Suspect in Saginaw slaying served 3 Iraq tours
By DEANNA BOYD
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
SAGINAW -- A 22-year-old Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq faces a charge of capital murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a former live-in girlfriend.
Family members say Eric Acevedo has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Saginaw police believe that Acevedo broke into Mollieann Worden's townhouse in the 300 block of Cambridge Drive through a front window early Saturday. Worden and a neighbor both called 911 but when officers arrived, they found that the 32-year-old woman had been stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:30 a.m.
Officers saw Acevedo in the parking lot and arrested him. Neighbors say the man was covered in blood and looked dazed.
Andres Acevedo, Eric Acevedo's father, said his son has not been the same since returning from Iraq and would never have harmed anyone if he had been in his right mind.
"I gave him to the government nice and healthy, and the government returned somebody who is capable of doing something like that," Andres Acevedo said.
Eric Acevedo remained in the Saginaw Jail on Monday with bail set at $1 million.
Worden's 10-year-old daughter was spending the night at a friend's house when the attack occurred, police said. The girl is staying with relatives, said officer Kimberly Allison, a Saginaw police spokeswoman.
Attempts Monday to reach relatives of Worden were unsuccessful.
Young recruit
Acevedo joined the Marines just nine days after graduating from Joshua High School.
"He'd always been wanting to join the armed services. I wanted to do that myself but my parents didn't allow me. I wasn't about to tell him he couldn't," Andres Acevedo said.
Master Sgt. Ronald Spencer with the Marine Corps Mobilization Command in Kansas City said records show that Acevedo enlisted in the Marines in June 2003 and ended his active service in June 2007. He then joined the inactive ready reserves, where he was to serve until June 2010, Spencer said.
Andres Acevedo said his son served in Iraq three times over a four-year span, but emerged a very different man.
"I was very proud of him. He served well over there. He never complained," Acevedo said. "But when he did this last tour, he was feeling kind of like he didn't really want to go because of the nightmares and stuff he had had from the second time. My wife tried to stop it over medical issues. They still sent him off."
Since his return last May from the third tour in May, Eric Acevedo had gotten only worse, Andres Acevedo said.
"He was nothing but a good kid. He never caused any problems," said Alicia Rodriguez, Acevedo's aunt. "He was a good son to my brother. I know he was a good soldier. I just don't know what happened. When he went in, he was so proud. When he came out, he had so many problems. I don't know what happened to him."
About six months ago, Acevedo went to see a military doctor and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Andres Acevedo said. He was placed on medication that seemed to calm him down, but not completely, Andres Acevedo said.
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Last night I had two phone calls from people involved with veterans who became frightening. Sometimes this happens. It is not always, they need help are not a danger to anyone. There are times when they are not only a danger to themselves, but to others as well. While we tend to want to help them and do whatever it takes to do it, we need to be careful. If they become extremely angry, violent, threatening, abusive, you need to removed yourself from them. Most of the time it is just talk out of anger. That's most of the time but no one should take a chance. Staying there, confronting a combat vet with PTSD bouncing off the wall will only escalate tension and complicate the situation. Wisest thing is to remove yourself from harm first. Then, while it is the hardest thing to do, you need to consider getting the professionals involved. Get to a safe place and call their doctor. If that is not possible then call the police. As for the Sergeant on duty and explain what is going on making sure they know it is a combat veteran, that they have PTSD if they have been diagnosed, if they have a gun in the house or not and exactly what the police will be dealing with. There have been too many innocent victims in all of this.
We cannot place all the blame on the veteran because they did not ask for this and the government is still not prepared to take care of all of them. We do need to help them but we also need to know what we are dealing with. Many times medications need to be adjusted and that's all it takes but in emergency situations, you cannot stand there and wonder what to do.
Often we need to take a tough love approach. There are times when they have to be forced into getting the help they need. Failing to do so will endanger your life and the lives of others as well as the veteran you are trying to protect.
