An Oregon mother who fought to keep her teenage boys away from a stepmom who was convicted of shooting and killing her own daughters 20 years ago, lost her custody fight this week. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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A court ruled Trisha Conlon must continue to share parental duties with ex-husband Lt. Col. John P. Cushing, Jr. despite his new wife’s criminal record, The Seattle Times reported.
Cushing reunited with his first wife, Kristine Cushing,who shot and killed their 8- and 4-year-old girls in 1991, after his divorce from Conlon.
“I just don’t undersand how a person could have marital relations with the person who killed their children,” Conlon told the paper. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Kristine Cushing’s defense argued that she killed her daughters after suffering a bad reaction to Prozac and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Cushing reunited with the father of her children after receiving an unconditional release from a California mental health institution in 2005, the Times reported.
Cushing defended his wife in court and said he keeps his guns at a friend’s house.
“There was no crime committed — there was a horrible tragedy that resulted in the deaths of our two daughters,” Cushing reportedly said in court documents.
Conlon found out that her 14- and 13-year-old sons were living with Cushing after child protective services contacted her.
She charged that her ex-husband tried to hide the fact that he was living with Cushing by having his sons refer to their stepmom as ‘Mrs. M’.
City Commissioner Leonid Ponormarchuk told the paper that Conlon’s sons had been safely spending time with Cushing since 2008 and that there was no evidence the situation had changed.
“Would I ever want my children around her? I would say no,” Ponormarchuk said. “But that is an emotional reaction coming from a parent.”
