Man arraigned in hospital slay of mother, 70
GROTON, N.H. — The stepfather of a Rhode Island man accused of fatally shooting his mother as she lay in the intensive-care unit of New Hampshire’s largest hospital said his stepson had struggled with mental illness and made bizarre statements to her days before the killing.
“She heard him use certain phrases: He wants to be the pope, or he wants to be the president,” Robert Ferriere said Travis Frink told Pamela Ferriere in a phone call over the weekend. “That was a red flag that went up to Pam.”
Frink, 48, of Warwick, R.I., said nothing yesterday as a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf in Grafton Superior Court in North Haverhill in connection with Tuesday’s shooting at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where his 70-year-old mother was being treated for an aneurysm.
He was held without bail and, at the request of prosecutor Jane Young, was ordered to have no contact with his stepfather, who said he looked on in horror as Frink shot his mother four times after asking to be alone with her.
“I actually thought he was going to shoot me, but he just quietly put the gun away and walked away like nothing was wrong,” Ferriere, 70, said as he sat on his stoop yesterday. “I haven’t been able to sleep because all I can see is her horrified look when he shot her.”
Frink is a former Marine who suffered from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, his stepfather said.
In 2013, Frink’s ex-wife and her 3-year-old son were found dead inside a running car at an apartment complex in Rhode Island.
Police said that when officers opened the door of the running car with fogged windows, they found the inside of the vehicle very hot and smelling of alcohol and vomit. Officials said the body of Kathleen Frink was found in the driver’s seat and the body of her son was found on the floor in the back of the car.
Police said at the time they ruled out foul play and suspected alcohol played a role.
With medication, Frink managed to cope, his stepfather said, but over the years, he lost jobs and was hospitalized after going off the drugs because he didn’t like his weight gain and other side effects.
He and his mother had “basically a good relationship,” his stepfather said.
About a week before her death, Frink and his three sons visited her at the hospital, said Ferriere, who took them to the cafeteria afterward for a bite to eat.
His stepson seemed fine, he said, until last weekend’s phone call.
“Pam told him you need to get back on your medicine,” Ferriere said. “I called his older brother and told him he was having a problem.”
Ferriere said he and his wife, who was a certified nurse’s assistant, would have been married for 20 years this November.
“She was a wonderful, caring woman,” he said. “She just gave of herself to help other people.”