(NewsReady.com) – Approximately 21% of adults in the US have experienced mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Millions of Americans go undiagnosed and untreated annually, sometimes with devastating consequences. For example, in York County, Pennsylvania, authorities might point to a family who recently carried out a fatal pact, shocking friends and community members.
Morgan, Deborah, and James Daub reportedly completed a consensual murder-suicide pact on Tuesday, January 24. Friends described Morgan Daub, 26, and Deborah Daub, 59, as conservative Christians who avidly supported former President Donald Trump. Yet, police found video evidence on YouTube indicating Morgan was possibly experiencing significant mental health issues. Additionally, authorities revealed a document Deborah Daub authored in which she referred to her daughter as suffering from persistent auditory hallucinations.
26-year-old Morgan Daub and her parents were found dead in the backyard of their Pennsylvania home, in what police say was a suicide pact. https://t.co/Fs2bkZP7v2
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 4, 2023
Detective Timothy Fink of the West Manchester Police Department issued a written account of the investigation. Based on letters and documents the authorities collected, Morgan and Deborah Daub seem to have hatched the pact in May 2022, nine months before acting on it.
According to the letter written by James Daub, 62, Morgan’s announcement that she had to end her life devastated her parents. In one of her letters, her mother stated she needed to be with her daughter, especially after Morgan chose the date based on scripture — “Samuel 1:24-28,” which they interpreted as January 24.
Initially, James stated he wasn’t ready to die. Yet, by the end of his note, it appears he intended to do so. Body placements, forensics at the scene, and the father’s letter helped investigators understand that he likely died first. The family only owned two guns. He wrote that he planned to ask his wife to shoot him because his hands shook. He clarified that he knowingly and willingly was ending his own life.
Deborah Daub died next. She wrote she was ending her life by choice but wanted her daughter to shoot her because of shaky hands. Morgan died last of a self-inflicted gunshot. A neighbor called police on January 25 to report hearing three shots in 15-second intervals the previous night.
The department has closed the investigation on the case.
Copyright 2023, NewsReady.com
