Joel Bradley Kinser a retired US army major suffering from depression murders wife Leila Kinser then self in suspected murder suicide.
A retired US Army major living in Italy has strangled his wife in her sleep before slitting his own throat in a suspected murder suicide.
Stars and Stripes reported Italian authorities discovering the body of Joel Bradley Kinser, 43 in the bathroom of his house in Pozzoleone near Vicenza. The man’s wife, Leila Gakhirovan Kinser, 39, was found strangled in the couple’s bed.
Near the woman’s body was a note saying ’sorry’ along with blood etchings of the letter U and a heart shape drawn on the bedroom door.
Close by the husband’s body authorities found a bloodied kitchen knife with six inch blade who he used to repeatedly cut himself.
After inflicting multiple non-fetal injuries to his neck and arm, Kinser slit his jugular vein and bled to death.
A chaplain of the military complex Caserma Ederle said he knew Kinser suffered from depression and had expressed suicidal thoughts.
Told allegedly the former army major, ‘sooner or later, I will kill myself’.
Joel Bradley Kinser murder suicide? Was it a pact death with Leila?
Notice of the husband and wife’s deaths came after friends of the couple becoming alarmed after the pair stopped returning phone calls and alerted police.
The Carabinieri military police said the woman’s murder may date back to Easter, while her husband’s death happened later after a few failed suicide attempts, reported local media.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the former army major’s wife had been complicit in the murder suicide and had agreed to have her own life ended along with her husband’s.
The former soldier, who was originally from Boston, retired in 2015 after serving as a strategic intelligence research officer for US Army Africa in Iraq. It is thought the former serviceman being discharged from service following being diagnosed with mental illness.
Since his retirement, Kinser had been working as a contractor in the Army Human Resources command as part of a program that helps soldiers transition back to local communities.
As a civilian, Kinser had been employed as a contractor for Inverness Technologies Inc. to provide ‘Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance Program’ services.
His Russian-born wife posted many images of her travels around Europe on Facebook, as well as pictures of their pet turtle Mashka.
A post from Saturday evening showed a collage of her pet that read: ‘I don’t have any more my Mashka I want to die.’
It was noted that the couple’s pet turtle had recently passed away….
