Stalker Mounts Borderline Personality Pathology Defense | Molly McLaren Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Molly McLaren 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 enjoy 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 including the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis Molly McLaren was born in 1994 she grew up in a small town an hour east of London England growing up she struggled with anxiety and was diagnosed with bulimia Molly eventually became interested in health and fitness she frequently worked out and even recorded Fitness videos in 2015 when Molly was 21 she started college at the University of Kent in July 2016 during the summer break after her first year in college Molly went online and met a 24 year old warehouse worker named Joshua Stimson Molly was careful in her romantic partner selection she did not date frequently she was looking for her one true love and wanted a long-term relationship consistent with this strategy Molly and Joshua communicated online for a few months Maui did not meet Joshua in person until November 2016. after she decided that he had good potential to be a stable romantic partner during the first few months of the relationship Molly was excited to be with Joshua but it didn't take long for Joshua to exhibit worrisome Behavior for example he tried to interfere with Maui's friendships like he didn't want her to spend time with her female friends he would show up at Maui's residence unannounced Joshua would not leave Molly alone he demanded to stay by her side all the time even quit his job at the warehouse to spend more time with Molly this was great news for the warehouse employees but bad news from Molly at one point Molly sent a text message to Joshua saying we can't be with each other 24 7. I feel really pressured Molly broke up with Joshua in March 2017 he begged her to take him back and she gave in to his request he promised that everything would change but he went back to his controlling Behavior immediately for example Joshua once again tried to isolate Molly from her friends in May of 2017 Molly and Joshua went on vacation Molly was hoping that they would have a good time and the relationship would take a turn for the better but she was terribly disappointed as they were arguing constantly she texted a friend quote thought this stuff with Josh was going to pass but it's not it's the worst thing ever help me unquote Molly indicated that Joshua simply wasn't learning from his mistakes he did not seem to understand what she was trying to communicate about his suffocating Behavior Molly decided that she was going to end the relationship but she wanted to wait for the right time to strike on June 17 2017 an argument between Molly and Joshua at a bar prompted Molly to break up with him on the spot he left the bar in a rage Molly blocked him on social media right away the next day Joshua started a harassment campaign that would last for several days on social media he posted embarrassing photographs of Maui and claimed that she had used cocaine Joshua indicated that there was more to come on June 22 Molly reported Joshua's Behavior to the police he was told to take down the social media posts an officer said to him we wouldn't want Maui to come down to the police station again about you would we Joshua replied wouldn't we the next day Joshua showed up at the police station and claimed that he was the victim Molly was damaging his reputation the police told him to stop contacting her on June 27 the police called Molly and said that Joshua agreed to remove all the offensive posts Maui may have taken this as a good sign but Joshua was not actually giving up he purchased a knife at a local store and less than a half hour later purchased a pickaxe from another store Joshua managed to convince an acquaintance of his to connect with Maui on social media in order to track Molly's movements so he was able to get around the fact that Molly had blocked him on June 28th Molly and her friends were once again out drinking at a bar Joshua showed up at the same bar with another woman as if it was a coincidence despite the fact that Joshua was not a smoker he walked by the table where Molly and her friends were seated and into a smoking area he stood there and stared at them he may not have been smoking a cigarette but Joshua was burning on the inside Molly left the bar more fearful than ever she was Gravely concerned about Joshua's stalking behavior on the next day June 29 Molly drove to a gym in Chatham and arrived at 10 10 A.M not long after this Joshua was captured on video surveillance at the same gym he walked up the stairs and looked into the gym walked down the stairs and then turned around went back up the stairs and entered only Molly and Joshua are visible in the video surveillance it doesn't look like the gym was too crowded Molly was startled to see Joshua there she sent a text message to her mother at 10 45 am saying he's turned up at the gym and come next to me Molly approached Joshua and asked him why he was following her and why he was not at work he told her it was none of her business at 10 54 am Molly called her mother who told her to drive straight home Joshua left the gym three minutes later before Maui left he drove around the parking lot and waited for Molly to exit Molly exited the gym and started walking toward her vehicle she sent a message to a friend at 11 02 am saying feels like I'm blank looking over my shoulder all the time after reaching her car Molly sat in the driver's seat Joshua approached her vehicle at 1108 pm and pulled the driver's side door open he then stabbed Molly 75 times Emergency Services were notified and arrived at the scene Molly was declared dead at 11 43 A.M the police arrested Joshua and charged him with murder Joshua's trial started on January 23 2018. he claimed that he didn't remember anything about the attack however he admitted that he was guilty of manslaughter Joshua claimed that he was not guilty of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility his defense argued that he had a personality disorder Joshua was found guilty on February 6 he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 26 years perhaps one could posit that in the