Kim Crespi had what she would describe as ‘the perfect life’.
She had a husband she adored: David, a gentle giant of a man, devoutly religious, a loving father, and a proven star in the world of finance.
Kim and David were parents to a total of five children. They had Jessica, who was 17 years old, and Dylan, who was 13. Dylan was from David’s first marriage to another Kimberly, who tragically passed away from brain cancer. Apart from Jessica and Dylan, Kim and David also had Joshua, who was nine, and twin girls who were five years old, named Tessara and Samantha.
The family resided in a spacious home located in a neighborhood that they all adored. Their house was nestled in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was a thriving banking hub.
Despite the seemingly idyllic life they had built together over the span of 11 years, nobody, especially not Kim, anticipated that their harmonious existence could be shattered in less than 40 minutes.
In the time it took for her to go for a haircut, David – who had been prescribed a cocktail of Ambien, Trazadone, Prozac and Lunesta for his depression – stabbed the twins in a frenzied psychotic episode, killing them both, then calmly called 911.
Reports showed they had 32 wounds.
‘They told me that I left a knife in one of my children…’ David later told a Danish documentary team, choking up.
‘They told me that I left a knife in one of my children…’ David later told a police interviewer
Kim left the twins for less than 40 minutes, while she went for a haircut
A few days after the tragedy, Kim decided to try journaling as a way to help her cope with the loss of her girls
A few days after the tragedy, on January 20, 2006, Kim decided to try journaling as a way to help her cope – starting with how she first learned about the horror that awaited her on the way home from the salon.
Her heartbreaking journals are now published for the first time in the new book Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins by family friend Edward L. Jones III.
‘A very distraught police officer on my right tells me that my girls are dead, that their father has confessed, and that he is in custody,’ writes Kim in her first entry.
‘I want to see Sam and Tess. I want to hold them. Has this police officer seen the girls? Is he sure? Can I talk to David? What brought him to do this?
‘A police detective on my left tells me that I have to be both the mom and the dad for my other three children.’
Indeed, the next task that awaits is to tell their surviving children – all of whom were at school when the tragedy happened.
‘The last time I saw them, all of us – including Sam and Tess – were in my van and I was taking Jessie, Dylan, and Josh to school.
‘On our way to Jessica’s high school, I tell them that it is time for all of us to step up because Dad isn’t sleeping, and he is depressed. We all need to work together to get through this. They all agree.
Kim and David had five children – Jessica, Joshua, and Dylan, as well as Tess and Sam
‘When I tell them that Dad has killed Sam and Tess, they are in shock. No one saw this coming’
Kim had to break the terrible news to their other three children Dylan, Jessica, and Joshua
‘I say, “It’s a good thing that dad isn’t violent when he’s depressed.”
The rest of the day is filled with painful police interviews – the family still reeling in disbelief.
‘When I tell them that Dad has killed Sam and Tess, they are in shock. No one saw this coming… None of them can remember a single time when their father has ever hurt them, physically or emotionally.
‘This isn’t the dad they know.’
Then comes the darkest part of the day – the moment no parent should ever have to endure.
‘The detectives have been crying; I see their red eyes… they describe to me how Sam and Tess die.
‘The girls play hide and seek with their dad. They both hide in the pantry in the kitchen. When David finds them, they run out together and David tries to kill both of them on the kitchen floor.
‘I am told that Sammie dies saying, “Daddy, you are hurting me.”
‘Tessa runs upstairs to hide in her favorite spot, her dad’s closet. David finds her and drags her into our bathroom. I am told that she dies crying, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”’
The inescapable facts of what happened in the Crespi household roughly between 12.05pm and 12.37pm on January 20, 2006, are these.
Just minutes after Kim left for her haircut, David, who was at home on medical leave, agreed to play hide-and-seek with his twins.
As the children were finding their hiding places, David walked over to the kitchen counter, removed two large knives from the butcher block, and arranged them on the worktop.
He found the girls in the pantry. David then took each of them by the arm, dragged them onto the kitchen floor, grabbed one of the knives from the counter, and tried to slaughter both little girls simultaneously.
Both girls were buried in the same coffin on January 24, 2006
In July 2006, David was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison
He started by stabbing Samantha repeatedly in the back and the chest. He stopped only when he thought Samantha had ceased breathing.
While David was focused on killing Samantha, Tessara wrested herself free, and ran upstairs to hide. Once David was finished with Samantha, he returned to the kitchen counter, picked up the second knife, and walked upstairs.
He found Tessara hiding behind some clothes in his walk-in bedroom closet, pulled her out, dragged her into the nearby master bathroom, pinned her down on the ceramic tiles, and stabbed her multiple times – again in the chest and the back, never in the face – until it seemed clear to him that she, too, was dead.
Afterward, David took off his bloodstained clothes and left them in a pile in his upstairs closet. He then washed up, changed into clean clothes, and at 12.37pm he picked up his cell phone and dialed 911.
In Kim’s journal dated March 2, 2006, she wakes early and is drowning in grief for her daughters, but also guilt and compassion for her husband.
