It is strange and sad. I would "blame" the mother but I hate the blame game in these incidences because there are many factors that would provide more incite as to why it occurred. Was it the seroquel? Was it perhaps a perceived lack of resources for the mother. Post partum depression/ psychosis?

who knows. Suicide/Infanticide is an ugly reality in our society.

This woman was on antidepressants for years. I imagine the SSRI finally drove her insane and she was then placed on Seroquel. She might have remained on her antidepressant, though, because doctors don't "get it".

She had a ten year old autistic son who neighbors described as "sweet & kind" although rather shy. I imagine she was placed on the antidepressant after she found out the son was autisitc.

Here is the way the story appears on SSRI Stories.

Paragraph 10 reads: "She says Becht, a single mother, has fought depression for years and has been on medication and in therapy for as long as she can remember."

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1019017.shtml?cat=206

Family Speaks Out About Tragic S. St. Paul Murder
It’s a difficult crime to understand. Why would a mother kill her own son and possibly try to kill her daughter?

The family of a South St. Paul woman wants to help the public see what kind of person Patti Becht really is.

Her oldest daughter Cara Freeman, 16, says she’s numb­ her brother is dead, and she hasn’t been able to speak to her 11-year-old sister or mother since the incident on June 6.

She tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she wants everyone to know that her mother is a good person.

"No way in a million years I’d imagine she'd do this. She loved us too much," she said.

She looks mean.

Oh my God!

Stress? stress is not an exit to murdering your autistic child! Oh this is just sick, what a week with children in the news being abused (Jani Schofield) and drugged and now this! Seroquel needs to be a controlled substance! She gave the kids 10 pills each!

It's totally heart breaking

It appears that this mother was taking more meds than just Seroquel. It states in this article that there were numerous medication bottles found in her bedroom. If she was also taking an antidepressant, then she was actually taking two antidepressants if she was taking Seroquel too.

Here is the latest article on this tragedy.

Paragraph 3 reads: "The charges say numerous pill bottles, including Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication, were found in the room where Michael Becht's body was found. Patricia Becht allegedly told police during a hospital interview that she gave each of her children 10 of the pills and took 25 herself."

http://www.startribune.com/local/50474787.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

Patricia Becht gave her children overdoses of an antipsychotic drug, investigators say.

Last update: July 10, 2009 - 3:35 PM

A South St. Paul mother told police that she and her two young children had planned to commit suicide together and took overdoses of an antipsychotic medication, which killed 10-year-old Michael Becht on Monday, according to charges filed this morning.

Patricia Becht, 42, was charged in Dakota County with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the July 6 death of her son and the attempted killing of her 11-year-old daughter, Erica.

The charges say numerous pill bottles, including Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication, were found in the room where Michael Becht's body was found. Patricia Becht allegedly told police during a hospital interview that she gave each of her children 10 of the pills and took 25 herself.

It could take weeks for investigators to get the results of toxicology tests, which will determine what substances were in the Bechts' bodies.

Becht had plotted to kill herself and her two young children and had talked to them about going to heaven, which, she told them, was like Michael Jackson's home, Neverland.

Judge Robert Carolan set bail at $1 million without conditions, or $750,000 with conditions, including that she not see any children unless approved and overseen by social service workers.

He also ordered psychiatric evaluations to determine whether she is mentally ill and if she is competent to stand trial. She had threatened suicide in the past, said Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom.

Becht had written a suicide note to a teen-age daughter who was not home and was not planned for the killing, the charges say.

Officers found a letter, written by Becht, saying that the older daughter would not be coming with them, though the girl wouldn't understand why not, and that Becht and the two younger children were "at peace."

In another note, she wrote: "I don't have much to say, only that we are happy to be gone."

Erica Becht remains hospitalized and is expected to recover.

JOY POWELL

Disgusting that such medications continue to be prescribed despite all the negative consequences that have been thus far evidenced.

Disgusting that the mental health system has come to rely on the prescribing of these highly marketed drugs in lieu of providing more helpful treatment.

Tragic that this woman believed death for herself and her children was a better choice than living.

Once you get into the "lifetime of drugs and therapy" for purported depression, your life is destroyed unless you can somehow see the light and get out. As for the Seroquel, all of these drugs are in a sense involuntary intoxication because this woman probably was told she had to take the drug to correct a bogus chemical imbalance. Then intoxicated on the addictive drug with a lifetime of therapy to force her to focus on all that was negative and unpleasant in her life, I'm just saying the system makes these sorts of tragedies more likely and involuntary intoxication can be a defense to murder. It's a bit more sophisticated than Seroquel made me do it. Tragedy.

The Endless Parade

It is like Tordenskjold with his famous parade:
it uses over and over again the same few troops,
but when they have marched past the reviewing
stand they turn into a side street, don another
uniform, and thus continue the parade.....of
the incalculable forces of the garrison.

Kierkegaard in 'Stages on Life's Way'

@sally

depression does exist, and so does mental illness, the world is a sphere, and is not the center of the Universe.

I've had problems all of my life, I'm not medicated by the way, not all us "Crazy People" can afford treatment. It's a horrible existence. I wish for death just about every day. It's a living hell that steals your life from you. Some of us are smart enough to not bring offspring into the world. This is real, and it is genetic.

About the mother, no comment.

Drano,

I'm sorry you are so unhappy. There's no evidence that mental illness is a disease or that it's genetic. The disease concept of mental illness is medieval and superstitious. I for one am living happily in a post psychiatry world and hope you can do the same.

Not affording treatment saves the lives of lots of folks who've been told they're crazy. Poverty however can cause sadness. I hope your life and conditions improve.

Sally

The oldest sister, Cara, is a friend of mine and I know for a fact that her mother is not a bad person, she just has some mental issues that are currently being dealt with.

Sally- I think that maybe you don't read very much or educate yourself about mental illness- there is much research on mental illness and the causes. You may want to look at the impact of early maltreatment and brain development for a starter. Many posts on this site are making assumptions as if they are facts and they are totally wrong. We need to watch our assumptions. My guess is they women was very sick - why else would a mother kill her child. Maybe we need to stop throwing stones and see what may have caused this tradegy so it doesn't happen again.

I am currently raising a boy whom I saved from a "crazy mother". She medicated him until he was unable to speak. She gave him her meds when he was just a little boy so she could go out with men. It's a disgrace that she was never punished for what she did to this boy. We were told she has a "mental disorder". Now she has 3 more kids with 3 different men and I am left to fix the one she horribly abused. Mental problem or not dammit there should be punishment for these sickos.

Clare,
"My guess is they women was very sick - why else would a mother kill her child."

Want to know why my mother tried to smother me as an infant, starve me in my crib, lock me in a closet for two months while she carried on a campaign of smothering, starvation and beatings to kill me? Why she told my sisters during that latter episode that their baby sister was dead? And why it never occurred to my sisters to even mention it to anyone outside the family?

Because she was a sadistic sociopath, that's why. She wasn't sick but, trust me, she was a brilliant woman and an excellent con artist who would have enjoyed immensely jousting and scamming mental health professionals, especially male psychiatrists. She was adept at painting herself as a Poor Victim.

By the way, she boasted of all this on her deathbed. There wasn't one moment of remorse.

Wake up and smell the coffee, Clare. In some houses it's burning.

I would say this story demonstrates a catastrophic failure for meds to prevent the symptoms they supposedly 'anti'.