bloodrayne
05-17-2007, 08:30 AM
Mom Describes Her Encounters With Evil
Cynthia Lord says she would have killed her absent daughter too.
Anchorage, Alaska - Evil revealed itself to Cynthia Lord in the summer of 2003 through visions and, before long, Evil told her she would have to kill her three sons to save their souls.
Lord, charged with three counts of murder, took the stand in her own defense Tuesday, trying to convince a judge she is too crazy to be convicted.
Under relentless cross-examination by prosecutor Sharon Marshall, Lord made a chilling admission: If a 15-year-old daughter she hasn't seen in years had been in the apartment that bloody day, she would have killed her, too.
Now 45, Lord answered questions for more than an hour in a near monotone. She often seemed numb, detached from the horror of her words, tearing up just once as she explained how the force she called Evil told her to kill. Her mother, who also testified Tuesday, said afterwards Lord was heavily medicated.
The trial began April 23 and is about one thing: Was Lord legally sane on March 16, 2004, when she shot her teenage sons Joseph, Michael, and Christopher Woods over an 11-hour span in their South Anchorage apartment?
Doctors on both sides agree she is schizophrenic, but in Alaska, the standard for an insanity verdict is high. It may come down to this: whether Lord knew she was killing other human beings when she shot each of her boys in the head.
Lord said that Evil told her the boys had been cloned. They were acting different, she said to questions from defense attorney James Christie. It was hard to tell at times if Evil was just speaking through them. They might go back and forth between being clones and boys, she said.
Even after she shot them, she thought there was a 20 percent chance they would come back as boys, to teach the world about Evil.
She said she still thinks she made the right decision that night. She doesn't think she's mentally ill at all.
But under cross-examination, Lord admitted to Marshall that she knew the boys were human beings and were her children when she killed them.
Lord's mother, Joan Farley, told the judge that Lord's father and grandfather also were mentally ill. Lord's father became delusional, paranoid and violent, she said. She tried to get him help but he wouldn't accept it. Doctors told her to get as far away as she could.
Lord was in her own world as a child but the family didn't know that she was mentally ill until later, Farley said. Lord testified that she recalled being hospitalized twice for depression, including once when she was 17 and again at age 20 or 21.
Farley and Lord's aunt, Carol Silva, traveled to Anchorage from their homes in Connecticut for the trial and have sat in the audience every day. Both said after court that they want her to be found insane, not guilty, so she can get the help she needs in a hospital. They aren't mad at Lord anymore. They worry it will be hard to talk and send packages if she's sentenced to prison.
Lord, looking frozen-faced in a dark blue shirt with glittery stripes and orange tennis shoes with Velcro straps, said her boys were good kids who played sports and had lots of friends. Their father was her high school sweetheart. They split up after 10 years. She then married someone she met while both worked at a 7-11. They had a girl. Her mental troubles erupted when they separated, she said.
She began working as a meter maid in Anchorage. She heard odd squelching sounds on the radio she carried for the job. That was a sign. She became convinced a police officer was following her. She saw him in her kitchen, shot him, and "he disappeared." She said she now knows he wasn't real.
She bought sheets at Value Village and tacked them onto the walls and ceiling to prevent anyone from looking in through a pinhole camera. She kept the light off in the bathroom and undressed in the dark.
In the summer of 2003, she told the judge, she learned it was Evil, not her ex, spying on her. She still sees it today -- the hidden messages in product bar codes, ingredient lists, familiar names. Homemaking icon Martha Stewart, who served prison time over her actions regarding ImClone Systems Inc., was cloned and the real Martha Stewart is in on it, Lord testified.
Evil is not the devil or God but all the secret stuff that the government does with technology, she said. It's psychological and spiritual warfare.
"Does it make you happy or sad that Evil revealed itself?" her lawyer asked?
"Both," she answered
"Why does it make you happy?"
"To know the truth" Lord said.
"Why does it make you sad?"
"Because I lost my boys. I miss them."
By November 2003, Lord's family was worried.
Her aunt, Carol Silva, came to Alaska for Thanksgiving. She said she stayed with Lord for four or five days and that at times Lord was irrational and incoherent. Farley, Lord's mother, said she kept in touch with the boys from afar through e-mail and they usually said their mother was fine. But in the weeks just before they were killed, the tone changed, Farley testified.
Michael, 18, said he was scared. Farley said she called Service High School, where Michael and Joseph went, and a teacher tried to do something. Farley called the mental health agency where Lord had been treated. She called the police and the state Office of Children's Services.
But no one could save the boys.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Philip Volland must decide Lord's fate: guilty; guilty but mentally ill; or not guilty by reason of insanity.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday morning.
