Police Suspect Parents Murdered Disabled Son After Watching 'Manchester By The Sea'
Facebook revealed that a couple accused of murdering their 16-year-old disabled son may have been inspired by the movie “Manchester by the Sea,” which they watched just two hours before his death, according to PEOPLE Thursday.
Ernest and Heather Franklin, an upstate New York couple, cared for their adopted son Jeffrey until he was found dead in the remnants of a fire on March 1, 2017. His parents were accused of setting fire to their Guilford, New York house to cover up the murder they committed two hours after watching “Manchester by the Sea” on Feb. 28, 2017, as reported by WBNG.
Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride said that the Franklins used the movie as inspiration for the act. In the film, Casey Affleck played a character whose children died in a fire, but he was not criminally charged because the fire was ruled an accident.
Heather, 33, and Ernest, 35, were arrested on March 22, 2017, after Jeffrey’s autopsy showed no soot in his lungs and revealed he had died before the fire. Both were indicted on March 24, 2017 and charged with arson and second-degree murder.
Court records acquired by PEOPLE said Facebook posts before March 1, 2017 accused Jeffrey, who they called J.R., of causing “stress in the family.”
On Feb. 23, 2017, Heather Franklin wrote, “Been struggling with jr. I guess no real surprise there” to a friend on Facebook. Her friend responded, “I know it’s always hard. Same old, same old or some new problems?”
Heather said, “He is peeing his room again. For about the past 2 or 3 weeks. Almost nightly. Last episode of this was last summer. So went a few months with nothing...now he started it again. His room smells so bad! Every day it’s the same thing, cleaning pee...it’s crazy.”
According to Heather, she placed Jeffrey “on restriction till Tuesday. Depending if there is more pee between now and then,” adding, “I so badly want out...dealing with jr peeing all over his room again for past few weeks. It punishes me more than him.”
The frustration Heather expressed at raising a disabled child is not uncommon. The cost of raising a child has been shown to be almost $250,000. With a disabled child needing possible additional medical treatment and other accommodations, that cost can rise exponentially.
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Caregivers of disabled children are expected to be primarily uncompensated, oftentimes dealing with limited access to funding and healthcare resources. Since Heather Franklin had been a foster mother to Jeffrey before she and her husband adopted him in 2012, she had spent enough time with him prior to adoption to realize the additional needs he would require.
Ernest was held in Chenango County Correctional Facility, where he still resides. Heather was released on bail, partly due to her pregnancy, and is currently living with friends.
It is unclear how the Facebook posts being released will impact the case.
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