commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Some of us conjecture on fate and destiny and what it all means and what the difference between the two are. I think the common understanding is that destiny is something positive, a grand possibility that we strive to fulfill, while fate is something irrevocable that simply happens to us and that we have no power to control. Thus, it’s probably fair to say that destiny is generally considered to be a good thing while fate can be a real mother______.
On Monday, however, a 45-year-old California man living on the Central California coast in Santa Barbara County snapped and decided that his “destiny” was to murder his entire family and the family dog with kitchen knives while at least some of them were sleeping. This syndrome of murdering one’s entire family seems to be growing in popularity, not unlike the “knockout game” and other wholly negative forms of criminal behavior.
Angela Boue of Viral Global News writes:
Late Monday, California man Nicolas Holzer went on a killing spree. The 45-year-old man stabbed his father, mother, the family dog, and his two sons before calling police. Holzer had full custody of his sons, Sebastian,13 and Vincent who was 10. When he called 911 after the murders, and detectives arrived, he told them killing his family was his destiny. Holzer has no previous criminal history, stated Bill Brown, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff. Investigators are looking to piece together the events, and any possible motive leading to a family being murdered.
Reportedly, Monday evening Holzer killed his 73-year-old father, then walked into his sons’ bedroom, stabbing the boys to death as they slept. Holzer then located his mother and stabbed her, before turning to the family dog.
Ms. Boue explains that when police arrived at the house, they arrested Holzer without incident and recovered the two kitchen knives that are believed to have been used in Holzer’s rampage. By the time the emergency responders arrived, everyone was dead.
Holzer apparently described the order in which he stabbed his victims.
According to the Associated Press, “Sheriff Brown said Holzer had no prior criminal history and there were no reports of police being summoned to the home during the seven years Holzer lived there with his parents and sons, Sebastian, 13, and Vincent, 10. He had full custody of the boys following a divorce years earlier.”
Angela Boue writes that “Holzer did not provide information to investigators to determine why he murdered his family, but just said he ‘had to.’”
Naturally, a psychological evaluation will be conducted on Holzer, who is being held without bail.
This horrible news comes just a few months after Elliott Rodger, the son of Hunger Games assistant director, Peter Rodger, went berserk behind the wheel of his BMW and murdered six students at the UC Santa Barbara campus near Isle Vista. Goleta, of course, is not far from Isle Vista and it is no exaggeration to say that these lovely communities have had more than their share of disasters in 2014.
Stating the obvious, Sheriff Brown stated Holzer’s murder spree is “another huge tragedy” for the community.
According to some reports, neighbors had been aware for some time that all was not right at the Holzer residence. Kelsey Brugger and Tyler Hayden of the Santa Barbara Independent write:
The tragic event was “not unexpected,” said a neighbor, who did not want to be identified. Holzer had been unemployed for years and had appeared to be on a downhill slide after his contentious divorce a number of years ago, the neighbor added. “You would have to force him to say hello,” he said. The family did not appear to be happy, the neighbor said, adding Holzer had “psychological problems.” The neighbor had previously told William Holzer (the grandfather) to come get him if there were ever a physical confrontation.
The only contact Holzer had with Sheriff’s deputies was in 1996, when he was a witness in an assault case, Brown said. Holzer does not have a criminal record.
According to another anonymous neighbor, Holzer’s ex-wife never came to the house. William Holzer was reportedly still working part-time as he had five mouths to feed and two grandkids to someday put through college, a separate neighbor added. According to Sheriff Brown, William Holzer was a well-known scientist who previously worked for Raytheon and held a patent to an optical measuring device.
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Family Annihilators are nothing new and often the motive is financial; i.e., the husband (assuming it’s the husband doing the annihilating) has suffered some huge financial setback, feels completely devastated, and instead of simply taking his own life like a good pathetic father, somehow convinces himself that his family will be lost without him and that it’s actually in everyone’s best interest for him to off the whole lot of them before killing himself.
This rationale, of course, is not only madness, but also demonstrates huge hubris on the part of the annihilator. Obviously, any financially dependent family would be devastated to have the father/husband and breadwinner kill himself, but this does not mean that they would necessarily want to join him in the land of the dead.
So Holzer seems to bring a new wrinkle to the Family Annihilator syndrome. Although he appears to have faced some financial difficulty, there’s no evidence, at least at this point, that he was financially ruined or had suddenly experienced a huge and unexpected financial setback. Furthermore,rather than taking his own life after doing his dirty work, in the time-honored manner of Family Annihilators, he phoned in his crime and explained, with truly eerie calm, explains that is was “destiny.”
The fact that a neighbor stated that the tragic event was “not unexpected” seems a bit misleading. Sure, the family had problems, but doesn’t every family? On the other hand, it hardly seems plausible or possible that this strange awareness of negative destiny would have come upon him suddenly and out of the blue, unless there had been previous signs of serious mental instability.
Hopefully, one or more relatives with knowledge of the situation, or even Holzer’s ex-wife, will come out of the woodwork and shine more light on the situation. One thing’s for certain; his mother and father and children, and the family dog, will not be of much help at this point.