Chapter 6 - Margaret’s story
Margaret hired a lawyer before speaking.
She was sixty-eight.
Retired hospital billing supervisor.
Widow.
Richard’s mother.
No criminal record.
She did not deny bringing food downstairs.
Her explanation:
Emily was having a mental-health crisis.
Richard told Margaret that Emily had become paranoid and refused inpatient treatment.
He claimed a psychiatrist advised keeping stimulation low until a private placement opened.
That sounded absurd when said aloud.
Margaret insisted Richard had shown her emails.
Fake emails, investigators later found.
She said she believed Emily consented to staying in the basement room temporarily because she feared hospitalization.
Then Ortiz asked:
“Why was the door locked from the outside?”
Margaret’s lawyer stopped the interview.
May you like
Good lawyer.
Bad fact.
