Soldier beheads five-year-old son
January 21, 2008 - 6:18AM
A soldier has been arrested in the Zimbabwean town of Chitungwiza for beheading his five-year-old son, clubbing his mother-in-law to death and attempting to kill his stepdaughter, reports said.
Police had to shoot 35-year-old Zimbabwe National Army soldier Isaac Sibanda in the leg to disable him at the scene of the crime, a police spokesman told the official Sunday Mail.
He is reported to have had an argument with his wife in the early hours of the morning. She ran out of their bedroom and the soldier then turned on other members of the family.
"Sibanda allegedly took a hoe, which he used to slay his mother-in-law. He proceeded to chop off his son's head using the same hoe," police spokesman Andrew Phiri said.
"We shot him in the leg after he slit and pulled out his dead son's intestines," Phiri told the Sunday Mail.
The incident has left residents of Chitungwiza, 20 kilometres south of Harare, in a state of shock.
Sibanda, who is recovering from the gunshot wound at Harare Central Hospital is being charged with a double murder and an attempted murder.
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And yet people were up in arms over the crimes reported in the NY Times by our veterans. You can pass this man off as a animal and you very well maybe right. You could also be wrong. He could have been so changed by what has been going on over there that he was not in his right mind when he did this to his family. While it happened in Zimbabwe, it has in fact happened here as well. It happened in Lake Mary Florida a couple of years ago. A Gulf War veteran hacked his son to death.
Monday, June 19, 2006
GULF WAR VET MURDERS FAMILY
Shocked residents get 'feelings out' about slashings
About 75 seek grief counseling after the gruesome deaths of a mother and son in Seminole.
Sandra Pedicini
Sentinel Staff Writer
June 19, 2006
LAKE MARY -- Residents still reeling after a neighbor beheaded his wife inside their home and slashed their son to death in a neighbor's yard met with grief counselors Sunday night to deal with their anguish."It sort of let me get my feelings out about how he died," said Sally Zouain, 10, a friend of Nico Duzant, who was slain the day he turned 11.
Father's Day was a somber occasion for residents of the Greenwood Lakes subdivision.
About 75 people sought counseling at Greenwood Lakes Middle School, two days after Franklyn Duzant went on a rampage wielding a samurai sword.
Counselors helped parents who were feeling emotions including anger, shock, grief, helplessness and worry about how Nico's violent death could affect their children, Seminole County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said.
Meanwhile, new details about the 40-year-old suspect emerged Sunday, including that Nico was his adopted son and that he served in the Army during the Persian Gulf War, according to a longtime family friend. Karen Arsenault, 51, of Sanford painted a picture of a loving family but one in which both spouses had medical problems.
Franklyn Duzant suffered from arthritis and back problems, which he attributed to the war, she said."He said all his health problems were from Desert Storm," said Arsenault, who brought flowers to the Duzant home. "He felt like he may have got exposed to some chemicals somehow."More recently, she said, he had had a tumor removed from his neck.
Evangeline "Gigi" Duzant, his wife, suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome and was in "excruciating" pain, Arsenault said. Evangeline Duzant, 52, had adopted Nico from "a very poor family in Alaska . . . a mother who gave up her children," Arsenault said. Franklyn Duzant later adopted the boy as well.Arsenault said she didn't know whether the family had financial troubles. Franklyn wasn't working, she said, and she didn't think Evangeline was either.
"Frankie was not the type of person who would talk about his personal problems," Arsenault said.Instead, she said, he was a "social butterfly" who once brought her Kentucky Fried Chicken after her foot surgery in 2002 so she wouldn't have to cook. Arsenault said he adored his son, calling the boy "my man" and taking him fishing and skating."I just want everyone to know he wasn't a monster," Arsenault said.Duzant came from a "very upscale" family, Arsenault said, and many family members live in New England and along the East Coast.On Sunday afternoon, Arsenault picked up a baseball left at a makeshift memorial outside the Duzant house."Nico loved sports, I'll tell you," she said, before making the sign of the cross.Christine Detuccio, a neighbor who was next door with her children and saw Nico's body after he was killed, said she has trouble sleeping.
That's not unusual, said Dr. Alan Keck, an Altamonte Springs psychologist.
