Six Family Members Murdered by Paranoid Daughter | Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe

this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Michelle Anderson and Joseph McEnroe 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'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 Michelle Kristen Anderson was born on August 11 1978 and lived just outside Carnation Washington this town is about 40 minutes east of Seattle her father Wayne was an engineer with Boeing and her mother Judy was a poster worker the family lived on a five-acre wooded lot Michelle graduated from high school in 1997 in 2002 she communicated online with a man named Joseph Thomas Mcenroe they were both in a chat group for people interested in fantasy role-playing games Joseph was born on October 29 1978 in San Jose California he lived in a few other places throughout his life including North Carolina and Arizona when Joseph was young he had health problems which prevented him from getting involved in sports he focused his attention on role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons Michelle and Joseph became interested in each other romantically Michelle told Joseph that she looked like Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor character in Terminator 2. she was muscular but Slim after communicating for six months Joseph who was in Arizona at this time moved to Washington to be with Michelle when he first met her in person he was surprised by her physical appearance she did not look at all like Linda Hamilton Joseph said that she was not muscular and she was kind of big despite the deception Joseph decided not to terminate the relationship he claimed that he was in love and wanted to marry Michelle in 2004 the couple moved into a trailer in Fall City Washington not far from carnation while living in the trailer park Joseph worked at a Target store and Michelle was a night security guard for Nintendo in 2006 the couple moved into a trailer that was on the property owned by Michelle's parents it was on the same property where her parents lived in their home financial problems probably motivated this move Joseph continued to work but Michelle was unemployed while living on her parents property now moving to the timeline of the crime on December 24 2007 Michelle and Joseph drove from their trailer to the house where Michelle's parents lived this was a short drive only 600 feet the couple was armed with two pistols Michelle had a semi-automatic pistol and Joseph had a revolver when they entered the house Michelle confronted her father Wayne as Joseph distracted Michelle's Mother Judy Michelle fired her pistol at her father but missed after this her pistol malfunctioned seeing that Michelle was not having success Joseph fatally shot Wayne in the head Judy ran into the room where Wayne had been killed Joseph shot her twice killing her Michelle and Joseph dragged the bodies out to the shed and tried to clean up the house they waited in the house because they had planned to commit additional murders Michelle's Brother Scott and his wife Erica both 32 years old were at a holiday dinner and were expected to visit the house of Wayne and Judy that evening Scott and Erica had two of their children with them five-year-old Olivia and three-year-old Nathan when Scott and his family arrived at the house Michelle confronted Scott demanding the money that he owed her at some point Scott attempted to grab Michelle's weapon Michelle shot him and his wife Erica even though she was wounded Erica managed to reach a phone and call 9-1-1 at 5 13 PM the call lasted for 10 seconds the operator said that there was noise in the background but nobody spoke directly into the phone at this point Joseph grabbed the phone from Erica and removed the batteries after this he shot and killed her Joseph then killed Olivia and Nathan by shooting them in the head police officers responded to Erica's 9-1-1 call and arrived at 5 45 pm by this time Michelle had already locked the gate at the entrance to the property she was hoping this would discourage the police from entering amazingly Michelle was correct when the police saw that the gate was locked they gave up and left apparently they forgot that sometimes when people call 9-1-1 it means those people needed assistance Michelle and Joseph left the property with the intent of fleeing the area and getting married after Judy Anderson missed work on December 26 two days after the murder her best friend became concerned she stopped by the Anderson property to check up on Judy she called 9-1-1 just after 8 A.M after looking through the window of the Anderson house and seeing bodies on the living room floor the police arrived on the scene and found six murder victims the Anderson property became a very busy place there were a large number of law enforcement officers and dozens of police vehicles at the scene in addition to several reporters waiting outside the property helicopters were flying overhead and there was yellow tape surrounding the area as the police continued to examine the crime scene Michelle and Joseph returned to the property and asked for permission to enter their residence despite all the activity on the property they never asked what was going on or why they were being prevented from getting into their home the police interviewed them separately and they both confessed to committing the murders they were arrested and charged with murder in 2015 Joseph Mcenroe was found guilty of six counts of aggravated first degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Michelle was found guilty of the same charges in 2016 and received the same sentence Michelle and Joseph may have been able to escape the consequences of their behavior if they had not confessed however by avoiding life in prison they would have ended up getting married maybe they were thinking different paths same destination now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts in a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one the idea to commit the murders came from Michelle her relationship with her family members had been tense for a while she was mad at them because she believed they were being disrespectful and stepping on her Michelle's parents were pressuring her to pay rent and utilities for the trailer she was using on their property she was not happy about this she suggested that her parents were rich and yet she was poor like they were not willing to share their resources in addition to problems with her parents Michelle was not pleased with her brother Scott she claimed that he owed her a lot of money and refused to repay it Michelle's family members knew that she was upset with them for example she would not return phone calls to them they were also aware that she suffered from mental health symptoms in the past they believed that she may have been a little dangerous but never imagined that she would commit murder her family members tried to help her her mother Judy would drop off groceries every couple of weeks when Michelle and Joseph lived in the trailer park and of course Michelle eventually moved in to a trailer owner parents property despite receiving help and support from her family Michelle started planning to kill them two weeks before following through with the murders item number two when Michelle lived in the trailer park neighbors made observations which were consistent with Michelle being paranoid for example Michelle had black material covering the windows of the trailer she believed that her neighbors