'Unspeakable sorrow' haunts murder suspect's family

The family of a Nova Scotia man charged with three murders is reaching out to the relatives of the victims, saying words cannot describe their sorrow, grief and disbelief.

Race family says accused killer never got help

CBC News Posted: May 22, 2007 9:51 AM EDT | Last Updated: May 22, 2007

The family of a Nova Scotia man charged with three murders is reaching out to the relatives of the victims, saying words cannot describe their sorrow, grief and disbelief.

Glen Douglas Race, 26, is accused of murdering two Halifax-area men and another in upstate New York earlier this month.

"For the families of Paul Knott, Trevor Brewster and Darcy Manor, our hearts are filled with unspeakable sorrow, and we extend our deepest sympathy and prayers in the loss of your loved ones," the Race family said in a statement released Tuesday through their lawyer, Joel Pink.

Parents Mark and Donna and brother Douglas said they lived with Glen's struggle with paranoid schizophrenia for six years, and tried to get him help and keep him in treatment.

They said the involuntary psychiatric treatment act might have helped, but it's coming too late for Glen.

The act spells out the circumstancesunder which a mentally ill person can be treated without consent. Though it was passed in 2005, it will not be proclaimed until July 3.

"We, too, have lost a loved one to a terrible illness that can be treated but for which there are insufficient resources," the family wrote.

Statement from theRace family
"No words can express the tremendous sorrow, the grief and the disbelief that has gripped our family as the terrible events of the past weeks have unfolded. Events that have taken the lives of three men and devastated their families and loved ones. Events for which our son has been charged. For the families of Paul Knott, Trevor Brewster and Darcy Manor our hearts are filled with unspeakable sorrow and we extend our deepest sympathy and prayers in the loss of your loved ones. As a family we have lived with and witnessed Glen's struggle with paranoid schizophrenia for six years. As a father, as a mother and as a brother we have tried every available means to help him, to keep him in treatment. Changes in treatment options that were put forward in 2005 with the passing of the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act would have provided for Community Treatment Orders, but those changes never came into effect for our family. We have done everything that we can to assist the police with their investigations here and we will continue to do so. We rely upon their updates concerning the status of Glen's proceedings and there is nothing more we can add. We too, have lost a loved one - to a terrible illness that can be treated, but for which there are insufficient resources. We ask those who would do so, to pray for the families of all who have been affected by these terrible tragedies, for all families coping with the mental illness of a loved one, and for Glen in his anguish." Mark, Donna and Douglas Race May

Statement from theRace family

"No words can express the tremendous sorrow, the grief and the disbelief that has gripped our family as the terrible events of the past weeks have unfolded. Events that have taken the lives of three men and devastated their families and loved ones. Events for which our son has been charged. For the families of Paul Knott, Trevor Brewster and Darcy Manor our hearts are filled with unspeakable sorrow and we extend our deepest sympathy and prayers in the loss of your loved ones.

As a family we have lived with and witnessed Glen's struggle with paranoid schizophrenia for six years. As a father, as a mother and as a brother we have tried every available means to help him, to keep him in treatment. Changes in treatment options that were put forward in 2005 with the passing of the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act would have provided for Community Treatment Orders, but those changes never came into effect for our family.

We have done everything that we can to assist the police with their investigations here and we will continue to do so. We rely upon their updates concerning the status of Glen's proceedings and there is nothing more we can add. We too, have lost a loved one - to a terrible illness that can be treated, but for which there are insufficient resources. We ask those who would do so, to pray for the families of all who have been affected by these terrible tragedies, for all families coping with the mental illness of a loved one, and for Glen in his anguish."

Mark, Donna and Douglas Race May

Pink would not go into details about what his clients did to get help for their son, but said it was "everything possible" under the law.

"Maybe this should never have happened if in fact the proper treatment and resources had been made available to the family prior to when these acts allegedly occurred," Pink told CBC News.

Glen Race was hospitalized at least three times in the last two years.

In April 2005,he was charged with breaking into a cottage in Pictou County and sent to the East Coast Forensic Hospital for an assessment. Doctors found he wassuffering from a mental disorder, but their detailed report is confidential.

Once inDecember 2005 and again in January 2006, Race's parents asked the Windsor, N.S.,RCMP for help, and theytook him to the local emergency room and to Halifax'sAbbie Lane hospital for psychiatric patients.

As a lawyer, Pink said he sees on a weekly basis people who suffer from a mental illness. Several provinces have mental-health courts, he noted.

The Races said they are co-operating with police and will continue to do so.

"We ask those who would do so, to pray for the families of all who have been affected by these terrible tragedies, for all families coping with the mental illness of a loved one and for Glen in his anguish," the family said in its statement.

In a Texas jail

Glen Race is currently in jail in Texas while a prosecutor in New York state tries to have him extradited to face charges in Manor's murder.

Racewasarrested lastTuesday while trying to cross the border into Mexico.

Heis charged with the first-degree murder of Trevor Brewster,the Cole Harbour man who was found dead under a boardwalk in Dartmouth on May 9.

In the death of Michael Paul Knott, police charged Racewith second-degree murder. Knott's body wasfound May 5in the woods near Hubbards.

Police allege Racefled Nova Scotia in Brewster's car and headed to the U.S. border, where they say heshot and killedDarcy Manor at a secluded lodge.

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'Unspeakable sorrow' haunts murder suspect's family

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