Cynthia Lord says she would have killed her absent daughter too.
Anchorage, Alaska - Evil revealed itself to Cynthia Lord in the summer of 2003 through visions and, before long, Evil told her she would have to kill her three sons to save their souls.
Lord, charged with three counts of murder, took the stand in her own defense Tuesday, trying to convince a judge she is too crazy to be convicted.
Under relentless cross-examination by prosecutor Sharon Marshall, Lord made a chilling admission: If a 15-year-old daughter she hasn't seen in years had been in the apartment that bloody day, she would have killed her, too.
Now 45, Lord answered questions for more than an hour in a near monotone. She often seemed numb, detached from the horror of her words, tearing up just once as she explained how the force she called Evil told her to kill. Her mother, who also testified Tuesday, said afterwards Lord was heavily medicated.
The trial began April 23 and is about one thing: Was Lord legally sane on March 16, 2004, when she shot her teenage sons Joseph, Michael, and Christopher Woods over an 11-hour span in their South Anchorage apartment?
Doctors on both sides agree she is schizophrenic, but in Alaska, the standard for an insanity verdict is high. It may come down to this: whether Lord knew she was killing other human beings when she shot each of her boys in the head.
Lord said that Evil told her the boys had been cloned. They were acting different, she said to questions from defense attorney James Christie. It was hard to tell at times if Evil was just speaking through them. They might go back and forth between being clones and boys, she said.
Even after she shot them, she thought there was a 20 percent chance they would come back as boys, to teach the world about Evil.
She said she still thinks she made the right decision that night. She doesn't think she's mentally ill at all.
But under cross-examination, Lord admitted to Marshall that she knew the boys were human beings and were her children when she killed them.
Lord's mother, Joan Farley, told the judge that Lord's father and grandfather also were mentally ill. Lord's father became delusional, paranoid and violent, she said. She tried to get him help but he wouldn't accept it. Doctors told her to get as far away as she could.
Lord was in her own world as a child but the family didn't know that she was mentally ill until later, Farley said. Lord testified that she recalled being hospitalized twice for depression, including once when she was 17 and again at age 20 or 21.
Farley and Lord's aunt, Carol Silva, traveled to Anchorage from their homes in Connecticut for the trial and have sat in the audience every day. Both said after court that they want her to be found insane, not guilty, so she can get the help she needs in a hospital. They aren't mad at Lord anymore. They worry it will be hard to talk and send packages if she's sentenced to prison.
Lord, looking frozen-faced in a dark blue shirt with glittery stripes and orange tennis shoes with Velcro straps, said her boys were good kids who played sports and had lots of friends. Their father was her high school sweetheart. They split up after 10 years. She then married someone she met while both worked at a 7-11. They had a girl. Her mental troubles erupted when they separated, she said.
She began working as a meter maid in Anchorage. She heard odd squelching sounds on the radio she carried for the job. That was a sign. She became convinced a police officer was following her. She saw him in her kitchen, shot him, and "he disappeared." She said she now knows he wasn't real.
She bought sheets at Value Village and tacked them onto the walls and ceiling to prevent anyone from looking in through a pinhole camera. She kept the light off in the bathroom and undressed in the dark.
In the summer of 2003, she told the judge, she learned it was Evil, not her ex, spying on her. She still sees it today -- the hidden messages in product bar codes, ingredient lists, familiar names. Homemaking icon Martha Stewart, who served prison time over her actions regarding ImClone Systems Inc., was cloned and the real Martha Stewart is in on it, Lord testified.
Evil is not the devil or God but all the secret stuff that the government does with technology, she said. It's psychological and spiritual warfare.
"Does it make you happy or sad that Evil revealed itself?" her lawyer asked?
"Both," she answered
"Why does it make you happy?"
"To know the truth" Lord said.
"Why does it make you sad?"
"Because I lost my boys. I miss them."
By November 2003, Lord's family was worried.
Her aunt, Carol Silva, came to Alaska for Thanksgiving. She said she stayed with Lord for four or five days and that at times Lord was irrational and incoherent. Farley, Lord's mother, said she kept in touch with the boys from afar through e-mail and they usually said their mother was fine. But in the weeks just before they were killed, the tone changed, Farley testified.
Michael, 18, said he was scared. Farley said she called Service High School, where Michael and Joseph went, and a teacher tried to do something. Farley called the mental health agency where Lord had been treated. She called the police and the state Office of Children's Services.
But no one could save the boys.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Philip Volland must decide Lord's fate: guilty; guilty but mentally ill; or not guilty by reason of insanity.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday morning.