Immature Narcissist Sets His Entire Family on Fire | Rowan Baxter and Hannah Clarke Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Hannah Clark and Rowan Baxter just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis Hannah Clark was born on September 8 1988 in Brisbane Australia her father's name was Lloyd and her mother's name was Suzanna in high school Hannah was an athlete she was on the trampoline team after graduating Hannah found a job as a teacher at a police and Community youth club in 2008 when Hannah was 20 years old she met a 31-year-old man named Rowan Baxter he had taken a job as a boxing instructor at the same place where Hannah worked Rowan was born on May 9 1977 in New Zealand he was married at the time he met Hannah Rowan and his wife had a son together the Baxter family moved from New Zealand to Australia in 2007 Rowan had mistreated and threatened his wife she wanted to leave him but was afraid Hannah and Rowan became romantically involved so Rowan decided that he would separate from his wife the couple eventually moved into a residence in Brisbane Rowan worked as a salesperson for a pharmaceutical company Hannah worked in a shopping mall in October of 2012 the couple married Hannah had a daughter named Alia on April 10 2013 after she was born Rowan refused to pay any child support to his ex-wife for his son Rowan and Hannah decided they wanted to open their own gym but they didn't have enough money they ended up using money from investors including Hannah's parents they put in $188,000 the gym was not profitable the backers were behind on their bills Hannah's parents would often pay the rent for the gym as well as other expenses on March 19 2015 Hannah had another daughter her name was lyana Hannah had her third child a son named Trey on December 4 2016 the Baxter family continued to struggle financially due to the poor performance of their business Rowan was not a good manager of the gym he was often rude to current and potential members a distorted interpretation of the popular workout phrase no pain no gain was evident in his behavior Rowan was the pain that destroyed his gain in December of 2019 the business failed but the backers still owed investors about $775,000 due to a history of mistreatment which I'll talk more about in the analysis Hannah decided that she was going to leave Rowan on December 5 2019 Hannah took her children and moved out of the house she shared with Rowan the next day she went to a police station looking for a domestic violence order ultimately she decided against it due to concerns that getting one would only infuriate Rowan Hannah moved in with her parents a few days later they lived in the Camp Hill suburb of Brisbane on December 22 2019 Rowan contacted a government agency trying to get financial assistance by saying that he was the full-time caregiver of the children in reality Hannah was the full-time caregiver on December 24 Hannah allowed Rowan to visit the children for Christmas he gave them gift cards however there was no money on the cards the children didn't find this out until later on December 26 Rowan took his daughter lyana from Hannah and refused to give her back Hannah changed her mind about the domestic violence order she obtained one on December 29 and the police picked up her daughter from Rowan in late January 2020 the backers worked out a custody Arrangement Hannah had primary custody of the children and Rowan was to pay $360 a month in child support he told acquaintances that his children had been taken from him and he would not stop fighting until he had them 50% of the time on January 31 after Rowan dropped off his son late to Hannah he allegedly grabbed Hannah's wrist she accused him of domestic violence on February 9 Ron was charged with common assault but he was immediately granted bail now moving to the timeline of the crime on February 17 2020 Rowan went to a hardware store and purchased a gas can and zip ties later he went to his aunt's residence and asked to borrow her Nissan Morano SUV for a couple of days on February 18 he went to a service station in the morning and put gasoline in the can at 3:28 p.m. Rowan called Youth and Family Services and asked about a men's support program at 400 p.m. he called a counseling referral service for men called men's line he asked them about participating in a 10-week program at 6:25 p.m. Rowan called a friend of his and expressed frustration about the level of communication he had with his children referring to Hannah he said everything she is doing is working later Rowan called another friend and told him he had lost everything he had no money he did not have his children and he had been served with an eviction notice that night Rowan communicated with his children via FaceTime but he cried instead of talking to them Hannah told him to hang up if he wasn't going to talk on February 19 2020 Rowan left his house in the Nissan Morano at 6:48 a.m. he went to a cafe in Camp Hill and drank coffee he then drove to the residence of the Clarks where Hannah and the children were living Hannah was in her silver Kia Sportage SUV with her three children as soon as she started the vehicle Rowan jumped in the passenger seat holding the gas can Hannah screamed at him to get out of the vehicle but he told her to drive at 8:25 am Hannah screamed at a neighbor call the police he's going to kill me he's poured petrol on me unquote petrol is another word for gasoline the neighbor saw that Rowan was physically restraining Hannah In This Moment the SUV burst in the Flames the neighbor ran to the vehicle to help but he was burned by the fire Hannah was on fire and exited the vehicle Rowan also exited the vehicle he too was on fire at this point Hannah's vehicle exploded one witness said quote it sounded like a bomb went off it was so loud I felt shock waves the car was engulfed in flames almost instantly unquote several Good Samaritans tried to help but there was little they could do there was simply too much heat from the fire Hannah told witnesses that Rowan squirted gasoline on her and the children and threw a lighter at the car when emergency service arrived they quickly put the fire out and provided Aid to the Baxter family Rowan was pronounced dead at 9:14 a.m. he technically died from stabbing himself in the chest with a knife at the scene but the burns would have killed him anyway the children were pronounced dead at 9:53 a.m. the cause of death