Don't get me wrong here. The violent ones are rare. The greatest percentage of them are a danger to themselves only. If they are a danger to themselves or others, you need to report this. You know them and what they are like. You will be the first to know when they no longer seem like the same person. Get them evaluated as soon as possible but above all, make sure you are safe.
i am mollie's niece! eric should be put to death, he killed my aunt & ruined my cousin's life!!!! you have no idea the effects it has had on my family. hopefully this week once the murder trial is over, this none sense will be put to bed! "PTSD" is a joke, everyone has a little bit of that after traumatic things, i am sure my family has a little bit of it after the murder trial with everything they have delt with, but they haven't went out & murdered anyone!!! i am not even going to get started, but i just had to say something!
ReplyDeleteoh & his parent's might say those things, but you obviously don't have a clue about any of the real facts. for your information before he was in iraq he was calling my aunt & threatning her that if she wasn't with him, that she wouldn't be with anyone. he would call her up to 200 times a day, he was obsessive! another fact, he RAPED a girl while he was in iraq!! so dont blame ptsd on this person until you actually know the facts!!
ReplyDeleteKaysi, you have my deepest sympathy and my heart goes out to the family. One day when your pain has eased up a bit, which may be a long time from now, you can understand that these men and women serving are not like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteThey are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this country and the people they serve with. There has to be something terrible that happens to them when they go from that and then take the life of someone else back home. If you knew what PTSD was, why it strikes some and not others, then you would understand that ravage on their soul. The majority of them to not come home and commit crimes. PTSD is no excuse for murder but true justice comes when it is considered.
PTSD is not a joke. It is as old as war itself. I have studied it since 1982 and talked to these men and women ever since, but above that, I am married to a Vietnam vet with PTSD. I can assure you that it is not a joke. No matter what I say to you, you will not understand until you want to. I suggest you do some research if for nothing else, to bring you some understanding of what happened to your aunt.
This is a traumatic loss for you. As you feel that much pain, that much heartache, it can change the way you think, the way you feel about everything in your life. PTSD does not just affect soldiers. It affects all humans after trauma. Some people recover from the event better than others and some need help to recover. If what changes come get stronger or do not seem to be easing, you may need help to heal your own grief.
Oh Kaysi,
ReplyDeleteI was Mollieanns best friend and while I understand All of the facts of Erics case I think the gentleman here is trying to make a point.
While we both know that Erics not suffering from PTSD there are a lot of women and men out there that upon returning home from combat do have Post traumatic stress disorder. It is very very real and shouldn't be discounted.
Men and women in combat see things we only hear about in some third party edited quip from our media, things thats graphicness would haunt even the most sane of individuals. They can't take those memories back but we can try to appreciate their efforts to merge back into the common society and if possible make it easier for them to obtain help so they can try to move on. I have a tremendous respect for our countries military and would gladly place myself in their shoes even if just to lighten the burden for just one day. I am proud of what they do and the true beliefs for that which they stand for.
However,
I know why you're so angry and I am too. The malicious acts and the methodicial way he went about his crime doesn't even fit the text book definition of PTSD. Regardless of how much iraq haunted him. He's merely a tiny percentage of people that serve and there's always a bad apple in the bunch.
What people don't realize either is that Mollie loved Eric and was proud of him for what he had to endure in his deployments. She was a wonderful person that did not deserve to die! I think of her daily and it had gotten a little easier until this stupid trial.
But just remember that not everyone knows what you and I know nor were they even judging the situation, only trying to report the facts as they have been given them. Nothing more. Unfortunately they have no way of getting the true facts that would quickly dismiss any comparitive articles discussing PTSD and Eric Acevedo's name being used in conjunction with one another.
God's got our backs and we have to believe and have the faith that he'll handle it in whatever way he sees fit regardless of what we think the outcome should be.
In the meantime there is a 12 year old litle girl that needs her mom's best friend and the aunt that she idolizes more than you realize to cowgirl up and not show the rest of the world just how vulnerable this has made us.
Besides we both know that Mollie would want it that way. Love you Kaysi.And thank you for allowing me to post on your site. Semper Fi.
~Natosha Moore TX
Natosha, thank you for that comment. It is true the vast majority of veterans with PTSD do not go out and commit crimes but some do and PTSD has a lot to do with it. I am not suggesting that a diagnosis is a get out of jail free card. What I am saying is that when they come home with PTSD, justice demands that it is taken into consideration. If they are given jail time, they should be given mental health help as well. We need to remember that just like any other demographic, there are good and bad among the soldiers as well but thankfully the bad are very few.
ReplyDelete