Mercy Killing or Green Bench Murder?
MY MOTHER, AMELIA BUCHAN DIED FEBRUARY 1, 2001 AFTER HER LIFE SUPPORT HAD BEEN REMOVED SEVENTEEN DAYS PRIOR. SHE WAS A RESIDENT OF A NURSING HOME FOR SIX PLUS YEARS AND PLACED ON A FEEDING TUBE APRIL, 2000. IT WAS NOT UNTIL APRIL 2005 THAT I BELEIVED MY MOTHER HAD BEEN MURDERED AND THE ALLEGED PERPERATOR WAS MY YOUNGER RUSSELL BUCHAN. I REACHED THIS CONCLUSION AFTER MUCH STUDY AND REEVALUATION OF THE EVENTS PRECEDING MY MOTHER’S DEATH AND THE ACTIONS OF RUSSELL THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF THIS ORDEAL AND HIS DECEIT TO FAMILY MEMBERS AND CARE GIVERS WHEN LIFE SAVING DECISIONS HAD TO BE RENDERED.
It was after my meeting with Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of Terri Schiavo, in Daytona Beach in the spring of 2005 that new and astonishing information was received by me about my mother's death.
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(2005) The next day after my meeting with the Schindlers at Daytona Beach, I wrote an email to my brothers reflecting on the visit and how it brought back memories of the passing of our mother. Somewhere in the email I included the phase, “when we all agreed to remove mom’s life support”
It was not twenty minutes after I had sent the email when my brother Doug called me. “I never agreed to have mother’s life support removed!”
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(2001) I remember precisely how it all came about in January 2001. Russell called me between 3:00 and 4:00 PM at my office in Crescent City. My office is 180 miles northeast of St Petersburg near the north east coast of Florida.
Russell said, “They want us to approve the removal of mom’s life support.” I asked “Who?”
Russell said, “Carol Cube (Mom’s guardian) and the doctors caring for her.”
Russell then told me mom had been put on a ventilator a day or two before after experiencing some pulmonary disruptions with her breathing.
I asked how long will Mom would be on a ventilator? His answer was, “until we decide to remove her from it.”
I have never forgiven myself for not being more inquisitive during that phone conversation. When told what was occurring, I visualized my mother hooked to a machine that was keeping her alive. Thoughts of news stories I had heard over the years rushed through my mind, …. “After the accident, the victims were placed on life support. They died soon after the family had agreed to remove the family member off life support.”
I asked, “What does Doug think should be done?”
Russell replied, “Doug has already agreed to remove the life support.”
I answered, “I don’t want mom to suffer.” I asked, “How long will mother live when the life support is removed?”
Russell answered, “The doctor said 48 to 72 hours.”
I asked, “When will it be done?”
Russell replied, “Carol Cube, (the guardian) asked me to call you. She said they will do it after we are all contacted. They probably will remove life support this evening.”
I told Russell I would leave in the morning and would come directly to the nursing home.
Early the next morning, I was just leaving my office when my brother Doug called. He seemed upset. It seemed natural as I also was upset knowing our mother was about to die.
Doug said, “Russell refused to let Hospice come in and care for Mom and he told Carol Cube to leave the nursing home and not come back.”
I asked why. Doug shouted, “He said Carol’s presence at the home upset him.” I did not have an answer. It was always difficult to understand my brother, Russell’s emotions. I told Doug I was leaving my office now and would be at the nursing home in about four hours. On the drive to St Petersburg I prayed I would get there before my mother passed away. Obviously, I did not understand when or how people die when you take them off of life support.
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(2001 Recap) When Doug called me after receiving my email that morning in 2005 he told me that when Carol Cube first called him and she asked him about removing Mom’s life support, he was livid.
Doug told Carol, “Are you crazy, I was just in to see my mother, she’s alert, she recognized me, and she smiled at me. There is no way I will consider removing my mother off life support.”
Doug thought the matter was concluded. Doug later received a second phone call from Carol Cube. She told Doug that Russell and Gary had agreed to have the life support removed and it would be done.
Doug asked, “Why?"
Carol replied, There are three sons and if two of the three sons agree, the Court will approve the removal.
“Then they just murdered our Mother.” Doug replied.
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When Doug called me the morning of January 2001, I was leaving for the nursing home, I didn’t realize there was a disagreement among us three brothers. I thought I was the “distant” brother agreeing to a decision that already had been made. In hindsight, the Terri Schiavo case brought so much knowledge and awareness about actions we could have taken. For one, a request for a Court hearing could have been made where the discussion about removal would be heard in an open forum in the presence of a Judge. There could have been a request for a second medical opinion and Yes, the three brothers could have met and discussed their feelings openly.
