Sexual Murder - Justicia Forense

that the more strangely he behaves, the more psychotic he will look; however,it is very difficult to maintain malingered psychotic symptoms for anextended period of time (Enoch, Trethowan, and Bracher, 1967). Moreover,there are frequent variations in the malingerer’s clinical presentation and theactual illness that he is attempting to feign, since he is portraying a layman’sconcept of how a psychotic individual would act.The following case is illustrative of a woman who attempted to feignmultiple personality disorder in order to avoid criminal responsibility for themurder of a 12-year-old girl.Case 2.3 Feigning Multiple Personality DisorderCC, a 38-year-old unemployed woman, lived with her 16-year-old-daughter.The daughter regularly brought a number of her high school friends to CC’sapartment where the adolescents listened to music, smoked pot, and engagedin sexual relations. CC began to associate with the teenagers and developed aromantic relationship with an aggressive and sadistic 16-year-old who becameher “boyfriend.” The boyfriend enjoyed intimidating other adolescents, especiallyan emotionally weak 12-year-old girl who lived several blocks away. CCand her boyfriend held this child (who was assumed to be a runaway) captivefor two weeks. During this time period, the boyfriend, along with CC, torturedher. They tied her to the radiator, kept her undressed, forced her to eat feces,hog-tied her, made her kneel on rice, and beat her in front of some of the otheradolescents. CC and her boyfriend warned the other teens that if they toldanyone about these acts they, too, would become victims of similar cruelty.One evening, the boyfriend held the 12-year-old by her legs and threw her backand forth, hitting her head and causing her death. Afterward, CC and her boyfriendwrapped the child up with duct tape and nailed her body onto the ceiling raftersin the attic. CC and her daughter then moved out of their apartment, and thegroup disbanded. A short time later, CC heard (through her daughter) that wordof the homicide had spread. She immediately called the police and blamed thekilling on her young boyfriend. Nevertheless, she was arrested and charged withmurder, kidnapping, terroristic threats, aggravated sexual assault, and a numberof other related offenses surrounding not only the 12-year-old’s death, but alsothe torture and abuse of a number of other adolescents.CC was evaluated by two renowned psychiatrists and a clinical psychologistwho were on the faculty of a leading medical school. All three experts were wellknown in their field and periodically took on forensic cases. They evaluated CCin the same way they would evaluate any patient whom they saw in the hospitalor in their private offices; that is, they relied solely on what CC told them. Duringthe questioning, CC revealed a dual personality; she claimed that the otherpersonality had participated in the torture and death of the child, although shedenied any memory of these events. In addition to multiple personality (adefense that was popular at the time), these experts concluded that CC suffered