‘It is 4.30am, and I woke up with a headache. I miss my little girls so much.
‘I wonder if I could have done anything more for David. I tried, many people around me tried, but we need more awareness. This issue is huge, and people need to know that they are not alone.’
On April 8, she is finally allowed to visit David in prison – it’s the first time she’s been able to see him since the death of the twins. She writes:
‘I just love David when I see him. I apologize for not getting better care for him. He says there are no words for how sorry he is. We cry and the glass between us is okay.’
Less than a month later – after first being told the DA would be seeking the death penalty – she learns that instead David has been offered a plea bargain of life imprisonment without parole for first degree murder for both girls.
They will make no concession for the drugs he was prescribed.
And in July 2006, he is sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Then in August, a milestone arrives that Kim has waited for and dreaded in equal measure – the day that would have been Tess and Sam’s first day at kindergarten.
‘It is beautiful outside, but I am so sad inside.
‘It is a day that I have thought about for years – the day that Jessica was going off to college, Dylan was starting high school, and Joshua was running into the elementary school, looking out for his twin sisters as they started kindergarten.
‘Sam and Tess in kindergarten… For years, David and I cried when we thought about this day. Then today, it happened, and nothing seems to be able to take away the pain.’
David had no prior history of violence, before the devastating events of January 2006. But he was not the first – nor was he the last – person to commit an appalling crime while prescribed a type of antidepressant known as SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor).
Andrea Yates drowned her five young children in the bathtub at their home in Texas. She was taking Effexor and Remero
Lindsay Clancy strangled her three young children before slashing her wrists, stabbing herself in the neck, and throwing herself off a roof
Eric Harris, who killed his classmates at Columbine in 1999, was taking the SSRI Luvox at the time
David was not the first – nor was he the last – person to commit an appalling crime while prescribed a type of antidepressant known as SSRI
Last year, doctors said that antidepressants may have pushed Trump shooter Thomas Crooks over the edge.
And Eric Harris, who, along with Dylan Klebold, opened fire at Columbine High School in 1999, killing 12 of their fellow students and a teacher, was taking the SSRI Luvox at the time. Prior to that, he had been prescribed Zoloft.
In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five young children in the bathtub at their home in Texas. She was taking 450mg of Effexor a day – twice the maximum recommended dosage – and 45mg of Remeron.
And in January 2023, Lindsay Clancy strangled her three young children before slashing her wrists, stabbing herself in the neck, and throwing herself off the roof of their two-story home in Massachusetts.
Like Kim, Lindsay’s husband Patrick has forgiven his wife.
As for David, he was weaned off all medication in prison and returned, by all accounts, to his old self – the man his family and friends knew and loved prior to the tragedy.
He has now been medication-free since 2008.
For many years, Kim actively campaigned to raise awareness about the lethal side-effects of antidepressants.
However, now cruelly crippled by Parkinson’s disease, she can no longer walk, cook, eat, or go to the bathroom without help. She has not been able to write in her journal for years. She no longer has the manual dexterity to finger her beloved rosary beads.
Kim and David’s life savings have been all but exhausted by lawyers’ bills and medical expenses. To help defray expenses, Joshua temporarily sacrificed his once promising accountancy career to serve as his mother’s live-in caregiver.
But Kim’s health needs ultimately exceeded Josh’s capacity to help his mother.
Meanwhile, David Crespi is in a dark place.
Due to the overload of dangerous criminals in North Carolina’s maximum-security prisons, some of those criminals have been shipped to David’s medium-security facility. Consequently, David feels increasingly threatened.
He has stopped calling Kim and other people who love him. He has discontinued writing the dozens of letters he used to send out monthly to more than 400 supporters in America and around the world, including me.
He has evidently concluded that he will never leave prison alive and be able to help Kim and his surviving children.
And yet, Kim persists in holding on to hope that her beloved husband will at last be released from prison and walk into her, Jessica, Dylan, and Joshua’s loving embrace.
During the years Kim was able to write in her journal, she had dreams of someday turning her entries and other reflections into a book.
One of the last things she wrote was this possible closing passage:
‘This is our story as well as I can tell it. We have learned much on this journey so far and I think there is value in sharing it with you.
‘We were given extreme grace to look beyond the fear, to love, and to try to understand why this tragedy happened to us.
‘Our story has been reported in the media, but it is quickly subverted by powerful entities that stand to lose billions of dollars if victims are in any way empowered to tell their stories.
‘I now know that the medication caused the psychosis which propelled David to take the lives of our much adored five-year-old twin daughters.
‘It was not mental illness or a lack of the proper diagnosis. It was the serious side-effects that can occur to anyone taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or taking a combination of an SSRI with other medications that have additional side- effects – especially when the medication is begun, when it is stopped, or when the dosage is adjusted.
‘If we had been made aware of the warning signs of psychosis, our precious little girls could have been saved.
‘The sadness can be overwhelming. But be strong. Be courageous.
‘Look with love beyond the fear and the horror and we will stop this madness together.’
Excerpted from Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder: What Really Killed the Crespi Twins by Edward L. Jones III is published by Rowman & Littlefield, March 25
