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Holiday surprises!

By Dr. Brian Russell • on November 29, 2009

: Image via Wikipedia

Here are some holiday surprises for you (I know, nothing should surprise me anymore, but some things still do):

Remember the census worker who was found dead in a Kentucky forest with the word “Fed” written on his body? Well guess what — it turns out he committed suicide! Based on what I read at the time, I didn’t think that was a real possibility because I thought investigators on the scene would’ve identified it as a suicide right away if that’s what it was. Well, apparently the guy staged it so elaborately because he had bought two substantial life insurance policies that would’ve paid benefits if he were murdered but not if he committed suicide. No word yet on whom the beneficiaries would’ve been, but there’s also nothing to suggest that they knew anything about the guy’s suicide plan. Apparently this was a suicidal guy who thought that he could make his life be worth something (as if it wasn’t already) by leaving someone some money. Sad.

Remember the unidentified 15-year-old who was in custody for killing a nine-year-old in Missouri? Well guess what — she’s still in custody, facing an adult murder charge (but not the death penalty). That’s right, she. The defendant is a girl. Based on the initial reporting of the story, I guessed that it would be a boy, just based on statistical probability. There’s more. She reportedly has said that she did it just to see what it felt like to kill somebody. Regardless of the fact that she sounds like she knew what she was doing and that it was wrong, which would make her guilty of first-degree (premeditated) murder, it also sounds like she’s had mental problems (cutting herself, possibly attempting suicide, etc.) in the past that may have been minimized by adults in her life, which goes to show that as badly as we may want someone to be “normal” and to believe that a mentally-disturbed individual is “all better,” ignoring red flags to the contrary can put that individual and others in serious danger.

Study this: Remember my recent post about military suicides being on the rise? (If not, it’s dated 11/18/09.) About a week later, the Department of Defense released statistics showing that the number of divorces among military families had increased in the past year as well. At first, I thought it might be a dramatic increase, due in part to the stress that long-term deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have placed on military marriages, and that it might help explain the increase in military suicides. When I looked into it a little further though, I was surprised to find that the increase in divorces was actually quite small (up .2% to 3.6% from 3.4% the previous year) and that the military divorce rate doesn’t appear to be much different (and may actually be lower) than the civilian divorce rate (using a 2005 estimate from the Centers for Disease Control, roughly 43% of all first marriages occurring in 1995 had ended in divorce, which would be 4.3% per year on average — civilian statistics are not as good because civilian divorces are handled by the 50 states with no centralized tracking system). I was also surprised to learn that the divorce rate among military women was more than twice the divorce rate among military men (7.7% for women vs. 3% for men).

Finally tonight, remember the stampede at a New York Wal-Mart last “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving and the “official” first day of the Christmas-shopping season)? Well, there were no deadly stampedes reported this “Black Friday,” which is why you didn’t have to watch me on t.v. yesterday explaining the psychology of emotionally-charged group (i.e. “herd”) behavior like I did last year. This year, shoppers in general apparently conducted themselves in a manner that’s relatively consistent with the spirit of the season — now that was a nice surprise! (OK, maybe stores just beefed up security, but I’m trying to think the best of people during the holiday season!)