Familicide and suicide in a case of gambling dependence

A former army officer unexpectedly killed his wife and two daughters by strangulation and afterwards hanged himself. Psychological autopsy (police investigation, forensic expertise, psychiatric records and interviews) showed how an ordinary young man, functioning well at work and normally in family life, had become a homicide-suicide perpetrator. The study brings out the complex of risk factors for suicidal crisis: violent and risk-taking behaviour, impulsivity, depression, attempted suicide, pathological gambling, debts, HIV, dismissal from active military duty and, finally, shame as a reaction to social decline. It remains unclear whether the motives for the familicide were predominantly altruistic or, rather, egoistic, i.e. behaviour characteristic of a major narcissistic suicide crisis. Evidently, there is no genuine altruistic/hostile dichotomy; motives for this domestic homicide-suicide are mostly mixed or blurred. Although the perpetrator received psychiatric and psychological help, there were several identifiable deficiencies in the chain of care, with implications for possible prevention.