Kathleen Hagen

Case record

Timeline

• August 2000 — Kathleen Hagen smothered her parents, Idella Hagen (92) and James Hagen (86), in their home in Chatham Township, New Jersey.
• August 2000 — A month earlier, Hagen returned to her parents’ house from her home in the Virgin Islands because of their age and deteriorating health.
• October 28, 2009 — Judge Thomas V. Manahan had concerns that Idella Kathleen Hagen had not been living up to the conditions of her psychiatric release.
• March 26, 2008 — Hagen was ruled free of psychosis and no threat to herself or to others in Superior Court in Morristown; Judge John Harper signed an order of release for Hagen from Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.
• Wednesday, March 26, 2008 — The Superior Court also ordered Hagen to attend the Jersey Shore Medical Center’s Park Place Adult Partial Day Program for a specified period of time and comply with medication monitoring; she was ordered to attend individual and group therapy and further outpatient treatment.
• November 6, 2009 — The interview and court concerns about compliance and written reporting took place in connection with the concerns raised by Judge Thomas V. Manahan on October 28, 2009.
• April court hearing — Judge Thomas V. Manahan requested a written report of Hagen’s mental status from Dr. Robert Dengrove, but stated the report had not been forthcoming; Hagen was not at the hearing.
• January 2002 — In a bench trial, Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis ruled that Hagen was not guilty by reason of insanity in the August 2000 suffocation of her elderly parents.
• February 1, 2002 — A New Jersey judge acquitted Hagen on grounds of insanity after psychiatrists testified she was psychotic at the time; Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis committed her to a state mental health institution.
• May 18, 2008 — A state bill unanimously approved by the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Monday, May 18, 2008, was sponsored by state Sen. Sean Kean, R-Monmouth.
• Monday, May 18, 2008 — Judge Bozonelis set the first periodic review for May 2.

Background

Kathleen Hagen was born November 15, 1945, in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey. She was a former medical doctor who gained notoriety for being accused of murder by asphyxia of her parents, Idella Hagen and James Hagen, with a plastic bag and a pillow as they slept in their home in Chatham Township, New Jersey, in August 2000. She returned to her parents’ house from her home in the Virgin Islands because of their age and deteriorating health.

Hagen previously cut short a medical career in urology in 1987 to move to the Virgin Islands to operate an inn with her second husband. She was a 1973 graduate of the Harvard Medical School. She became the first woman appointed a resident in urology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was appointed chief of urology at Rutgers Medical School in 1982.

The offence

Hagen was accused of smothering her elderly parents with a plastic bag and pillow as they slept in their home in Chatham Township, New Jersey, in August 2000.

Her parents were identified as:

• Idella Hagen, aged 92
• James Hagen, aged 86

The home address given was 614 Fairmount Avenue, in Chatham Township.

Authorities believed Hagen had been with the bodies between four and seven days before she called police.

Investigation

Just before 7 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000, Hagen phoned township police and told them her parents were dead. When police arrived at the Hagen home, they found Idella Hagen and James Hagen in their nightclothes in twin beds in the master bedroom.

The Morris County medical examiner determined the parents had been asphyxiated.

Investigators had not determined a motive for the killing. Authorities said there were “additional conversations” between Hagen and the police.

A detective, Michael Rice, of the Morris County prosecutor’s office, testified in court that Hagen had called her daughter “a slut and harlot” a day before the murders because of her failed marriages, and she pushed her father onto a couch.

Arrest and custody

Hagen was arrested and held in the Morris County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.

She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Trial

In January 2002, Hagen was tried in a daylong nonjury trial before Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis. The trial was a bench trial.

Hagen’s defense argued for an insanity plea. A defense psychiatrist, Robert L. Sadoff, stated that soon after Hagen returned to her home on Fairmount Avenue, Chatham, New Jersey, her chronic depression deepened because of two failed marriages, loss of her medical career, fears about her parents’ health, and fears her depression would lead to institutionalization.

Dr. Steven Simring testified for the prosecution that Hagen’s depression deepened significantly in August 2000 to the point where she thought she was receiving messages from televisions ads, traffic lights and playing cards. Both psychiatrists testified that she heard a male voice she took to be her father commanding her to commit the murders, and that once they occurred she and her parents would go to what Simring called a “childlike, magical sphere where they'd regain their happiness.”

