http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2017386,00.html

Family, acquaintances paint strange portrait

By Mark Arax, Los Angeles Times

FRESNO -- The son hadn't seen the father in nearly a year.

On Saturday afternoon, he stood in the sunlight outside the house where the father allegedly killed nine family members and tried to recall the man who raised him.

"He was a good father. He wasn't abusive at all," said Dorian Wesson, 29, who lives in Santa Cruz. "He was born in Kansas, lived in San Jose and moved to Fresno to buy and sell houses. He belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist and writes books, too."

He tried to fit that image to the man arrested Friday in the murder of seven of his children and two of his grandchildren. Their bodies were stacked in a back bedroom while 10 ornatecaskets purchased by his father, Marcus Wesson, from a local antique store filled the living room.

"I don't want to believe it. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt," Dorian Wesson said. "But they're all dead." Police are calling the crime the worst mass murder in Fresno history. The night before, as the smallest bodies were carried out of the house, the police chief and the mayor fought back tears.

"This is not Fresno," Mayor Alan Autry insisted. "This is an aberration."

On Saturday, as the national media descended on the working class neighborhood, Fresno residents were still trying to absorb the shock and many were driving past the house to leave flowers and stuffed animals, and ask questions that still couldn't be answered.

"Was this a ritual killing," one resident asked? "A cult?"

As the Fresno County coroner performed autopsies on the nine victims -- seven children ages 8 and younger, one teenager and one young adult -- neighbors and business associates pieced together a portrait of Marcus Wesson, the 57-year-old murder suspect.

He was an odd man whose behavior had grown even more bizarre over the past year, they said. Besides a dozen or so biological children, he surrounded himself with four women who acted as wives and practiced an absolute fealty to him. They were like a "small commune," one said, the older women dressed in flowing black gowns and head scarves. They almost always stood behind him, eyes cast down and mute, as he led them from one housing renovation project to another across Fresno.

"He was real stern with them, and he expected them to do exactly what he said -- and right now," said Frank Muna, a criminal defense attorney who sold a historic brick house in central Fresno to Wesson in 1999. "Over the past year or two, I noticed his thoughts became more rambling and incoherent. He was off the wall."

Wesson and the women often worked late into the night to renovate the house gutted by fire, Muna said, but the city eventually declared it uninhabitable and forced them to move. At the time, Wesson and the women were living in a small backyard tool shed with several children. His salt-and-pepper hair had grown into a lion's mane, Muna recalled, tangled and filthy. He had put on considerable weight.

"He just seemed to break down physically and mentally," Muna said.

Police were called to the house about 2:30 p.m. Friday. They were responding to a child-custody dispute. As they arrived, two women told them they had given custody of their children to Wesson, and now they wanted them back. Wesson allegedly refused.

Wesson ran into the house and locked the door, police said. The SWAT team was called and a two-hour standoff followed. Neighbors said they heard repeated gunshots and questioned why the SWAT team didn't move in. Police said they were still investigating when, where and how the victims were killed. Because the bodies were intertwined, police said, some of the victims may have been killed earlier and placed together.

When Wesson finally walked outside and surrendered, his clothes were spotted with blood, police said.

Authorities still have not publicly identified the victims or the cause of death. At a news conference late Saturday in which they released few details, police described the victims as six females, ages 24, 17, 8, 7, 1 and 1; and three males, ages 7, 4 and 1. Police believe that the two dead grandchildren were also fathered by Wesson in an incestuous relationship with one of his deceased daughters. They say DNA testing will be used to confirm their belief.


Tony Collazo, who lives next door, said Wesson was easy with a wave and a hello, but it never got deeper than that. Most evenings, he'd stand over the barbecue cooking meats that often smelled foul. "It was pretty bad," he said.

The neighbors didn't recall many glimpses of the younger children. Mostly, they said, Wesson and the women worked late into the night fixing an old school bus. It was his pride and joy, they said. He had painted it a clean yellow and embroidered it in fresh chrome. Behind the back seats, he had built a spa.

On Saturday, strips of chrome and tools -- a heavy duty band saw, a pop rivet gun and a -inch drill -- lay scattered in the driveway. Inside the bus were the colorful overnight bags of the children. A small jar stuffed with twigs and leaves and five small ladybugs sat on the front grill.


Inside the house -- a small law office Wesson had converted into living quarters -- sat the 10 coffins. They were hand carved in Malaysia, Muna said, and Wesson had bought them two or three years ago for more than $10,000. What he intended to do with them, Muna wasn't sure.

Lot of thoughts racing in my mind..

I am hesitant to post them...

It would be interesting to have a confirmation from Fresno that he was a member there.

Stan,

Jerry Page is conference Pres there.
There are several churches in Fresno.

This is the Central Calif Conference link

http://ccc.adventist.org/

SOURCE FOX http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,114154,00.html

FRESNO, Calif. — A man suspected of killing nine of his family members lived a bizarre life of polygamy  and incest , even fathering two of his victims with his own daughters, police said.

