THE MAKING OF A PARENT KILLER

For more than three decades, Kathleen Heide has pored over FBI files, trying to make sense of murders most consider incomprehensible. The criminology professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa is a leading expert on parricide and has examined cases from across the U.S. that involved sons and daughters killing parents or step-parents. The alleged perpetrators have been as young as 6 and as old as 70. Some victims were wealthy; others had little to no financial means. The crime happens in many different kinds of families, she says. Heide has written two books on the subject: Why Kids Kill Parents and Understanding Parricide: When

Sons and Daughters Kill Parents. She spoke to the Star about the four primary motivations she has identified through her research to explain the parricide phenomenon.