Both psychiatrists also testified that Hagen heard a female voice telling her she could join her parents in the sphere if she performed rituals including walking in circles and going up and down the stairs backward. At times after the killings, she performed these rituals and spent hours curled up in a quilt between her parents’ beds waiting to go to the sphere. This persisted for four to eight days before Hagen called the police, the psychiatrists testified.

Deborah Factor, an assistant Morris County prosecutor, asked the psychiatrists if they considered the patricide-matricide acts as vindictiveness or mercy killings. Both psychiatrists answered no.

A clinical psychiatrist, Dr. Georgina R. Cid, was described as diagnosing Hagen with bipolar disorder with psychotic features and narcissistic personality traits. Dr. Cid said:

“I believe that the patient is able to handle the demands of community living…She has received maximum benefit from the hospital. She has not displayed any psychotic symptoms and has not been depressed over the course of the last few years of her hospitalization.”

Dr. Cid also said Hagen was aware that neighbors surrounding her Monmouth Beach home, which she called, “My perfect home,” needed safety and agreed monitoring her medication was necessary.

During the trial, Hagen sat attentively in an orange jail jumpsuit during a daylong nonjury trial before Judge Bozonelis, showing little emotion as he ordered her institutionalized. Afterward, she smiled weakly as a courtroom matron applied handcuffs to her wrists and began escorting her from the courtroom.

A friend of Hagen’s for the last 20 years, Charlotte Carosh, of Rumson, N.J., said Hagen had told her during phone calls from her jail cellblock:

“She has hopes of having a normal life if she gets the right help,” Ms. Carosh said.

At a bench trial, Judge Bozonelis acquitted Hagen of charges after two psychiatrists testified that she was psychotic at the time. Judge Bozonelis found Hagen not guilty on grounds of insanity.

Sentencing

Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis did not order a specific term of confinement. He said he believed Hagen required long-term treatment in an institution because she was prone to unpredictable bouts of psychosis and a danger to herself and society.

Under the law, Judge Bozonelis said Hagen was entitled to periodic hearings and reviews about her recovery and continued confinement. He set the first one for May 2.

After the trial, Hagen was transferred to the Ann Klein Forensic Center, a psychiatric hospital in Trenton.

Bozonelis ordered that Hagen remain at that facility, or at another institution, until the court could determine she would no longer be a danger to herself or to society.

At the time Bozonelis said it was one of the most shocking crimes of his career.

Other details

Hagen had a history involving her medical career and residences. She left an apparently successful career in urology to manage a small island inn. From about 1987 until 1992, she and her husband at the time, William Tyrrell of Stuart, Fla., lived on St. Thomas where they operated the West Indies Inn. Their landlord, Richard Doumeng, general manager of the Bolongo Bay Beach Club, said the building was ravaged by storms and hurt tourism, and they left that business after the storms.

Hagen had been living with her parents since the previous month and was described as torn between staying with her parents and going back down to the Virgin Islands.

Hagen’s medical license details were described as valid until next year.

The mandatory medication described as required for Hagen included lithium to treat bipolar disorder, Effexor for depression, Inderal for hypertension and tremors, and other drugs to manage osteoporosis, chronic back pain and anxiety. Dr. Cid also noted at the time that Hagen had not had any recent behavioral problems.

Hagen remained under Krol status, a periodic review by a judge of a patient’s psychiatric standing when that person was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In connection with later proceedings, Judge Thomas V. Manahan expressed concern about Hagen’s compliance, including that she had not seen her psychiatrist in person for some time and had turned away Monmouth County social workers when they pressed her about her medications. Manahan said Hagen would have to comply with the terms of her release or go back to Trenton State Psychiatric Hospital.

At Superior Court in Morristown, Hagen was ruled free of psychosis and no threat to herself or others. Superior Court Judge John Harper signed an order of release for Hagen from Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.

Judge Manahan ordered that a written report of Hagen’s mental status from Dr. Robert Dengrove be provided within 30 days. At the April court hearing, Manahan requested the written report, and said the report had not been forthcoming. Hagen was not at the hearing.

Hagen’s attorney, Robert Dunn, confirmed that she was in poor health, and told the court:

“she doesn’t seem to pose a risk to herself or others.”

Dunn told the court he speaks to his client frequently and she is rational and lucid.

Judge Manahan was also concerned about reports from social workers claiming that when visiting Hagen’s home they were turned away after asking about Hagen’s medications.

Appeals

No appeal outcome was stated.

Outcome

Hagen was found not guilty on grounds of insanity and committed to a state mental health institution on February 1, 2002.