Parents of Wisconsin man held in triple homicide say they warned authorities about son

[undeterred]

MADISON — The parents of a man suspected of killing three retired farmers in southwestern Wisconsin say they warned authorities just before the killings that their son was delusional and potentially dangerous.

Jaren Kuester, 31, of Waukesha, remains jailed in Lafayette County on tentative charges of first-degree intentional homicide. His parents, Kathleen and Jim Kuester, told the Wisconsin State Journal for a story published Sunday that the killings discovered April 28 never would have happened if Waukesha County mental health professionals had hospitalized their son, as they had requested. “Our son is going to spend the rest of his life behind bars because they wouldn't help him even though we repeatedly asked,” Kathleen Kuester said.

Peter Schuler, the head of Waukesha County's mental health system, said he stands by an April 25 assessment by one of his most experienced crisis managers, Robert Walker, that Kuester didn't meet the criteria under state law that would have allowed the county to hold him. “We felt we responded in the ways we could,” Schuler said. Dean Thoreson, 76; Gary Thoreson, 70; and Chloe Thoreson, 66; were found dead in the South Wayne home where Gary and Chloe Thoreson lived. The men were brothers, and Chloe and Gary were married.

Police said Kuester abandoned his Jeep on a rural road on April 26 and removed all or most of his clothes as he walked through five or six miles of swampland, brush and thick woods before he reached the Thoresons’ home. Kuester didn't know the victims, police said. Jim Kuester said investigators told him they believe Kuester was in an “altered mental state” during the killings. He said that in addition to the county worker, employees at the Waukesha Police Department and Waukesha County Jail, where his son was detained briefly after an April 26 incident at an animal shelter, also declined requests to admit his son to a mental hospital. “He was definitely delusional,” Jim Kuester said.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/266280/

Three people murdered by someone with mental illness - I wonder if the standards for committing someone need to be changed.

[Blue_Tires]

1. Involuntary committment laws are a very touchy issue

since it was so much easier to do in the past, even for very flimsy reasons...

[HappyMe]

4. Yes, very true.

I would bet that there were a lot of people institutionalized that had no business being there.

[Blue_Tires]

6. there was also a LOT of abuse

I imagine those in the past who wanted to exploit the law for vindictive reasons could do so with little or no punishment...

[Marrah_G]

9. Seems there has to be a better way

Also they closed so many mental health facilities, so getting people (or yourself) treatment is often too long and stressful.

[kestrel91316]

10. So they threw the baby out with the bath water and made involuntary committment basically

impossible. Way to go, society.

[loli phabay]

11. it depends on the being a danger and the evaluator convincing the magistrate

t least in my experience you need the imminent danger to be articulated to get the tdo. Even then it depends on the mental health evaluator and some of them are attrocious.

[kestrel91316]

13. Trust me, it's only considered imminent danger when the mentally ill person has a loaded gun to

somebody's head.

Pathetic, and a global embarrassment.

[loli phabay]

14. no ive seen people get a tdo for a lot less, the usual is someone saying they are going to kill

Themselves or someone else and the evaluator believing they mean it and there is a mental issue rather than just attention seeking. Its a good thing the bar is set high with so many people having to touch the issue from first responder, then evaluator, then magistrate then addmitting facility, though some people fall along the way its better than when you couls have someone committed on one persons say so. In fact you dont even have to threaten to kill just harm in some way and have a root cause as mental illness.

[mikeysnot]

2. Reaganomics

the gift that keeps on giving.

[Myrina]

3. There is some seriously wierd shit going on ...

Lotsa drug-induced creepy nekkidness.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130506/NEWS02/305060011/Video-Statehouse-streaker-sprints-from-cops-Downtown-street

"A naked man burst into a control room at a Citizens Energy Group facility last week, punched a worker in the face and began choking the startled employee with a large metal pipe, according to police.

The alleged battery was the culmination of a bizarre chain of events that started in Downtown Indianapolis sometime before 8 a.m. Wednesday when State Capitol police chased a streaker across the west side of the Statehouse property. The nude man – identified in court documents as Gilbert S. Sweazey, 36, Indianapolis — sprinted down Maryland Street into the Indiana Convention Center and down several hallways before exiting the northwest side of the building, court documents state."

[Archae]

5. This guy's great-grandmother was my kindergarden teacher.

Sweetest lady you could ever know.

[geek tragedy]

7. Constiutionally it is very difficult to get someone like this committed involuntarily.

There needs to be "clear and convincing evidence" that they're a physical danger to themselves or others.

So, this kind of thing is going to happen every once and a while.

[loli phabay]

12. yup and its usually imminent danger.

[Marrah_G]

8. Such a tragedy all around

And it looks like it could have been prevented.

We need a better way to deal with people that might be a danger to themselves or others.