i agree choc, just one point worries me though, and that is sheila being without under wear.
if she had done the ritual cleaning, which is possible, as its common in suicides.Why didnt she put any underwear back on?
i cant see it being down to a weight thing as i dont think she was that vain, one friend said at a party she looked a mess, and the next day she was looking nice, hair, clothes etc
I don't see Sheila, if she was the murderer, as being at all rational, Andrea.
I'm no expert on schizophrenia, but I did study it as part of my degree course, in particular, the work of RD Lang, a famous psychologist who did some interesting research on how instrumentally important the influence of the family is in triggering this illness. Lang went too far with his conclusions, so these were flawed, but some of his work is still relevent and valuable.
One aspect of schizophrenia that I feel is highly relevent to this case is that of the demonic voices which most schizophrenics hear. These voices are perceived by schizophrenics as totally real and as belonging to real demons that have possessed the sufferer and which control their lives.
We know, because Sheila's psychiatrist made a statement to this effect, that Sheila heard these demonic voices and that she believed these were the voices of the devil. Sheila believed without a shadow of doubt that she - and June and probably her sons - were possessed and controlled by the devil.
Sheila's psychologist stated that Sheila believed that she and June required a service of Exorcism to end this possession and that it was Sheila's view that, if she could not have Exorcism, or Exorcism did not end this possession, then she did not wish to live.
Poor Sheila must have been horribly tormented by these voices and by what she believed to be the devil within her. Her life must have been an absolute misery, in particular once her medication was reduced.
From what I've read of other schizophrenics who believed themselves to be possessed by demons or the Devil, the voices of whatever it was that they believed possessed them were often in total control of the poor afflicted person's life.
The demonic voices might instruct the schizophrenic to comply with any manner of irrational instructions and the schizophrenic would often comply. The sufferer might hear the voice instructing her/ him to walk about naked in the snow, to scream and shout, to eat or to stop eating, to get drunk, or even to kill others or to kill themself and the sufferer would often comply, or try to.
I believe that, had Sheila's demonic voices instructed Sheila:
"I order you to go and shoot yourself now!"
Then she might well have complied without a second thought of whether or not she was wearing knickers.