Marcus Wesson (search), 57, was arrested Friday after emerging blood-covered from his home, where authorities found nine bodies in a back room tangled and intertwined with clothing. His demeanor was described by officers as "very calm."

Wesson was cooperating with authorities, who planned to charge him with nine counts of murder, said police Chief Jerry Dyer.

"If this does not qualify for the death sentence, then there is no case that would," Dyer said.

The grisly tale of polygamy, incest and murder stunned not only police but also Wesson's 29-year-old son, Dorian.

"He was a good father. He wasn't abusive at all," Dorian Wesson told the Los Angeles Times in Sunday's editions. "He belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist (Church) and writes books too."

Dorian Wesson, who hadn't seen his father in about a year, was still trying to come to grips with the allegations.

"I don't want to believe it. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt," he said. "But they're all dead."


Investigators said Saturday the victims included six females and three males, ranging in age from 1 to 24 and probably Wesson's children and grandchildren.

Six coroners, triple the typical weekend staff, worked Saturday to determine how the victims died. Police said believe they know the cause of death but would not release that information.

"I can tell you that there were no mutilations," the police chief said. "The bodies were intact."

Police planned to serve another search warrant but Dyer would not say where, adding, "We have not ruled out the involvement of any other suspects."

Officers were called to the home Friday afternoon for a child custody dispute. What they found inside was ghastly: bodies so entangled that it took hours for investigators to reach a final count and 10 wooden caskets lining a wall of a front room.

Some of the first officers into the house were placed on administrative leave and received counseling Friday night. Six police chaplains were at the house throughout the evening as detectives continued to gather evidence.

The department's cult (search) expert is helping with the investigation. Dyer said no motive had been determined.

Wesson had children with at least four women, including two of his daughters, and authorities are investigating whether he had other female sexual partners as well.


Wesson had once lived with five women and appeared to have a romantic relationship with each, said Frank Muna, an acquaintance. The women seemed to be under Wesson's control, walking behind him and not speaking when he was present, Muna said.


"The neighbors felt there was some weird kind of polygamy commune thing going on," said Muna, a defense lawyer who sold the remains of his burned-out house to Wesson and the women in 1999. Wesson moved to a different house about eight months ago, in part because of neighbors' complaints, Muna said.


Neighbors described seeing many women at the house, dressed in long dresses and sometimes with veils covering their faces, Dyer said.


Dyer said two women who called authorities to the home Friday told officers they had given custody of their children to Wesson two years ago and came to retrieve them.


Neighbors said they knew little about Wesson or the single-story house where a large yellow bus was parked in the driveway. On the sidewalk Saturday were stuffed animals, balloons and flowers left by passers-by.

Wesson's behavior had become more bizarre and his appearance more disheveled in the last three years, said Muna, the acquaintance.

"A lot of what he was saying wasn't relevant to what we were discussing," he said. "He grew that one big, long, nasty dreadlock. It was just caked with dirt and oil."

Dyer said police had not determined why the caskets were in the home, but said they had not been taken as evidence.

Wesson bought the hand-carved mahogany caskets about five years ago from an antique store in town, saying he planned to use the wood to repair a houseboat, said Lois Dugovic, owner of the store.

Dugovic said Wesson seemed aware people were scared of him and that made him laugh. Dugovic herself was at first frightened by Wesson's appearance.

"He sure didn't look the part of a normal person," she said.

The nine deaths represent the largest mass killing ever in Fresno, a city of 440,000 about 190 miles southeast of San Francisco. Seven people were killed in rural Fresno in 1993.

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Lot of thoughts racing in my mind..

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Other than reactions to the tragedy this is, the thought going through my mind is that this man was displaying increasingly erratic behaviour over a long time and nothing was done to assess him. That is not a criticism of his neighbours or the local authorities, it could also be possible here. To me it says a lot about our modern way of life, afraid of intruding into others lives.

It also says a lot about how isolated is the experience of the mentally ill. How terrible to be descending into hell on earth and no one intervenes.

Been there, done that. Well not the murder, but the descent.

This case is an extreme example of how the family's hands are tied by the laws (in California, at least) prohibiting commitment of the mentally ill against their wishes. This man (in the good old days) would have long ago been committed to a State Mental Hospital, where he would have been safe, well treated, fed regular meals; and where the family and community would have been safe from him.

Recently "patients' rights advocates" have gone to court to lobby against involuntary commitment. Now the pendulum has swung to the side of letting the patient decide whether or not he wants to be treated. It truly has become a case of "letting the inmates run the asymlum" -- except there's no asylum, so most of them are sleeping on the streets.

It is the families of the mentally ill who really suffer the most. Their hands are tied.

And this case also demonstrates that even being an Adventist does not grant one immunity from mental illness.

Ever since a dingo ran away with a child in Australia Seventh-day Adventist have had doubt cast over their heads. The use of the word 'cult' appears in many stories about this Fresno incident. One report read, Adventists continue to kill their kids. And Waco is still vivid in some memories. May we be able to show the love and compassion and sense of justice that our Lord has instilled on His special last-day people. Much prayer is needed, for all involved, and for all who pass judgment.