"My Son Has Killed My Wife"
Late one afternoon in June 2006, Joe Bruce of Caratunk,
Maine, came home from work to find his wife dead. He called 911 and told the
dispatcher that his 24-year-old schizophrenic son, William, had killed her,
that he couldn't find the son, and that he was arming himself for
self-defense.
On June 20, two months after his son's release, Joe
Bruce returned home from his office to find his wife'sbattered, bloodied body.
William was gone.
According to the medical examiner's report, Amy died of
multiple blunt-force trauma and chop injuries to her head. She was 47 years
old.
Police arrested William Bruce at his grandparents' house and
later charged him with killing his mother. He told a psychologist that the Pope
told him to kill his mother because she was involved with al Qaeda and Saddam
Hussein. Joe Bruce became William's legal guardian and gained access to his
medical records. When police returned Amy Bruce's purse to Joe, he found an
unsent letter she had written to her eldest son. It read...
"I've always had this horrible feeling that I've let you down in some way," she wrote. "The only wish I have is that someday we can look each other straight in the eyes and say I'm sorry and I love you more than life itself." She added: "I will not give up on you ever."
About Amy and Joe’s son:
William said the first time he came to Riverview, he refused
to believe he was mentally ill and approached the PAIMI advocates because he wanted
out.
The PAIMI program, operated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with a 2008 budget of $34.8 million a year, funds protection-and-advocacy agencies in each state. Typically nonprofits, these groups sometimes receive supplemental funding from states.
"They helped me immensely with getting out of the hospital, so I was
very happy," he said. He later added,"The advocates didn't protect me
from myself, unfortunately."
These days, William is taking criminal-justice classes
online through Colorado Technical University. He points proudly to his 3.94
grade-point average and says he hopes to attend law school to learn more about mental-health
laws. William and his father talk on the phone almost every day. "He stood
by me the whole time despite the horrible tragedy...despite what I did,"
William said. "I am the man I am today because of my dad."
While William believes patients deserve some protection, he
said he understands his father's fight to strengthen commitment and treatment
laws.
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