end Joshua's proposition of possessing personality pathology proved powerless in precluding him from a Perpetual prison penalty now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one Molly was not Reckless when it came to her romantic life she spoke to Joshua online for several months before meeting him in person she was trying to avoid entering into a relationship that was destined to fail the problem in this particular case was that Joshua was manipulative he learned that Mali had mental health symptoms and told her that he had bipolar disorder in reality he did not have bipore disorder Joshua said that he did in order to gain attention from Molly he would claim to have symptoms and ask for help she would drop other plans and attend to his needs so he was pretending to have various mental health episodes Molly felt as though Joshua understood her because of his claims about bipolar disorder they were both going through mental health struggles together Joshua not only used his fabricated mental health symptoms to get sympathy and attention he leveraged Molly's actual mental health symptoms against her when she would tell him that she was afraid of him he advised her that her concerns were due to her mental health conditions Joshua was gaslighting Molly item number two is Joshua's history of stalking behavior Joshua had never been convicted of any crime before committing murder but he had engaged in stalking behavior Molly was not aware of this in the summer of 2013 three years before he met Molly online Joshua met a woman named Alexandra Dale on Tinder they went to a bar where Joshua told her not to talk to any men because he did not like it when their date was over Joshua placed 25 calls to Alexandra they went to her voicemail later Joshua sent pictures to her featuring her wearing various clothing and he criticized her fashion choices Alexandra noticed that Joshua was not with her when the photographs were taken as if he was covertly following her around and taking pictures of her after this Joshua's Behavior escalated when Alexandra was on vacation Joshua sent her a message threatening to fly out to where she was and drown her he sent her a photograph of her backyard which was particularly alarming because she never told Joshua where she lived Joshua punctured all the tires on her vehicle and told her there was a surprise waiting for her when she arrived home he never physically attacked her but his behavior was still quite frightening this wasn't the only stalking behavior in Joshua's history in May 2016 Joshua met a woman named Leah Hubbard at a bar the couple started dating Leah told Joshua that she was going to a bachelorette party he asked her if she was going to be talking to any other men Joshua repeatedly called and texted Leah she ended the relationship a week later it's not clear why she waited so long on one occasion after this Joshua unexpectedly showed up at Leah's Residence at 2 am he said his friends had abandoned him and he needed to charge his phone Leah let him charge his phone when it was finished charging she informed him that she was going to call the police if he ever did that again either Leah was really serious about responsible phone charge management where she was tired of Joshua's stalking behavior this did not deter Joshua later he showed up at a bar where Leah was and watched her they had a confrontation during which Joshua spit his drink on Leah Joshua was removed from the bar item number three what type of mental health and personality factors could have been at work in a case like this this is just a theory my opinion a mental health clinician for the defense argued that Joshua had borderline personality disorder his parents had divorced which was stressful for him he developed a hypersensitivity to rejection so the perceived rejection by his parents made him intolerant of further rejection a clinician for the prosecution came up with a different assessment Joshua was narcissistic and did not have any remorse but he did not suffer from a personality disorder people who knew Joshua described his mood as highly variable sometimes he was friendly unlikable at other times he was erratic and creepy I think it's reasonable to believe that Joshua exhibited characteristics of both borderline and vulnerable narcissism these two constructs are closely related to one another from borderline Joshua was impulsive paranoid and angry his mood was unstable he had a fear of Abandonment and he tended to both idealize and devalue love interests from vulnerable narcissism Joshua was self-centered jealous manipulative insecure vindictive hypersensitive to criticism full of Shame had a need for admiration had a sense of entitlement and lacked empathy moving to my final item number four what type of stalker was Joshua stemson according to one popular stalking classification model there are five different stalker types intimacy stalker incompetent Suitor rejected stalker resentful stalker and predatory stalker often these categories overlap and a person can change from one type to another during their stalking career like many stalkers who go on to commit homicide Joshua's Behavior featured a combination of the last three types rejected resentful and predatory his stalking behavior started with harassment and clumsy efforts to reconcile consistent with the rejected stalker type he then tried to re-establish control using tactics of intimidation and Terror like a resentful stalker would do finally he became a predatory stalker when he conducted surveillance and committed homicide I think Joshua was motivated to kill in an effort to alleviate his sense of Shame and to get revenge he could not change Maui's Behavior but he believed that killing her would remove the source of his shame and Avenge the rejection that caused the shame in the first place it was an extreme expression of the idealization devaluation cycle of borderline Joshua idealized Maui so much that when she rejected him he resorted to the ultimate Act of devaluation those are my thoughts in the case of Molly McLaren 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: 67,247

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Id: -IPqKq28b-A

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023