Filicide, a parent killing his own child is gruesome, disturbing, unreadable but a fact. In US about 500 innocent children are murdered by their parents. The numbers of filicide that occur in India are not available but going by few recordings available the numbers could range in 1000s and more.
Stories abound in this realm.
A mother in Naperville, set fire to herself and her two children in her home in 2007. She was seen shopping for toys for her children in the morning and in the afternoon had taken her life along with her two children.
In 2011 a mother in Mumbai first had breakfast with her two children, then went up to the terrace of a 19-storey building and one by one threw her children from the terrace. She also threw herself from the building.
In 2013, a mother in Milwaukee wanted to save her children from the pains of divorce. She put her four children in her SUV and left it on in the closed garage. The children died of carbon overdose.
In UK a mother battered her 11-month old son to death and then took selfie with the dead child!
John Battaglia, a father from Texas shot his two daughters aged six and nine years old. After killing them he went to a tattoo parlour to get tattoos of his daughters inked!
John List an accountant from New Jersey was having financial troubles. He was broke, his was foreclosed. He murdered his three children, his wife and his mother. Later though he moved to Colorado and remarried!
The “candyman” Ronald Clark O’ Brien gave his kids poisoned candies on Halloween Day in 1974. His kids died of fatal doses of cyanide. Before poisoning his son, this deadly dad had recently increased life insurance coverage on his son.
Stories of filicide are many, some make national news, some receive international attention, while many others especially in developing economies go unrecorded.
Over years, the data suggest that killing by fathers outnumbers the cases of maternal filicide.
Some reasons touted to this heinous crime are
Custody Battle
Untreated Mental Illness
Financial Troubles
Troubled Marriage
Illegitimate Child.
As a society when we see a behavior that looks odd, when we see a person that may be a danger to someone or herself, we should act, react and proact.