was the same for all three thermal injuries and inhalation of smoke Hannah was still alive but she had Burns to 97% of her body talking about r she told the paramedics I hope he survives and rots in jail for the rest of his life un Hannah Clark was taken to the hospital where she died at 5:40 p.m. now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one many people who had interacted with Rowan Baxter offered descriptions of him here are just a few of the things they said Rowan did not like to be told no he was controlling driven envious angry confrontational deceptive manipulative and overc competitive he would accuse opponents of cheating if he was defeated in any type of competition Rowan considered himself to be an alpha male he had a tendency to take advantage of others financially and burn Bridges he only contacted friends when he needed something Rowan frequently portrayed himself as the victim and he had no Insight if he thought it was to his advantage he would pretend to cry but he was unconvincing based on the descriptions offered Rowan appeared to have several characteristics of narcissism and psychopathy he was self-centered arrogant grandiose envious manipulative had a sense of entitlement believed himself to be special and lacked empathy he was also impulsive irresponsible and willing to be violent item number two as I mentioned in the background Hannah decided to leave Rowan due to him mistreating her repeatedly here are a few examples of Rowan's maladapted behavior in relation to his family Rowan was demanding and controlling with Hannah he criticized her in front of her relatives and eventually made it difficult for her to talk to her brother Rowan contacted Hannah constantly when she was on vacation he always wanted to know where she was and who she was with he demanded that they have a joint Facebook page Hannah was not permitted to have her own he told her what she was allowed to eat Rowan ordered Hannah not to wear shorts short skirts or anything that was the color pink she was permitted to wear a bikini only went on the beach Rowan was not supportive at all to Hannah he minimized her achievements and tried to make her feel inadequate Rowan expected Hannah to have sex every day specifically he wanted her to have sex with him when Hannah would refuse Rowan's advances he would throw a temper tantrum sometimes he would go days without talking to her as a penalty on other occasions he would threaten to harm himself Rowan was harsh with his children for example if they didn't put their toys away quickly enough he would throw the toys in the garbage during the time that Rowan was separated from Hannah he would reach out to acquaintances and try to get them on his side like he would tell them how terrible Hannah was he also wanted these acquaintances to convince Hannah to reunite with him so he believed that she was terrible but he also wanted to be with her eventually Rowan became physically violent on one occasion he slammed a gate on Hannah's leg at another time he pushed her into a wall Rowan started spying on Hannah in a few different ways he gained access to her Instagram account read her text messages while she was sleeping and planted recording devices in her house and in her vehicle to explain how he had access to these recordings he told people that one of his daughters made them item number three was there anything that Hannah could have done to prevent this horrible crime I believe that Hannah was in an impossible situation she had been manipulated for a long time in the relationship Hannah was fearful about provoking Rowan in any way prior to the separation Hannah asked Rowan to seek mental health counseling she really hoped that he was capable of changing Rowan refused to make any efforts to mod ify his behavior and Hannah lost hope he actually became worse and demonstrated increasingly demanding paranoid and dramatic Behavior eventually Hannah realized how dangerous Rowan was n days before the murders Hannah told a cooworker that if she and Rowan were ever Alone Together she had no doubt Rowan would kill her the problem for Hannah was that she could not get help fast enough law enforcement moved too slowly and there was no way for her to get protection from Rowan and time this is a common problem for victims of domestic violence when they realize they are in danger it takes too long to obtain assistance item number four there is one particular failure in this case that highlights what Hannah was up against as far as convincing people about Rowan's power of manipulation during the separation Rowan was meeting with a doctoral level mental health clinician on January 21 2020 about a month before the murders he convinced the clinician to write a letter on his behalf Rowan had only attended six sessions the clinician indicated that she had no concerns about Rowan's mental health she went on to suggest that he was coping remarkably well with the failure of his marriage and it would be ideal if he could resume contact with his children this clinician had a lot of explaining to do at the coronial inquest following the murders this is yet another example of how mental health assessment is ineffective when dealing with people who are motivated to lie now moving to my final thoughts what lesson can be learned from this case I think the lesson here is not to underestimate characteristics like self-centeredness vindictiveness a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy Rowan often threatened to bring harm to himself when he didn't get his way but considering the narcissistic traits he possessed harming others was always an option for him he was willing to destroy himself but he wasn't going to allow others to survive if he made that decision if Rowan was going to lose everyone was going to lose that was the only way he could prevent being defeated in what he viewed as a competition in his final hours when he was calling around about attending programs for men he wasn't trying to save his family he was trying to save himself once he committed to no longer existing it was nothing for him to wipe out his entire family they were just objects to him the entire time anyway those are my thoughts on the case of Hannah Clark and Rowan Baxter please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 338,076

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Id: BEa11SmHd14

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2023