The neighborhood is likely to be suffering for quite some time -- especially the adults who witnessed Nico's death, and children, Keck said."It really does affect the whole community," he said. "It makes everybody feel vulnerable and on edge."Elementary-school teacher Julie Smith, who visited the memorial containing stuffed animals, flowers and a "happy birthday" balloon for Nico, said: "You see your neighbors, and it's just blank looks."Adults who witnessed the vicious attack could suffer from flashbacks and feel heightened senses of fear, anxiety, irritability and sleep problems, Keck said.They may even feel some guilt, wondering whether they could have done something to stop the killing or pick up on any cues that something was wrong, he said.Children are especially vulnerable to problems such as nightmares and anxiety -- particularly the fear that something bad could happen to them, too."I expect the schools will be dealing with the fallout for months to come," Keck said.Hoeppner said she became tearful at the counseling session as she listened to some of the parents' stories."They're dealing with their own loss," she said. "Now they have to explain to the children."But, she said, "there is a sense of peace he [Nico] is with his mother and he is in a safe place. If you can take away that from an experience like this, they're going to do just fine."
Duzant, facing charges of premeditated murder, remained hospitalized Sunday at Orlando Regional Medical Center with injuries he sustained."He's been sedated for the most part," Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Dennis Lemma said. "There has not been a great opportunity to talk to him."Jeannette Rivera-Lyles and Amy C. Rippel of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Sandra Pedicini can be reached at spedicini@orlandosentinel.com or 407-322-7669. PHOTO: Franklyn Duzant went on a rampage, wielding a samurai sword, beheading his wife, Evangeline, and slashing to death their son, Nico, on Friday at their home near Lake Mary, authorities said. COURTESY OF KAREN ARSENAULT -->
Copyright © 2006, Orlando Sentinel
http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com/2006/06/gulf-war-vet-murders-family.html
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
UPDATE ON GULF WAR VET'S TRIALWhile horrific attacks like this are rare, they are usually gruesome beyond "just killing someone" the "normal" way with a gun or a knife or beating. These murders are as if the victim was not even human and they were hacked into pieces. A person with a normal functioning brain does not commit this kind of crime.
Insanity led man to kill his family, defense says
Friends said Franklyn Duzant loved his family but unraveled before the slayings.
Rene Stutzman Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 14, 2007
SANFORD -- Franklyn "Frankie" Duzant, the doting father charged with beheading his wife and chasing down and slashing to death his 11-year-old son, sits in the Seminole County Jail, draped in only a blanket.
Jailers won't let him have clothes. They fear he might use them to hang himself. And they won't give him a fork or spoon, not even plastic. He might try to slash his wrists.
Duzant, 41, of Lake Mary is seriously mentally ill, says his attorney, Diana Tennis. He was legally insane the day he killed his wife and only child, according to defense pleadings.
That explanation -- insanity -- is the first official word from Duzant about why he killed his family June 16.
"Only insanity makes loving, caring husbands and fathers do that sort of thing," Tennis said.
At a hearing Monday, Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh must decide whether to allow Duzant, a disabled Army cook with a long history of mental illness, to plead insanity.
He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Two mental-health experts have concluded that Duzant was so delusional the day of the slayings, he did not know right from wrong, according to defense pleadings.
Although prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty, Assistant State Attorney Tom Hastings said he would not oppose an insanity plea at Monday's hearing. The case, though, is a long way from being resolved.
http://namguardianangel.blogspot.com/2007/02/update-on-gulf-war-vets-trial.html
There have been many murders committed by combat veterans over the years. It is really nothing new what is happening with the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. While it was necessary the NY Times did the report on crimes committed so that we can take a good look behind the crimes, they should have taken the time to investigate on how many Vietnam veterans ended up in jail because of crimes they committed that should have been linked to PTSD. Who cares about them? After all, these are veterans that were cast away and no one bothers to even think about them. How many ended up in jail because of self-medicating with drugs? How many have been jailed after drunk driving because of PTSD? How many committed murder while experiencing a flashback of combat? What does society owe those we send and what do we owe the victims because we didn't take care of the warrior?
We need to get a real handle on the price humans pay being sent into combat if we are ever really going to fully understand PTSD, get the right percentages and do them any kind of justice.