were spying on her trying to break in and out to get her Joseph may have been paranoid as well but it was Michelle's fears that drove most of the unusual behavior Michelle convinced Joseph that they could only trust each other Michelle and Joseph were not well liked by their neighbors in the trailer park neighbor said that mundane occurrences would send the couple into a rage for example a cat wandering onto their porch a car being parked in their parking spot or children playing in their yard Michelle would get extremely angry she would scream and yell at her neighbors only to apologize later item number three Joseph suffered from mental health symptoms a mental health clinician testified that Joseph had both hallucinations and Illusions Joseph appeared to have an intense interest in fantasy he liked role-playing games and would tell people about a spirit guide who was leading him to his destiny Joseph had a challenging childhood and had a compromised sense of self-esteem he frequently told people that he was worthless Joseph allegedly had a domineering mother and of course Michelle was described as domineering this side to the theory that Joseph was manipulated by Michelle like he was coerced into committing the murders Michelle was able to get Joseph to focus on her problems with her family like he was an advocate or her protector Joseph never communicated with his mother after leaving Arizona for Washington perhaps it was something about Michelle's family Dynamic that empowered Joseph to cut ties with his family he viewed himself and Michelle as Rebels who were fighting against tyrannical parents who prevented them from having money they were on this quest to pursue justice for all these alleged wrongdoings maybe Michelle activated Joseph's anger and his potential for violence with her victim story they took on this attitude of it's us against the world item number four initially Michelle accepted full responsibility for her homicidal Behavior Michelle said quote I need to be executed for everything that I've done unquote later she stayed with this Frame of Mind when she said quote life in prison is not enough punishment for me I want the most severe punishment which would be the death penalty I think if I kill a bunch of people I'm not sure I deserve to live I want to waive my trial unquote Michelle also accepted responsibility as The Mastermind when speaking about Joseph she said quote I pushed him into it I take 100 responsibility for it unquote eventually the idea of being executed wasn't quite as appealing to Michelle and she allowed her defense attorneys to fight for life in prison instead of death Michelle put blame on her family members she said quote I wasted my life because of these blanks it's not fair unquote the blank rhymes with the word grass and holes combined ultimately the state gave up pursuing the death penalty against Michelle because the jury voted for Joseph to receive life in prison item number five Joseph accepted responsibility for the murders to some extent but he also blamed Michelle Michelle convinced Joseph that her family members were evil and violent something needed to be done to protect her from these awful people who mistreated her he said that he only went with Michelle to her parents house to protect her as she murdered them I guess he figured the act of shooting people was pretty dangerous he would not want anyone to get hurt Joseph only intervened directly after seeing Michelle's pistol malfunction when she was trying to shoot her father Joseph claimed that he didn't like arguing or confrontation which sets up this idea that he was coerced or bullied into committing the murders like he just wanted peace and Tranquility but Michelle wouldn't let it go with the murder her family idea this part of his defense strategy essentially said that Joseph had a domineering mother and then he had a domineering girlfriend he was under the complete control of other people his whole life Joseph was a victim too there is no question that domineering parental relationships can cause problems in the long run but this is no excuse for committing murder Joseph knew that murdering people was wrong he could have simply decided not to do it em number six another defense strategy for Joseph was based on the idea that he and Michelle were suffering from shared psychotic disorder this is also referred to as Folia do a mental health professional for the defense claimed that this condition explained Joseph's Behavior shared psychotic disorder is an explanation for how delusions can manifest it's a mechanism not a disorder therefore the name is a little confusing the idea behind it is that an individual with psychosis can transmit The psychosis to someone else so they retain it they also remain psychotic but an additional person becomes psychotic as well technically shared psychotic disorder can affect more than two people it could be three four five or even more but it's very rare that that would happen so under this defense Theory Michelle would have been psychotic first which led to Joseph becoming psychotic let's weigh the evidence both for and against this argument looking at the factors that support this Theory shared psychotic disorder involves a dominant partner Michelle was described as domineering people affected by the disorder are usually members of the same family Michelle and Joseph were not related but they were lovers they lived together in the same residence the people affected by the disorder often have a history of psychosis Michelle had a history of paranoia which is a sign of psychosis and Joseph had experienced hallucinations and delusions therefore he had been psychotic the delusions that are associated with homicide are typically mystical and persecutory in nature Joseph believed in spirit animals controlling his Destiny and Michelle believed that her family was mistreating her shared psychotic disorder is associated with a significant risk of homicide one common reason for homicide with the disorder is a fear of being attacked Joseph thought that he was defending Michelle looking at the factors that contradict this Theory shared psychotic disorder is extremely rare most homicides which involved delusions and multiple perpetrators are not associated with the disorder Joseph had a job at the time of the murders it wasn't really that isolated people with the disorder who commit homicide are often motivated by a threat of separation or they believe others are trying to interfere with the delusion there is no evidence of that in this case after being arrested Michelle and Joseph seemed coherent they didn't mention anything that was bizarre odd or magical there was no reason to believe they were delusional when considering the evidence do I think that Michelle and Joseph had shared psychotic disorder I do not believe that they did I think that Joseph's anger and his tendency to fantasize were activated by Michelle's desires and plans he was looking for a magical adventure of violence to give purpose to his life and Michelle was looking for Revenge Michelle represented herself as looking like someone who appeared in a Terminator movie ultimately both she and Joseph transformed into Terminators and met each other's needs by murdering six innocent people those are my thoughts in the case of Michelle Anderson and Joseph Mcenroe 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: 151,829

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Id: uuhYrP_ojdQ

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2023