Man Beats Mother To Death

[Storm Wolf]

http://www.uticaod.com/news/x2119709...d?popular=true

Her screams were muffled by the heat blowing from the fan in his car.

William Griffith’s fiancee, Rhonda M. DuPont, was inside apartment No. 4 at the Gallopin’ Acres motel in Westmoreland where she’d gone to deliver macaroni with roasted red peppers to her son for just a few minutes.

Griffith said he had stayed in his car Monday night, not wanting to provoke Ryan Peeler, 27, a troubled man who had struggled with schizophrenia for years, he added.

But it was too late. Peeler already had severely beaten his mother, Griffith and authorities said. She was declared dead hours later and her son was charged with second-degree murder.

A ferocious fight

From the shadows in the motel window Monday night, Griffith could see the outlines of a ferocious fight. He said he worried that Peeler, who had a history of violent struggles with his 51-year-old mother, was in the throes of yet another psychotic episode.

Griffith got out of the car and tried the room’s doorknob. But it was locked, and Peeler had slid the chain across the door.

Griffith, 60, threw the full force of his body into the door, breaking it down in a bid to save the love of his life.

“She was lying on the floor. Her hair was all blood,” Griffith recalled Tuesday in an interview at his Whitestown home. “He caved her whole face in.”

Peeler, a hulking, 6-foot-2-inch man, turned to Griffith, a slight man with graying hair.

“William Griffith, you’re next,” Peeler said with bulging eyes, according to Griffith’s account.

Terrified, Griffith backed out of the room and ran to the motel’s management office. He waited in terror with a clerk and her two young children in the small office, a locked door the only thing between them and Peeler.

“It was absolutely the worst night I could imagine,” Griffith said.

Troubled young man

DuPont’s life ended in tragedy for a family that has been swept up in Peeler’s seemingly endless whirl of delusions, brief hospital stays and frequent violent struggles, Griffith said.

Peeler arrived at Griffith’s tidy Westmoreland Road home six years ago, asking to stay for a week while he looked for an apartment of his own. His mother hadn’t heard from him during the three years he had been living with his father in West Virginia. DuPont and Peeler’s father separated when Peeler was 11.

Peeler ended up staying in a bedroom across the hall from DuPont and Griffith for six years.

“It was absolutely six years of pure hell,” Griffith said.

Peeler’s roaring laughter would wake his mother in the middle of the night. He was reacting to a joke only he could understand. Peeler would stare blankly into the refrigerator for 10 minutes at a time, Griffith said, and would warn his mother of the worm holes he saw in the walls -- walls that he said looked like they were wrapping around her.

Peeler attended classes at Herkimer County Community College for several semesters, never lasting until final exams, Griffith said. He held a series of jobs, including one at the Walmart Distribution Center in Marcy and an insurance company, but rarely lasted for more than a week.

Peeler was hospitalized several times, including three stints in the psychiatric ward at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, Griffith said. Peeler was also treated at Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago, Griffith said.

‘... Done everything for Ryan’

Medication would always quickly relieve Peeler of his delusions. Stabilized, he was polite and talked about looking for a job. Yet he would always check himself out of the hospital, refusing to believe he was ill. Each time, Peeler would return home and stop taking the medication, Griffith said.

“We’ve done everything for Ryan, but he always thought the family was the enemy, because that’s the sickness,” Griffith said.

In the beginning, DuPont had a particularly difficult time accepting that Peeler, her only child, was deeply mentally ill, Griffith said. She struggled to help him, poring through books on successful schizophrenia treatments. Together, she and Griffith also attended support group meetings for parents with mentally ill children.

DuPont had worked for a few months in the Housewares Department at Sears in Sangertown Square, a job she loved because it offered a break from the stress of dealing with her son. She was laid off Jan. 5, Griffith said.

Griffith said DuPont was determined to get long-term help for Peeler, but was stymied at every turn by a mental health system that seemed unable to manage people not considered an imminent threat.

