Father had tough time accepting son’s diagnosis, fatality inquiry hears
The Autism News | English
EDMONTON – The mother of an autistic boy killed by his father told a fatality inquiry Thursday her ex-husband was a “good dad” who didn’t realize there were people could help as he struggled to raise his often aggressive son.
Jackie McKean took the witness stand at the inquiry into the deaths of her Jeremy Bostick, 11, and his father Jeffrey.
They were found dead in a murder-suicide in September 2009. McKean and Bostick had separated four years earlier. She stayed in Ontario when Bostick moved to Alberta in 2006 with their son.
McKean told the inquiry Bostick had difficulty accepting his son’s diagnosis. He had a background in chemistry, McKean said, and didn’t initially want to accept a medical condition that couldn’t be proven by a blood test.
At the same time, McKean said she also grieved knowing her child wouldn’t develop normally, as she had once expected.
The inquiry has heard from several witnesses who said Jeremy’s autism was severe, that he was non-verbal, and also suffered from intellectual disabilities. He was often aggressive, striking children, his parents, and caregivers.
“Jeff was a good dad,” McKean told the inquiry, adding he was hands-on and engaged.
McKean said her son benefited from an early autism diagnosis at age two and received three years of intensive behavioural intervention, where a therapist came to their home. She saw improvements in his behaviour. In 2006, Bostick decided to move to Alberta with Jeremy, his new partner, and that woman’s son. The family thought Alberta offered better services for autistic children and was looking for financial opportunities after struggling in Ontario.
The inquiry has heard that Jeremy’s behaviour deteriorated in 2007 and 2008, leading to two emergency hospitalization periods when his behaviour spun so far out of control that neither school officials nor his parents could handle him.
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Comment says: Maybe the boys behavior was aggressive and became more intense because he was living with a total stranger who was taking the role of his mom and wasn’t. He probably just really missed him mom and like any child of divorced was confused.
