Family members said goodbye to Taylor and Madison Sheats Thursday. Relatives held a private funeral for the two young women, who were shot and killed by their mother, Christy Sheats, last week at their Katy-area home.
Since the incident, we’ve learned more about Christy’s history of mental illness. According to her husband, Jason, Christy suffered from depression, was on multiple medications and was seeing a therapist.
At this point, we don’t know what role Christy’s mental illness played in the murder of her daughters, but we do know it’s been a key factor in a number of tragic cases like hers, many of which have been tried by Houston Attorney George Parnham.
Parnham has seen difficult cases like this before.
The high-profile Houston attorney is best known for his work in the Andrea Yates case, and has since represented a number of clients who’ve suffered from mental illness, which we now know Christy suffered from.
“Something like this affects me, and it must affect everybody in the community who knows about this, because everybody will have an opinion,” Parnham said. “How bad it must feel for those family members to be at that funeral today.”
Photos: Tragic crime in Katy neighborhood
Recent statements from Ft. Bend County authorities have revealed that Christy suffered from depression, according to her husband, which he says started in 2012 after her grandfather and mother passed away in the same year.
Parnham doesn’t know Christy’s specific mental history, but highlighted the complexity of mental illness and how it can affect each patient differently.
“I want to obviously stress that not everybody who is mentally ill will commit acts of violence,” Parnham said.
According to Jason, he didn’t think she would be violent, either.
Ft. Bend County authorities said Jason told them Christy had never been violent before, and he could not believe how things escalated that day.
“He says that had never occurred before, that she had never pointed the gun or threatened specific violence toward any member of the family. He was very surprised,” said Ft. Bend County Detective Scott Heinemeyer.
Parnham says the families he’s worked with in similar cases suffer grief unlike any other, and he imagines the Sheats family is going through unimaginable pain as they mourn the loss of the Madison and Taylor.
“This is something that they will live with until the day the day they die, and it is obviously a tragedy of enormous proportion,” Parnham said.
A gofundme.com account has been set up by friends of Jason Sheats.