Hiding the knives

And so, Griffith and DuPont decided to protect themselves.

They collected the knives from their kitchen and hid them in the cellar. After Peeler racked up thousands of dollars in traffic tickets, they told him he could no longer drive their car.

Peeler and DuPont were preparing to go to bed on Oct. 31, 2008, when DuPont knocked on Peeler’s door and asked him to lower the Pink Floyd song he was blasting. Peeler pushed Griffith into the kitchen, backing him to the door. It was the first time that Peeler had attacked Griffith, though he had previous violent struggles with his mother, once choking her on the kitchen floor, Griffith said.

For Griffith, it was the final straw and decided Peeler had to go.

Eventually, Peeler settled at Gallopin’ Acres in Westmoreland, where he used disability payments to rent a room for $500 a month.

DuPont would take dinner to her son nearly every night, using the time to check on him and straighten up his room. She often found him lying in bed staring at the ceiling with the lights off, Griffith said.

A grieving fiance

Back in Whitestown, DuPont’s last Sears paycheck sat unopened on the kitchen table Tuesday.

Griffith’s tired blue eyes cast down at the table, his voice faltering as he recounted the horror from Monday night.

“I tried my best to stop it,” he said. “… I tried to close my eyes last night, and all I could see is the vision of him doing this to his mother.”

For now, Griffith is focused on the many fond memories he has of DuPont as he picks out clothes for her to wear at her funeral.

Griffith also wondered Tuesday what more he could have done.

“I used to tell her, ‘Rhonda, when you go in there, be careful. Don’t keep your back to him.’ “And always, DuPont was quick to assure him it wasn’t that bad.

“He ain’t going to hurt me. I’m his mother.”
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I cannot stress enough how %$^&*% NY's medical and government systems are! They concluded that he was no imminent threat...yet on several occasions " he had previous violent struggles with his mother, once choking her on the kitchen floor."

How in the world is that NOT a imminent threat? I think this is partially a fail on the systems part.

Yeah...this was Scary close (in our local paper) to where KROW an I live....

http://www.uticaod.com/homepage/x497...delusional-way

There's more info....a little bit about "why" if you're interested.

[Ninjinister]

Lord... I continue to lose my faith in the human race as a whole.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

Lord... I continue to lose my faith in the human race as a whole.

I love the "clicheness" of this phrase.

Not that it was any better before so why people keep on saying it's getting worse and worse?

[Archon_Turtle]

Well it isn't like the guy wasn't totally disturbed...so why damn all of humanity for someone who was clearly bat **** insane?

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by Archon_Turtle

Well it isn't like the guy wasn't totally disturbed...so why damn all of humanity for someone who was clearly bat **** insane?

...Because I can?

[Cure]

I don't think you'd make a good minister with that attitude, sir.

[Ninjinister]

Good for you, I'm going to go eat mayonnaise.

(In other words, I said something I didn't wholly mean, and it's too late to take it back, so can we just talk about the topic instead?)

[Storm Wolf]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

Good for you, I'm going to go eat mayonnaise.

Wait....is it Hellman's? (Mayo is the food of kings!)


uhh...back on topic...

Yeah...normally I would say that perhaps she was abusive or something....but she seemed to be as good a mother as she could. It's sad that this had to happen, and I feel bad for her fiance...he had to witness it.

[Buslady]

It's pretty bad if you don't realise your kid has some major mental issues. At least she tried to help him but sometimes...

there's nothing you can do.

[KROW]

Haha... Mayonnaise...

Anywho...

Originally Posted by Storm Wolf

Griffith said DuPont was determined to get long-term help for Peeler, but was stymied at every turn by a mental health system that seemed unable to manage people not considered an imminent threat.

This is what ticked me off. This guy has had a series of violent outbursts, several of them against his mother, and yet he wasn't deemed an imminent threat. That's bullsh*t to such a high degree you'd need waders to work through it.

[cup-mikey-gertha]

First reaction: Woah!

That guy needs an advanced asylum cell fast.