Waiting for answers is not a strong suit for those of us in the media business, yet we regularly find ourselves doing just that as we try to bring information, facts and details to those of you reading our stories.
We sometimes wait for hours in hallways of police stations and city halls and on the other side of cordoned-off crime scenes for just a smidgen of new information that may better explain the issue at hand.
We generally wade through a whole lot of “no comments” and “we’re not authorized to discuss details” and “the matter is under investigation” before the crux of the matter is finally revealed.
Often there are at least two parts to any big story — the immediate event followed by the fallout.
When I was a young reporter I was much more interested in the immediate “breaking” story. The excitement and the unpredictability were nearly intoxicating. I became bored quickly once the chase was over. I was ready to move on, and normally there was always something to move on to.
This week headlines in newspapers and teasers on local TV stations followed the massive manhunt for a Newport man suspected of killing his father and severely beating his mother.
A frightening tragedy, to be sure, but the kind of story that pumps adrenaline directly into the bloodstream of any news reporter.
Upon discovering the crime, police quickly released a significant amount of information to the press as they searched the Newport area for Perley Goodrich Jr., who was considered armed and dangerous and thought to be hiding in the woods just days before deer hunting season was to commence.
As the search continued for four days and as that all-important opening day (Saturday) approached and having been raised in those parts, I wondered how many women were threatening to keep their hunters home for fear that Perley might be hiding out inside a long-closed and isolated hunting camp.
Beyond that, however, as the grisly details emerged, I wondered whether further investigation would reveal a family’s frustration with the state’s mental health system.
Perley Goodrich Jr. was arrested early Friday morning sipping a cup of coffee in the restaurant at the Irving Station. On Thursday his sister told a Bangor Daily News reporter that her brother allegedly committed the attacks shortly after being released from a medical facility where he had been taken after his mother took him to a local hospital with concerns regarding his mental health.
It is not the first time and most likely won’t be the last that a family has suffered, sometimes fatally, upon the release of a suspected mentally ill loved one from a facility where staff deemed him to be competent and stable enough for release.
The homicide and assault and the subsequent manhunt were certainly big and worthy stories. The continuing problem with correctly diagnosing and evaluating the danger posed by those in the midst of a mental illness breakdown is the after-story.
It may take a bit more effort to examine it, and the details may surface more slowly, but one can only hope that readers will follow it with the same rapt attention they did when Mr. Goodrich was thought to be armed and dangerous and hiding in the woods.
Perley Goodrich Sr. is dead. His wife is recovering from serious wounds. Perley Goodrich Jr. is in jail and in the hands of the judicial system. The specific aftermath of that tragedy is one that the Goodrich family must bear.
Families dealing with the sadness, frustration and sometimes fear of a loved one’s mental illness is not specific to that family.
His mental history and his mental status at the time of the crime will be considered and debated by professionals and lawyers.
I wouldn’t dare guess the outcome of that, but I can assure you that there are a number of people who will feel more comfortable heading out into the mid-Maine woods this morning because he has been caught.
I also can assure you that there are a number of families across the state that are living in fear of a mentally ill loved one in crisis and for whom there is little help available.
Those families struggle between the desire to care for that person and the need to protect themselves.
That is the issue at hand. That is the fallout of that story, and it is one that we should all be willing to take the time to pay attention to.