Local News, Public Safety
Expert: Kehoe thought killing sons was right thing to do
Posted on Nov 04, 2009 by Trish Mehaffey.
Psychiatrist Michael Taylor testifies in Grundy Center court on Wednesday that Michelle Kehoe knew right from wrong when she slit the throats of her children. "She was a finely tuned machine," he added. Mary Chind/The Des Moines Register
Michelle Kehoe’s expert witness said today that Kehoe believed killing her 2-year-old son Seth and attempting to kill her 7-year-old son Sean was the right thing to do.
Marilyn Hutchinson, a Kansas City, Mo., psychologist, said Kehoe, who suffers from severe depression, personality and complusive disorder, delusions and other problems, thought suicide was the only way out for her and her sons that day in October 2008 when she slashed the boys’ throats in a remote location near Littleton.
Dr. Michael Taylor, a psychiatrist for the prosecution, testified that he had no doubt Kehoe was competent the day she hurt her sons and knew exactly what she was doing.
The defense rested and closing arguments will start at 9 a.m. Thursday in the murder trial of Kehoe, 36, of Coralville. The judge read the jury instructions this afternoon and the jury should start deliberations by noon Thursday.
Hutchinson said most of Kehoe’s issues stem from her childhood of physical and mental abuse. She was molested by a step-father and his nephew as a child and betrayed by her mother who chose to abandon her after Kehoe said she was being molested She always felt like something was wrong with her, which is typical for abused children.
Kehoe was obsessed with being a “perfect” mother, Hutchinson said. She dropped out of college because she wanted to be a mother and wife. She wanted to redo her own childhood but it was too overwhelming for her, she said.
Hutchinson explained Kehoe never had the correct medication for her mental illness or the adequate therapy.
The day Kehoe ran her car off the road in Iowa City into the Iowa River in December of 2007 was significant in respect to the Oct. 26 incident, Hutchinson said. She felt guilt over almost killing the boys that day and guilt for putting the rescuers in danger.
Kehoe felt it was proof that she could hurt them.
Hutchinson said Kehoe wanted to kill her children to save them. She thought she could save them from a lifetime of depression that she had and save them from a mother who would commit suicide. Kehoe also wanted to kill them before they reached the age of accountability, so they could go to heaven.
Taylor took a different view of Kehoe. He agreed she had major depressive disorder but she understood the nature and quality of her actions. She didn’t have any delusions or halluncinations.She had a precise, methodical plan that day and by making up the story of the “bad man” who kidnapped them showed she knew her actions were wrong.
Kehoe explained to him the events that day of how she put duct tape on the boys eyes so they wouldn’t know it was “Mommy” and how she turned Seth around and sliced his throat. She described cutting Sean’s throat and how the boys struggled.
Taylor said he asked Kehoe what she would have done if he or a police officer drove by that night and she said she would have stopped and drove to Sumner. “That’s inconsistent with a woman who can’t tell right from wrong.”
maxineiship
04. Nov, 2009
If Michelle Kehoe was as unstable as the doctors are testifying, WHY were those two boys allowed to be in her care ???
crazyabouthim
04. Nov, 2009
That's my question as well. The therapist advised her husband to remove all knives and guns…wouldn't that alarm most parents that perhaps she shouldn't be left alone with the children???
onequestion
05. Nov, 2009
crazyabouthim, could you please share which therapist told her husband this and when the therapist told him? I could not watch the live coverage and obviously missed this part. Thanks.
OwenHarper
04. Nov, 2009
It must be difficult to imagine that your wife would do something like this.
The easiest thing in the world to do is to look back and know what should have been done. I'm sure Mr. Kehoe feels bad enough already without your 2 cents worth and unless you can walk a mile or two in his shoes you should bite your tongue.
nelliefox
04. Nov, 2009
well said………….
EKG
05. Nov, 2009
Because from everything I have seen and heard, she was not truthful with most of her professional therapists. WHen asked if she was suicidal or having thoughts of harming herself, she would deny any such things. It is only after the crime did she really get serious about being honest with the doctors that interviewed her. She didn't have much to loose by that time. But until this crime, Mrs Kehoe HID ALMOST EVERYTHING WITHIN HER! Typical for a mentally disturbed person to do!
mcn402ne
04. Nov, 2009
I would love to hear jury instructions.
onequestion
04. Nov, 2009
I could not follow the testimony live today. Could someone please share with me who said the therapist told the husband to remove all knives and guns and when he was advised to do this? Thanks.
lvtycoon
04. Nov, 2009
why waist tax payer money …. send him down south ….. Since we are becoming more like china
CR64
04. Nov, 2009
Why "waist" our time with an asinine comment? DOH!
