Woman Kills Family After Being Shunned by Jehovah's Witnesses

Every bit the demons consumed her, Lauren Stuart plotted.

Weeks earlier she did the unthinkable, the distraught Keego Harbor adult female researched suicide methods on YouTube and watched videos on how to utilize a Glock handgun.

She made a video of herself saying that she was "broken" and that she didn't want to burden her family. She left a suicide notation on the dinner table, tidied up the house, texted a relative and her hubby'southward dominate,  and turned over the family photos on a secretary desk-bound.

And so, she concluded it all.

"I took my husband and kids with me so they don't have to feel my selfish act. They will slumber until Christ resurrects them," Stuart texted a cousin on Feb. 15 at v:07 p.one thousand. "I truly hope you do better where I have failed."

Months after a murder suicide stunned the sleepy town of Keego Harbor, the Free Press has obtained investigative documents that shed lite on what collection an aspiring model to kill her two grown children, her husband, herself and the family domestic dog.

Co-ordinate to law records and interviews with family unit, friends and neighbors, Stuart  battled many problems, including depression, ostracism from the Jehovah Witness church building, and mental scars stemming from alleged sexual corruption as a kid.

More:Friends: Jehovah'due south Witnesses shunning drove mom to murder-suicide

More:Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses break silence on shunning

These factors combined, police believe, led Stuart to cavern to despair on a February weekday when she fatally shot her son, daughter and hubby — using pillows to suppress the sound — before shooting herself between the eyes.

According to police records obtained through the Liberty of Information Human activity, here is a timeline detailing what happened, on both the day of the killings and the weeks leading upwardly to them:

• Feb. 6 at 11 p.one thousand.: Lauren recorded a two-minute video of herself explaining that her pending suicide had nil to do with her family, but that she had "many issues," that she "tin't do information technology anymore" and didn't desire to be a burden to her family unit.
• February. 7 at around 1 p.m.: She recorded another short video talking virtually her "path of devastation" and babyhood sexual corruption by a relative that she said drove her to want to commit suicide.
• Feb. 15 at 9:24 a.one thousand.: Lauren sent her married man'southward boss a text: "Mark, this is Lauren. Dan had a accident this morn and has died. I tin can't talk now. Someone will inform you later on details at infirmary." The dominate texted dorsum asking for more than information, just she never responded.
• February. 15 at 5:07 p.m.: Lauren texted her cousin telling her she "became evil" and that she "took my married man and kids so they don't have to experience my selfish human action." That was the last communication Lauren ever made. Her cousin texted her back stating: "Lauren, you are scaring me? What are u saying????? … Don't do it Lauren."
• Feb. 15 between ix and 10 p.m.: A neighbor heard gunshots. She thought someone was slamming doors. It was Lauren killing the dog, which was found in a bathtub the side by side morning by police, along with the four bodies.

The cousin, who tried texting Lauren again at ane a.m., never heard back. She went over to the firm the post-obit morning with a friend. When no one came to the door, she called police to conduct a welfare check.

'This was premeditated'

Law still don't know exactly what time the family members were shot, only they believe the daughter was killed start and that the female parent lured her 27-year-old son over to the house, citing a text bulletin she wrote her son on Valentine'southward Day, request him if he "was still coming over to the house" at apex on Feb. 15. He had already been there on Valentine's Day.

"This was premeditated and carefully planned out past Lauren," wrote police, who believe Lauren Stuart had her son over on Valentine'due south Day to comport a  "dry run" of her murder-suicide.

When police arrived at the house the morning of Feb. 16, the  kitchen was organized. The refrigerator was stocked. Handwritten labels were on various items and a calendar hung on the refrigerator.

Offset, they institute the domestic dog. An officer, fearing there was an agile shooter, yelled to a partner, "get your gun out? There's a dead dog in the tub."

Boosted units were called. The officers and so climbed a spiral staircase to the second floor and establish the son. Steven Stuart, a skilled figurer expert similar his dad, facedown on the floor of a spare bedroom. Police say they believe he was sitting in a chair when he was shot in the caput twice and fell to the floor.

In some other bedroom, they found the daughter, Bethany, 24, a graphic designer and passionate artist who was shot in the head while she slept in a bed. A pillow was placed over her caput beforehand, presumably to suppress the sound. Constabulary found visible gunshots through the pillow case.

Stewart's husband, Dan, a software designer at the Academy of Michigan Medical Schoolhouse, was found on the basement floor in front of a couch with a gunshot wound to the head. His right mitt was in the front pocket of his jeans and the white pocket liner was slightly pulled from the left pocket, suggesting he was continuing when he was shot and tried to react, thus pulling the pocket liner.

Lauren was found at the base of operations of the stairs in a corner with a pistol side by side to her. She had shot herself betwixt the eyes, a method she had researched on the Net.

On the dinner table there were 2 notes. 1 was addressed to the Medical Examiner, the other a suicide note.

"I allowed evil into my heart when I chose non to accept God'due south free love and it made me ill inside," she wrote. "I killed my family because I know my decease would stumble them. At to the lowest degree now they will not endure and volition be resurrected into dearest forever in peace."

Immersed in religion

Law interviewed multiple family members, friends and neighbors who described the Stuarts as a quiet and sometimes "odd" couple who were estranged from their family unit because of their leaving the Jehovah's Witness church building about x years ago.

Multiple family unit members said that Lauren, who had xi siblings, long suffered from depression that got worse after she had her children. In recent months, they said she became more religiously preoccupied and went off on rants.

Lauren'southward father told police that he had not spoken to his girl in years and that her mother died when she was 13. He said that he never cared for her hubby and that he believes "Dan pulled Lauren away from the family."

One of Lauren'due south sisters told police that she had not spoken to Lauren in six years and that she, too, believes "Dan pulled Lauren away from the family."  She told police that Lauren and her husband both suffered from mental affliction and that they "fed off of each other." She said her sister was deemed "Apostasy" for speaking out against the JWs and leaving the organization.

"It is clear that Lauren showed symptoms of severe depression and displayed abnormal behavior leading up to the incident," police wrote in their investigative notes. "It would appear that Lauren immersed herself in her own world of her version of religion and increased depression."

She got no assist. No professional counseling. No prescription drugs were found in her arrangement. And although in that location was no alcohol found in her arrangement, according to the investigation study, in that location were small traces of marijuana found in her system, and also in that of her husband and son.

That, coupled with the loneliness, the loss of family and friends over religion and childhood scars, "manifested, magnified and drove her" to do what she did, police concluded.

"Lauren's' complete immersion into religion appeared to accept merely farther alienated her and her family from friends and other family which may have compounded her already fragile land of mind," police force wrote, noting one of Lauren's sisters expressed footling remorse about the tragedy.

In a statement that perhaps best exemplifies how estranged from her family unit Lauren was, police wrote:

"(The sis) showed a very solemn and somber demeanor when she spoke and stated that she is not pitiful for Lauren and her family and that when she heard the news of her sister'due south deportment, she was non surprised in the slightest."

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.

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Source: https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/05/18/keego-harbor-murder-suicide-lauren-stuart/620709002/