Community Corner

Alleged Mass Murderer’s Mother Talks Love, Anger For Son

As she waits for a judge to decide if she can have custody of her grandson, the mother of the man, who allegedly committed the worst mass murder in county history, talks about her feelings.

This week, an Orange County judge postponed a decision about whether the little boy at the center of the custody battle that sparked the Salon Meritage shooting should live with his mother's or father’s family.

Since the Oct. 12 massacre in which his mother, Michelle Fournier, was killed and his father, Scott Evans Dekraai, jailed and awaiting a death penalty trial, the McGaugh Elementary School second-grader has been living with his half-sister, Chelsea Huff. Huff has petitioned to adopt her brother, but so has Dekraai’s mother, Michelle Hinmon.

In an interview with the Orange County Register, Hinmon, said she and her son suffer from bipolar disorder and that she loves her son even as she struggles with anger over what has occurred.

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According to the The Register, her first words to him in jail were, “I love you.”

"He's my little boy. How can I help but not love him?" Hinmon told the newspaper. "But as a grown man, he ruined too many lives. Hundreds and hundreds of lives. He was too selfish. He made his bed. He has to lie in it.”

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For the full article and for more on Hinmon’s hope to help raise her grandson, click here.


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