Publisher's Synopsis
An anthology of True CrimeParricide, as defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary, is a noun meaning "the killing of a parent or other near relative". According to statistics, in the United States, about five parents are killed every week by their biological children. Matricide and patricide are both particularly rare occurrences when stood up against other murder statistics. While it only makes up about 1% of all homicides in the United States, it is still a shocking crime when it happens. Primarily, parricide is committed by the sons of the parents, ages 16 to 19. This aligns with makes being the primary perpetrators of all violent crime. Patricide is also twice as likely to be committed as a matricide. All in all, according to the statistics, male sons are more likely to kill their fathers when it comes to parricide. This knowledge is part of what makes the case of Tabitha Messina particularly disturbing.Made famous by her episode on Snapped: Killer Couples, Tabitha Messina is a bit of a mystery as far as her home life growing up. What is known about Tabitha is that she was born on October 26th in 1988. She was born in Cuyahoga County in Ohio, to father Richard Messina and mother Karen. From the beginning, her childhood was something that no child should ever have to endure. Her parents, it seemed, were not quite ready to be parents. Richard Messina was 31 at the time that Tabitha was born, and he was a hard-partying type. He wasn't ready to put away his youth. As far as her mother went, Karen Messina was an exotic dancer. Not only that, but Karen was absent for large parts of Tabitha's childhood. Tabitha was left yearning for a motherly presence that she couldn't seem to fill.
