Murder of Daughters to Punish Husband | Christy Sheats Case Analysis

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of christy sheets just a reminder i'm not diagnosing you by 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 will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first a look at the background of this case i'll move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis christy sheets was born in alabama she had a fairly normal upbringing that didn't involve any type of mistreatment she was active socially performed well academically and did not run into any problems with the law she was in high school when she met jason sheets they began dating and eventually would marry they moved to katy texas for work the first few years of their marriage appeared to be going smoothly they had two daughters taylor and madison christie worked in various jobs in texas including as an executive assistant stylist at a salon and a receptionist jason worked as an i.t consultant for an oil and gas company by the late 2000s christy and jason started arguing they were disagreeing about issues like how to raise the children christy was strict whereas jason was more laid back christy wanted to know where her daughters were at every moment in the day which jason felt was too extreme moving to the early 2010s the relationship only grew more strained christie had developed mental health symptoms but found support in her grandfather in 2012 christie's grandfather died which left her emotionally devastated and without support two months later her mother died now having lost two people she depended on christie's mental health deteriorated even more she was having more difficulty regulating her mood from january 2012 through june 2016 the police were called to the sheetz residence 14 times now five of those times were for difficulties with the burglar alarm like it was going off by mistake but the other calls were for serious events for example in 2012 christie attempted to bring an end to her own life on three separate occasions in january may and july it was suspected that she did the same thing in april of 2014 and there was a crisis intervention the next month in april of 2015 the police responded to a report of a verbal altercation christie had a number of extended stays in mental health treatment facilities when christie's grandfather died she received an inheritance there wasn't much in the way of money but he did have a five shot 38 caliber revolver jason wasn't too happy about christy possessing this weapon he advised her to keep it locked up but she would not she applied for a concealed carry permit in texas but she was denied probably due to her history of mental health hospitalizations in june of 2016 the relationship between christie and jason was still unstable the couple had just recently reunited after being separated on june 24 which was jason's 45th birthday christy started arguing with taylor about her fiance taylor was supposed to be married in just three days jason was upset by all the arguing he told christy this will be the last birthday party you're going to ruin technically he was correct although he probably didn't understand the degree to which she would cause destruction on this day christie called a family meeting that took place in the living room ostensibly the purpose was to talk about various problems in the family in attendance would be not only 42 year old christy and her 45 year old husband jason but 22 year old taylor and 17 year old madison jason believed that christy was going to announce their divorce as it turns out christy had a few bullet points to cover and she was taking the term literally right after the meeting started christy produced the 38 caliber revolver she had hidden it in the cushions of the couch jason told christy to make it easy on all of them and advised her to turn the gun on herself christy replied no that's not what this is about this is about punishing you christy started shooting taylor madison and jason ran out of the house madison was struck in the neck taylor was struck in the head madison collapsed on the front lawn and died christie pursued taylor outside and attempted to shoot her again but the revolver was empty christie went inside the house reloaded her weapon returned and shot taylor again taylor would later die in the hospital from three gunshot wounds to the head the police arrived just as christy was shooting taylor for the final time they ordered christy to drop the weapon but she did not comply and started moving toward the officers the police shot christy one time killing her the police found jason at the end of the cul-de-sac he was taken to the hospital for emotional distress he was unharmed physically now moving to my analysis christy sheets suffer from a number of mental health conditions she was depressed anxious unable to regulate her consumption of alcohol and her mood was erratic she had been to several mental health treatment facilities as i mentioned but it's not clear if she had ongoing treatment like if she was seeing a counselor on an outpatient basis when she was not impatient some neighbors of the family did not know anything was wrong in the relationship between christie and jason the outward appearance christie was able to maintain was positive people described her as nice and cheerful they were shocked that she committed to homicides other neighbors knew that there were problems and thought of christie as unstable as is often the case with these types of situations there were people who recognized the warning signs although there was nothing they could really do it appears that her family only wanted the best for christy they were supportive and valued her her daughter taylor described christy in a facebook post on mother's day in 2013 as intelligent fun strong encouraging amazing and a blessing christy separated from her husband several times they reunited each time as i mentioned they had just reunited when christie committed the murders christie's employment history was unstable for several years she was unemployed christie was fired from a laser tattoo removal place in may of 2015 after working there for just five months the owner said that she had