Was there time to do all this? The afternoon in January 2001 when Russell called I did not know I was being manipulated by my brother Russell and possibility by my mother’s guardian, Carol Cube. My emotions and feelings were about my mother. I trusted my brother Russell that there was no inaccuracy in what he was telling me.
When Doug and I discussed this scenerio during our phone call after I sent the email in 2005, Doug told me mother was not put on a ventilator. She had suffered a small stroke that affected her throat and was going to have a tracheotomy so she could beathe normally. After the operation she would remain on her feeding tube and recovery from the throat surgery could be expected.
I was now hearing this explanation for the first time and I was devastated. I suddenly realized that this information should have been told to me by the guardian, Carol Cube. My brother, Russell called me with a story fabricated to acheive his own objective.
I now realize why Russell had demanded Carol Cube leave the nursing home after our mother's life support was removed. Russell was fearful when I arrived in St. Petersburg I would learn what he was doing given the opportunity to see or speak to the guardian.
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I look back at the first website I developed, www.fairnessforfamilies.com It was there I wrote in the first passage about my reflection of my brother Russell’s demeanor the night we met at Shoney’s while waiting for our mother to die.
“The doctors had told us, mother could pass that weekend. The look of fear engulfed my brother’s face. It was as if he had planned the perfect murder, and just before pulling the trigger, everything flashed before him. He was not sure that every alibi; every detail would be precisely executed. Although, from my estimate, Russell had spent 14 years planning this take over, he now feared he could fail.”
With information my brother Doug has now given me, I realized this passage on the website was correct. It was not only the perfect estate theft Russell had planned, it was also to be the perfect murder. I just did not realize this in 2001; now in 2005 I believe it was murder first, take over the family estate second.
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IT IS DIFFICULT TO THINK ABOUT, IT IS DIFFICULT TO WRITE ABOUT, BUT WHEN I STUDIED THE DEFINITION OF MURDER, I FELT MY MOTHER’S FAMILY, HER CHILDREN, HER GRANDCHILDREN AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, MANY WHO WERE PRESENT AT HER FUNERAL NEED TO KNOW WHAT I NOW BELIEVE IS THE TRUTH.
SOME OF THE WRITTEN DEFINITIONS OF MURDER AS FOUND ON THE INTERNET ARE:
The unlawful killing of a human being with deliberate intent to kill: (1) murder in the first degree is characterized by premeditation; (2) murder in the second degree is characterized by a sudden and instantaneous intent to kill or to cause injury without caring whether the injury kills or not.
MURDER - This, one of the most important crimes that can be committed against individuals, has been variously defined. Hawkins defines it to be the wilful killing of any subject whatever, with malice aforethought, whether the person slain shall be an Englishman or a foreigner. Russell says, murder is the killing of any person under the king's peace, with malice prepense or aforethought, either express or implied by law. And Sir Edward Coke defines or rather describes this offence to be, " when a person of sound mind and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being, and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought either express or implied."
Main Entry: 1mur•der
Pronunciation: 'm&r-d&r
Function: noun
Etymology: partly from Middle English murther, from Old English morthor; partly from Middle English murdre, from Anglo-French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English morthor; akin to Old High German mord murder, Latin mort-, mors death, mori to die, mortuus dead, Greek brotos mortal
1 : the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought
2 a : something very difficult or dangerous
b : something outrageous or blameworthy
In some of the states, by legislative enactments, murder has been divided into degrees. In Pennsylvania, the act of April 22, 1794, makes "all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of wilful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree; and the jury before whom any person indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find the person guilty thereof, ascertain in their verdict, whether it be murder of the first or second degree; but if such person shall be convicted by confession, the court shall proceed by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of the crime, and give sentence accordingly.
THE KEYS WORDS IN ALL THESE DEFINITIONS OF MURDER ARE PREMEDIATED, WILFUL, AND DELIBERATE.
AS I REFLECT ON LIFE AND TIMES OF GROWING UP CATHOLIC IN ST
PETERSBURG I BELEIVE THE WILFUL, PREMEDIATED AND DELIBERATE
ACTIONS OF MY BROTHER, RUSSELL BUCHAN AGAINST HIS FAMILY AND ULTIMATELY AGAINST HIS OWN MOTHER WAS MURDER.
IF KNOWLEDGE LEARNED IN THIS WEBSITE PREVENTS CRUEL AND UNJUST ACTION AGAINST ONE PERSON, IT HAS SERVED IT PURPOSE.
