Here's my ongoing list of killer dads to come out of Maricopa, and these are just the murders that had a custody/visitation angle:
The Killer Dads of Maricopa County, Arizona
Father: ALLEN CHAMBERS
Victim(s): Mindi Chambers (17 years)
Date of Death: Assumed to have been murdered around the time she went missing in 1982.
Custodial father ALLEN CHAMBERS is now presumed to have murdered Mindi Chambers around the time she went missing. Daughter had reported sexual abuse to the authorities. Not reported as officially missing til 1995.
Father: JEFFREY DUCHANE
Victim(s): Trenay Duchane (12 years)
Date of Death: Nov. 2008
Custodial father and stepmother convicted of murder.
Father: RAUL MOLINA GONZALEZ
Victim(s): Anthony Gonzalez (11 years)
Date of Death: Summer 2005
Father convicted of murdering son during summer visitation.
Father: NUSHAWN CAMPBELL
Victim(s): Son (5 years)
Date of Death: June 2009
Father with sole custody stabs son to death in failed murder-suicide. Mother had been trying to regain custody.
Now Andre Leteve is "accused" of gunning down his two young sons in cold blood. Why? No doubt the idiots will blame the ongoing divorce. But divorce is a result of relationship breakdown, not the cause.
And then there are the idiots who will start in on the standard whine about this father's grief at "losing his children." Well, that's a big lie, too. The couple had already agreed to joint custody.
You know, joint custody, the big "reform" that's been pushed on us the over last few years by fathers rights people and their clueless allies. The big reform that was supposed to put an end to this kind of violence, as we finally calmed all those "desperate" fathers who were "pushed over the edge."
What a crock that turned out to be. Can we finally admit that pushing "joint custody" with abusive and/or "mentally disturbed" people like Leteve has been a huge mistake, and that children are dying as a result? Common sense should have told us that if a father was willing to murder his kids over his supposed "grief," then such a volatile nutcase was not a safe person to have around children.
Oh, but note the next excuse. The mother "might" have been looking at a moveaway with the children. Oh, of course. Rather than let the mother move away where she and the children might have been safer, we gun down the kids now. Are you starting to get the real picture here? This has nothing to do with grief. It has everything to do with abuse and coercive control.
In truth, that mother should have moved out of state LONG AGO with no interference, approvals, or permissions required by the courts. No custodial rights for the father at all, no forwarding address. Then maybe two little boys would still be alive today.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Scottsdale-father-accused-of-killing-2-sons-to-be-arraigned-today-91464234.html
Scottsdale father accused of killing 2 sons to be arraigned today
by Catherine Holland and Dan Neligh
Posted on April 19, 2010 at 7:01 AM
Updated today at 9:17 AM
PHOENIX -- The Scottsdale father accused of killing his two young sons before turning the gun on himself is scheduled to arraignment Monday.
Andre Leteve was released from the hospital and wheeled into the Maricopa County jail last Monday.
According to investigators, 38-year-old real estate broker Andre Leteve and his wife Laurie were going through a divorce.
On March 31, police said Andre Leteve called 911 and said he had shot his child. When they arrived at his Scottsdale home, officers found his sons, 5-year-old Alec and 1-year-old Asher, dead.
Andre was alive with what police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Police say Laurie Leteve was not home at the time. Laurie's family attorney Bob Jensen said there was no indication that Andre would become violent.
"I will challenge anyone to say that there were warning signs here that should have been picked up on by her, by the lawyers by anyone," Jensen said. "They just simply didn't exist."
Jensen also said there had never been a threat that Andre would lose his children; the couple had agreed to joint custody.
Jensen also said that the divorce had been relatively amicable with the exception of a few recent, angry emails.
"It's not surprising that he might feel some anger, justified or unjustified, just by the fact that he was not the party making this decision."
Nonetheless, he said there was never enough apparent anger to raise concerns about the safety of the children.
New court documents, however, call Leteve physically ill and and mentally disturbed.
According to investigators, Leteve told them he killed the boys because he was afraid their mother was going to move them to Florida.
Leteve was not expected to be in the courtroom. Rather the arraignment will take place via video. He is being held without bond.
