting enough despite the obstacles reporters find a way. In the case this is hardly even deemed worthy as a news story at all. I guess Kelly Ann Stapleton is the quota for Autistics killed by their parents deemed newsworthy. Which is even far worse then this horrifically worded story.

The whole reason behind newspapers is to sell ad space. An adult murder suicide isn't sexy enough to warrant more than a few columns. Why should a reporter bust his neck, when he knows the story will only run for one day, and the editor will ask, "Who even cares, both people are dead." And editors are that crass. It's all column inches vs advertising, and the ads always win.

Frankly, I'm surprised the story even made it into the Freep. We had a murder suicide (husband/wife) my city, and it only made it into the little local paper.

Adult stories never have the same draw as children. Had that been (God forbid) a little 10 year old, the story would had more legs.

It's crap Nicholas was treated as inconsequential but at least we know he was murdered. On a busy news day, that story wouldn't have it into the paper.

We're all capable of expressing ourselves here, as a matter of course. And sure, I'm biased because I'm just an aspie.

But some good friends of mine have 3 kids, and the youngest is profoundly autistic.

He is nonverbal and doesn't take instruction much. When he's in the right mood he's a wonderful child, but when he's being a little poop he's really a little poop.

The long & short of it is that he requires adult supervision 24/7 at this point, and has for a few years now. and this is NOT easy on his parents.

He'll turn out ok. The experts predict that when he hits puberty he will find something he's interested in communicating about, and he'll decide to talk. or at least type.

But right now it's really hard.

And I'm not saying that "autism" was responsible for the murder-suicide.

typically murder-suicides are perpetrated by people who can't cope. A neurotypical or mostly neurotypical person did a bad thing because he couldn't see any way forward. Under a lot of pressure he did something rash. It's just sad.

What I find frustrating is whenever a parent kills a disabled child, there is sympathy but when a parent who also cannot cope or suffers from a mental illness kills their normal kids, they are painted as a monster and they have no sympathy.

...Will read .

I dunno. We had a lady out here who had half a dozen mummified newborns in her garage.

Turns out she has a really weak personality, and her husband is an as*hole who both didn't want kids and wouldn't let her use birth control.

Yeah, she's in jail, but it's just sad.