At the end of The Sun's article about 16 year-old Robert Richardson III, who is accused of killing his father last week, a Bel Air woman posed the question, "What drove him to do that?" ("No bail for Bel Air teen accused of patricide," Jan. 12.)
I'll wager a guess: being a trapped and helpless victim of relentless, demeaning emotional abuse by his father, the man who was supposed to nurture and protect him. Violence in the home is a form of "domestic terrorism"; the son was held hostage. Twice in the past few months, the father called in a missing persons report on his son. I wonder if the teenager was trying to escape.
He had nowhere to go.
What is especially tragic about this situation is that several people suspected the abuse was going on for years. A neighbor said he called the police several times to report the threatening verbal abuse. The police say they have no record. A young life fell through the cracks.
Emily Samuelson