Scroll down to read an excerpt from the second chapter of Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins.
If you would like to continue after this sample, submit your email at the bottom of this page to receive instant access to the first two chapters of the book.
If you enjoy this sample, please consider purchasing a copy of the book from the booksellers below.
“I Just Killed My Two Daughters”
CHAPTER TWO
“While there’s life, there’s hope.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero
The inescapable facts of what happened in the Crespi household roughly between 12:05 to 12:37 p.m. on January 20, 2006, are these.
Just minutes after Kim Crespi left for her haircut, David Crespi, who was at home on medical leave, agreed to play hide and seek with his twins. As the children were finding their hiding place, David walked over to the kitchen counter, took two large knives out of the butcher block, and arranged them on the counter.
He found the girls in the pantry. David then took each of them by the arm, dragged them onto the kitchen floor, grabbed one of the knives from the counter, and tried to slaughter both little girls simultaneously. He started by stabbing Samantha repeatedly in the back and the chest. He stopped only when he thought Samantha had ceased breathing.
While David was focused on killing Samantha, Tessara wrested herself free, and she ran upstairs to hide. Once David was finished with Samantha, he returned to the kitchen counter, picked up the second knife, and walked upstairs. He found Tessara hiding behind some clothes in his walk-in bedroom closet, pulled her out, dragged her into the nearby master bathroom, pinned her down on the ceramic tiles, and stabbed her multiple times—again in the chest and the back, never in the face—until it seemed clear to him that she, too, was dead.
Afterward, David took off his bloodstained clothes and left them in a pile in his upstairs closet. He then washed up, changed into clean clothes, and at 12:37 p.m. he picked up his cell phone and dialed 911.
Following are excerpts from the transcript of David Crespi’s 911 call.
CHARLOTTE 911 OPERATOR: Police department.
DAVID CRESPI: Yes, I just killed my two daughters.
[Pause.]
CHARLOTTE 911: You just what?
CRESPI: I just killed my two daughters.
MATTHEWS 911 OPERATOR [breaking in on the conversation]: Matthews. That’s ours. Sir, tell me what happened. What’s going on now?
CRESPI: I just freaked out and killed them.
MATTHEWS 911: Are you on medication?
CRESPI: Yes.
MATTHEWS 911: Are they breathing or anything now?
CRESPI: They’re dead.
MATTHEWS 911: What did you do to them?
CRESPI: I stabbed them.
MATTHEWS 911: You stabbed them?
CRESPI: Yeah.
MATTHEWS 911: What’s your name, okay?
CRESPI: My name is David Crespi.
MATTHEWS 911: Okay, tell me what happened.
CRESPI: There’s two dead girls. I killed them. [David emits a winded moan.] I just lost it. [Same moan repeated.]
MATTHEWS 911: Okay, who are these girls?
CRESPI: They’re my daughters.
MATTHEWS 911: Your daughters?
CRESPI: Yes.
MATTHEWS 911: Okay, how old are they?
CRESPI: They’re five.
MATTHEWS 911: They’re twins?
CRESPI: Yeah.
MATTHEWS 911: How did you kill them?
CRESPI: With a knife.
MATTHEWS 911: What kind of meds are you on, sir?
CRESPI: I’m on antidepressants.
MATTHEWS 911: Keep talking, because you sound like you are a little bit tired…and we’re wondering if maybe you took too much medication.
CRESPI [winded]: This is real.
MATTHEWS 911: I know. I know. Everyone’s on their way.
The recording of David Crespi’s 911 call was not unsealed and released until October 4, 2006, almost three months after a superior court hearing was held in Charlotte to determine David’s fate. The police department and the prosecution had successfully fought to suppress the recording even though, under North Carolina law, 911 recordings are public record.
In the aftermath, details emerge about David Crespi’s mental state leading up to the killings. A Charlotte Observer article revealed that for ten years, David and Kim Crespi had repeatedly sought treatment for David’s insomnia and depression from the best physicians and psychiatrists they could find. “They followed every treatment plan given to them, and David took every medication prescribed to him,” Mecklenburg Assistant Public Defender Jean Lawson told the Observer. “[H]is prior treatment and medication were completely inadequate to control his mental illness.”
According to the same article, David had taken Paxil for his depression for several months prior to the tragedy. However, he had gained almost fifty pounds while he was on the drug. He consequently told his doctors that he no longer wanted to take Paxil. The doctors acceded to his request, and he was in the process of withdrawing from the antidepressant just weeks prior to the tragedy. David was also taking Trazodone for anxiety, and Ambien to help him sleep.
Seven days before the killings, David’s psychiatrists started him on a course of Prozac. He was increasingly anxious, and he still had trouble sleeping. As a result, David was taken off Ambien and put on Lunesta the day before the tragedy.
Following is the sequencing of the cocktail of drugs David was ingesting in the days leading up to January 20, 2006: ten days of Trazodone, ten days of Ambien, seven days of Prozac, and one night of Lunesta.