While Kim Crespi was getting a haircut, her husband David murdered their five-year-old twin daughters during a game of hide and seek. In the aftermath, family, friends, and even David have more questions than answers.

In 2005, Kim Crespi had what she later described as “the perfect life.” She and her husband, David—a gentle giant of a man, devoutly religious, a loving father, and a proven star in the world of finance—had five healthy, happy children. No one, least of all Kim, ever suspected that the life the Crespis had lovingly woven together could be destroyed in less than forty minutes.

In Medication, Mental Illness, and Murder, author Edward L. Jones III chronicles David Crespi’s struggles with insomnia and depression, the role SSRI antidepressants may have played in the killings, and Kim’s unimaginable journey of trauma, suffering, and eventual forgiveness as documented by her journal entries.

Using letters and other forms of personal communications with David, plus excerpts from scholarly articles and more, Jones takes readers on a journey into the dark heart of psychosis, of North Carolina’s penal and mental health systems, and of Big Pharma.

  • “This book will grip and disturb you. You will be forced to grapple with an issue no one has solved—what happens to the intent and premeditation critical to returning a verdict of murder when the perpetrator is under the influence of a psychotropic drug?”

    David Healy, PhD
    Psychiatrist, Author of Pharmageddon and Let Them Eat Prozac

  • “Meticulously researched, profoundly moving, by turns horrifying and edifying, Edward L. Jones III’s consequential new book is a must-read for parents whose children are growing up in an overprescribed world, as well as for psychiatrists and physicians who care about their patients’ long-term mental health.”

    Terry Hummel
    Former Publisher, Rolling Stone 

  • "Every word of Jones’s harrowing book rings true, because I have witnessed firsthand the devastations visited upon families by SSRI antidepressants. Too many medical professionals who should know better are handing these pills out like candy, and police and emergency responders are dealing with the fallout."

    Mary Katherine Lockwood
    Clinical Associate Professor Emerita, University of New Hampshire

  • "A heartbreaking story of filicide, the potential risks of powerful antidepressants, and unforgiving justice with respect to crimes involving mental illness."

    Richard Ernsberger Jr.
    Bestselling author and former Senior Editor at Newsweek