Alleged Crumbley warning signs: Bird head in jar, mom's affair, troubling drawings

[marmar]

(Detroit News) Rochester Hills — In the weeks leading up to the Oxford school shooting, suspect Ethan Crumbley's dog died, his only friend moved and he carried a baby bird's head in a jar to school, prosecutors said.

Despite signs of sadness and disturbing text messages, his mom engaged in an extramarital affair and both parents spent hours each week tending to the family's horses, prosecutors claim.

"Instead of paying attention to their son and getting him help, they bought him a gun," Oakland County prosecutors wrote in a court filing Thursday.

Prosecutors filed a pointed rebuke of James and Jennifer Crumbley, who are seeking to have their $500,000 bond lowered at a Jan. 7 hearing. They remain jailed on charges of involuntary manslaughter after their son was accused of killing four classmates at Oxford High School on Nov. 30.

Prosecutors also for the first time released troubling drawings that officials say caused teachers to remove Ethan from class hours before the shooting. ............(more)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2021/12/23/prosecutor-ahead-bond-review-crumbleys-put-home-sale-sold-horses-and-pose-flight-risk/9010898002/

[Sanity Claws]

1. Some people have no business being parents

[SoCalDavidS]

2. I Have A Bad Feeling

That their bail is going to be reduced, and they’re able to get out. Time has passed since their little joy run to escape justice, and our judicial system seems to show compassion in these situations. Some sob story, and how they want to suddenly “be there for their son,” and the judge will feel sorry, and lower bail to something they’ll be able to manage.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Being hurt doesn't mean you can hurt other people, but the more I learn about this kid's parents,

the more I feel sorry for him. He was set up to fail.

[BlackSkimmer]

9. I agree.

They might never have laid a hand on him, but this child was in an abusive situation. Very, very sad.

[KS Toronado]

4. Another warning sign was her text message ie: "Don't get caught"

[Buckeyeblue]

5. I don't know how this kid can be prosecuted

His parents fucked him up beyond belief. He needs to be in a mental health facility.

It seems to me that in their filing to keep the parents bail high, the prosecutors have made the case for the kid's insanity defense.

Maybe that was by design.

[Luciferous]

6. Yeah, I agree.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I wondered that, too. They may be able to build enough of

an insanity defense that he will end up in a mental facility instead of prison.

[Bettie]

8. At 15, there may be a chance for him to

have a different kind of life. It seems that his parents damaged him quite a lot.

This didn't have to happen.

[Progressive Jones]

14. Regardless of the scum who were "raising" him, he murdered people, and must face that.

His parents ought to be considered accomplices in his murder spree, and charged accordingly. .
They enabled him to go on that murder spree. To a lesser degree, so did the school.

[Buckeyeblue]

15. I'm not suggesting that nothing happen

I'm just saying that I think the kid is very deeply disturbed and possibly insane (if that's still the proper term).

And I agree with you that the parents are very much responsible. And it looks like they are going to be held accountable. I think the school has some responsibility as well. Whoever made the decision that he could go back to class after the meeting with the parents exercised poor judgment. If the parents were unwilling to get the boy immediate help, he should have been suspended.

[CousinIT]

10. I thought this was a headline about some horror film. Then realized it's about...

...yet another needless shooting in America where some people who are honestly too stupid to be parents give their disturbed kid a gun.

It's a horror story, for sure. But in America, it's real life, not a Stephen King novel.

Jeeeze.

[karynnj]

11. What a messed up family

I have no background in psychiatry, but I think that child should have been evaluated and likely hospitalized as soon as any adult learned about the bird head. Coupled with the disturbing photos, he not only needed help, he needed to be removed from that school immediately. He sounds like a bomb that inevitably was going to explode.

Losing his dog and only friend would be tough for any kid although almost all kids have more than 1 friend. While it would be tough and harder as he seemed to get no help from his parents, these things would not cause the vast majority of kids to hurt others, much less become a mass murder.

I would bet though that his parents' actions in that week were not unique. They may have been this awful for his whole life. One of the first things said of them was how the father took him to buy the gun and the mother took him to the shooting range. It is jarring to consider that that attention was in contrast to their lack of interest otherwise. I can understand why the DA is charging them.

It probably can not be proven that their parenting was the direct cause of his crime. What is clear is that they gave a kid they had to know was troubled access to a gun. When the school asked them to take him home and get him help, at minimum they should have discreetly told the school he had access to a gun which would have led to a back pack check.

[scipan]

12. I really wonder how his dog died.

He’s showing all the signs of psychopathy, although you can’t be diagnosed with it until you’re 18.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

13. Actually psychopath kids

Can demonstrate signs of psychopathy as young as 2