KarmaDog
05. Nov, 2009
Do you even have a clue what the story is about?
it's a female on trial
and WTF does China have to do with it
ctiger
05. Nov, 2009
No one could have predicted that she would harm her kids. In severe cases of depression as she she had, the danger is usually suicide, not murder.
I hope that no one will make this tragedy worse for her family by speculating and second guessing.
WWJD1
05. Nov, 2009
Where are all the people who are concerned about Michelle Kehoe’s child abuse to the same degree that they complain about other children's abuse. In part, this is what can happen when an abused child grows up! To do what Michelle did is insanity no matter what!
WWJD1
05. Nov, 2009
Abused child, no abused child protesters, abused child grows up and tries to kill both children and herself, the whole thing is insanity!
EKG
05. Nov, 2009
agreed! This woman is made out to me a monster…. but she is also a very tragic victim! But we just want to lynch her for what she did. What about what was done to HER!
WWJD1
05. Nov, 2009
EKG; you connected the dots, way to go!!!
LivinInNECR
05. Nov, 2009
It's an excuse we hear time and time again. I was abused as a child so now that I'm an adult I'm prone to doing the same thing. I tell you what – I grew up in a family of 5 children. We were not spanked, we were beat with anything they could get thier hands on – magazines, shoes, hangers, fly swatter – you name it and i was probably hit with it. We were all verbally abused. There was an incident in my past where I was sexually abused by two cousins. I am 40 years old. I have not beat my children, I have not murdered anyone, I have not committed suicide. It is an excuse that people who make poor decisions use to justify thier bad choices. Period. Too bad Iowa doesn't have capital punishment any longer – she'd make a good candidate for it.
Ann_Onamouse
05. Nov, 2009
You were lucky in that you had the fortitude to pull yourself out. Not everyone has the mental capabilities to withstand severe abuse, and still come out "on top". i don't think we will ever know why some people become stronger while others snap. "There, but for the grace of God…"
Be thankful. Be very very thankful, that you beat it.
NomerBull
05. Nov, 2009
Excellent and well said. Lots of us experienced unhappiness and even abuse as children. It does not excuse us from our obligation to behave decently as adults. We still know right from wr.ong.
Kehoe knew right from wr.ong, too. She planned and carried out the murder and attempted murder of her own children, anyway.
I noticed the defense had to go all the way to Kansas City to find a "doctor" willing to give such testimony to try to excuse Kehoe's actions. I also noticed that the title "doctor" was not in fr.ont of her name like it was for Dr Michael Taylor, a Des Moines psychiatrist. Subtle difference, but informative when you recognize it.
Ann_Onamouse
05. Nov, 2009
Are you going to be the one to tell her surviving son?
"Mommy is sick, it is bad to kill people, we are going to kill your mommy, now"
How 'd ya think he'd take to that, on top of everything else he has suffered?
mommaof3
05. Nov, 2009
What i don't understand is why didn't the husband make sure that his kids werent around her after she tried to kill them the first time. Especially when he knew that she was so sick. Myself I think he shouldn't have the son. I mean what is he going to ignore his son if he starts having problems also.
Ann_Onamouse
05. Nov, 2009
She (it would appear) became an "expert" at hiding what was truly going on with her. Sadly, it happens.
WWJD1
05. Nov, 2009
LivininNECR, just how badly would a child have to be sexually, emotionally, physically abused before it would become a reason (i.e. not excuse) for an illegal behavior which might end up being justified in a court of law even though there was a law against it?
Ann_Onamouse
05. Nov, 2009
I don't think anyone was aware that this was an attempt at taking their lives. I remember that, and I too, thought it was an"accident". I can't imagine her husband thinking that it was an attempted murder, that is a really dark place to go.
WWJD1
05. Nov, 2009
LivininNECR, everybody is different, every situation is different, you coped, she didn't or couldn't; innocent until guilty, insanity until proven beyond a shadow of a doubt normal.
Ann_Onamouse
05. Nov, 2009
To those who think Kehoe is a "good candidate" for the death penalty- would you stop and consider how her surviving son may feel about this?
Dudie
05. Nov, 2009
Good point. Opens a whole other level of tragedy. What a case!!
Dudie
05. Nov, 2009
It just seems obvious this person is completely insane. This is borne out by her 'look' and body language in the court room. Now she must be put away and this horrendous tragedy will be put to rest. What that does for the husband and living son… who knows?
snapin2slimjim
05. Nov, 2009
"It just seems obvious this person is completely insane. This is borne out by her 'look' and body language in the court room."
Ha ha ha. Now there's some sound reasoning.