Mentally ill Vermont man claims he killed mother

Lydia Duncan, 85, was worried about her 55-year-old mentally ill son, Monroe Duncan, living alone in Francois, Vermont. So, she left Canada and returned to live with him.{{more}}

Noel Duncan, a retired police officer, said Monroe, his younger brother, telephoned Wednesday morning, saying he had killed their mother.

“He called me this morning about 6 o’clock … My wife answered the phone. He told my wife that he killed my mother,” Noel told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, hours after he found his mother lying dead in her living room, with chop wounds about her body and a cutlass nearby.

Noel said his wife hung up when Monroe telephoned and called back, asking to speak to her mother-in-law.

“He said, ‘How she go talk to yo’ and she dead?’” Noel said of the exchange he heard while listening on another phone in the downstairs of their Campden Park home.

“… When he said that, I believed that something was drastically wrong,” Noel said.

Noel and his son arrived at the house in the area in Francois known as “Bank-a-Hole”, around 6:10 a.m., he told SEARCHLIGHT.

“When I came here, I met him [Monroe] sitting. She was lying in the chair where she normally sits. … So she was lying in her favourite seat there … with severe chops. She was dead,” Noel said.

“He [Monroe] was in the house. I asked him why he killed his mother. … He said my mother and some other guy came to rob him and he chopped her up,” Noel further said.

Noel told SEARCHLIGHT Monroe became mentally ill about 10 years ago, when he returned to St Vincent after living in Barbados and Trinidad.

“He went to the mental home [Mental Health Centre] a couple times,” Noel said of his mother’s seventh child.

“He was kind of stable, because I spoke to him Monday, he told me that he wanted some things, so I bought the things,” Noel said, as his voice cracked and he wiped tears that ran down his left cheek.

Noel last spoke to his mother Tuesday morning, but his wife spoke to her Tuesday night.

“Last night, my wife spoke to her and she was to call her back this morning, because she told her to do certain things … So after he [Monroe] called and said that he killed her, … I knew something wasn’t right,” Noel said.

Noel further said he believed when Monroe said he had killed their mother.

“If he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t say that. … me and he communicate very well. … So when he said that, I found that was very strange. Very, very strange,” Noel further stated.

The men’s 10 other siblings live in Canada and the United States.

“She [their mother] was in Canada all the time. … She said she kind of worried about him staying here alone. So, she came back to stay with him. But he was kind of stable because I took him to the doctor about once a month,” Noel further told SEARCHLIGHT.

“I just can’t explain to see my mom just going down so,” said Noel, who further said he does not know if he could forgive his brother for allegedly killing their mother.

“I really don’t know. Trust me. I just don’t know. The law is going to take its course, so I don’t know what will happen,” he said.

Police said on Wednesday that Monroe was assisting them with their investigation.

(kentonchance@searchlight.vc)