highs and lows she had a certain charm about her which the customers liked but her attendance was problematic in addition she would frequently be deceptive looking at all these mental health factors we see this image of somebody who is somewhat out of control drinking and depressed but was trying with mixed success to maintain an outward appearance of being well adjusted image was important christie wanted to look a certain way she wanted people to believe that she had an ideal life there's this theme with christy of bad times and good times a dark side and a light side christy was not consistently in distress rather it was episodic which may have led people around her to believe that she was getting better each time her mood improved like she had weathered the storm she was in the clear stepping back from the situation a larger pattern is evident christie was in a cycle of destructiveness and pain perhaps due to something like major depressive disorder although that disorder wasn't specifically mentioned in any report sometimes in these situations these depressive episodes can become progressively worse not always but it would be more likely when alcohol is added so the person becomes depressed and they try to drink away the depression when the next episode hits they drink more desperate to minimize the pain of depression desperate just to get back to feeling normal so it's not necessarily drinking to be happy it's drinking just to get back up to baseline as all this is going on they are alienating people in their lives destroying relationships and often they blame other people for abandoning them for not standing by them through the mood dysregulation family and friends grow tired of the individual because they view them as failing to recover they view this idea of getting depressed getting better and getting depressed again as the person going backwards like they were giving up on trying to improve what these people often fail to understand is the cyclic nature the person never truly did improve rather just the symptoms would come and go to some degree the underlying disorder is still there it's persistent over time what's so unusual about this case is how christie moved from self-destructive tendencies to murdering her daughters by all accounts christie loved and valued her daughters at least for many years in one facebook post christy wrote happy daughter's day to my two amazing sweet kind beautiful intelligent girls i love you and treasure you both more than you could ever possibly know she was featured in several photographs with her daughters which were posted on social media people said that christy loved being a mother it was an important part of her life it would appear as though christie's desire to get revenge on jason outweighed any affection she had for her daughters she really wanted to make him suffer at one point she was pointing the 38 caliber revolver at him she had every opportunity to shoot him and yet she chose not to christy probably believed that the relationship was over and she could not tolerate that i think christie planned the murders and planned to die herself in addition to the mental health problems i talked about she also appeared to be sadistic uncaring self-centered and callous at least in her final moments moving to the dynamics of the incident itself could this tragedy have been prevented some people have been critical of jason they don't understand why he didn't simply charge at christie and grab the weapon it seems reasonable to believe he could have physically overpowered her if he could have closed the distance without being shot no one knows how they would react in situations like this he was probably afraid and thought his best chance of survival and the survival of his daughters was to flee there may have been quite some distance between christie and jason so that he couldn't close it fast enough she would have simply shot him some people have argued that he certainly could have charged her when she ran out of ammunition this is a pretty good point it's hard to understand why he wouldn't do this i suppose he could have believed that she had another weapon or that she could have been faking being out of ammunition like he didn't understand what to look for to know if the gun was really out of cartridges he also may have been confused in the moment that type of stress can overwhelm people as far as verbal de-escalation during the incident both daughters called 9-1-1 jason can be heard saying please don't point the gun at us i beg you please put it away i'm sorry i promise you whatever you want reportedly prior to this he had invited christie to use the gun on herself as i mentioned in these types of crisis situations it's rarely a good idea to advise the person in crisis to use the weapon they are holding he may have said that because he didn't believe she would really do it but either way it was a bad idea the next point of discussion is access to firearms when people have a history of severe mental health symptoms especially when there has been violence towards self or others they should not be in the possession of any weapons one could argue that because christie inherited the gun from her grandfather no one could stop her from getting it but there were other firearms in the house and people knew she had all these weapons it wasn't like she was hiding this fact what lessons can we learn in this case when somebody is suffering from depression and anxiety the pain can become unbearable the person can adopt a mindset where they blame other people for their pain on rare occasion they may reach a point where they are no longer trying to get out of pain instead they want to communicate to everybody how bad their pain is and make them suffer along with them this is an effort not only to get revenge for perceived wrongdoing but to finally be understood now people will comprehend the depth and severity of their pain those are my thoughts in the case of christy sheets please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments 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

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Id: 8qWl1CWCLD0

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021