Amy Bishop, The Harvard Neuroscientist, UAH Mass Shooting, and the Fight to Turn Trauma into Healing (Revisit and Update)

We revisit the chilling case of Dr. Amy Bishop, the Harvard-educated neuroscientist and mother of four who committed a mass shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) in 2010. Her life was a shocking mix of bizarre incidents, including a prior connection to a pipe bomb, a public physical altercation over a booster seat, and the unexpected violence she unleashed on her colleagues.

Since we last covered this story, there have been several significant updates. We share new developments and focus on the incredible, positive change coming from the tragedy. Listen to the powerful story of Dr. Ing and John Schmidt, who are turning their personal trauma into a mission to help others. They are now working on developing a revolutionary blood test for the effects of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their goal is for this test to become a standard part of annual health screenings, much like a cholesterol test. This effort is a full circle moment, aiming to avoid future suffering by tackling the root causes of trauma.

Check-out bonus episodes up on Spotify and Apple podcast now!

Get new episodes a day early and ad free, plus chat episodes at ⁠⁠Patreon.com/momsandmysteriespodcast⁠⁠

Check-out ⁠⁠Moms and Mysteries⁠⁠ to find links to our tiktok, youtube, twitter, instagram and more.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey guys, we have an update for you this week on a story that we covered back in 2020, the story of Amy Bishop who committed a mass shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. And there's actually been several updates in this case since we shared it with you. So stick around to the end of the episode and we will be discussing everything that's happened since then.

So we're gonna get right into the story this week, but first, forget everything you've previously heard on Moms and Murder as Stefan from SNL would say. This story has everything. A disgruntled Harvard graduate, a pipe bomb, an even a secret neighborhood pizza party. And just when you think the fun is over, knock, knock, who's there?

It's a lady punching you in the face over a booster seat. This story really does have everything. And the more that we read about the story, truly the more bizarre that it became. So join us this week as we discuss the [00:01:00] strange world of Dr. Amy Bishop, who was a Harvard graduate, a mad scientist, and a mother of four.

Amy was born on April 24th, 1965 in Braintree, Massachusetts, and was the oldest of two children. And before we get into Amy's life and what has happened in this story, we're gonna tell you a little about Braintree, Massachusetts in this week's segment of we Googled this city. Braintree, Massachusetts has a population of 35,000 residents as of the 2010 census, and it's located around 12 miles to the south of Boston.

The co-founder of the telephone, Thomas Augustus Watson, which by the way, did you know there was a co-founder of the telephone. I felt really dumb just reading that. Yeah, I thought it just, it did not Alexander Graham Bell and that was it. Turns out there was another guy who we do not respect enough named Thomas Augustus Watson, and he retired Braintree and was a big part of the education system there.

President John Adams and his son, president John Quincy Adams, were both born in [00:02:00] Braintree, Massachusetts, but thanks to some rezoning later. Technically they were born in what is now known as Quincy, Massachusetts. But you know what they say? Google the city Facts, Gibb and the Googled the city Facts Take it away's all I really have.

It was a stretch. And lastly, Braintree is a pretty interesting name I thought. So it caused me to do some additional Googling and I wanted to know how it really got its name. So it's actually a really interesting story if you believe it. It's named after the town of Braintree, Essex in England. And it said that there was a tree in the town that would answer philosophical questions and even your future.

But only if you would refer to it as, Lord Braintree King of the forest. I need, I needed something from you there because that's not true, but it's more interesting than the actual. In the act. I was like, what? I was really excited when I wrote out the words, Lord Braintree King of the Forest. So [00:03:00] of course that's not true, but it's more interesting than what I found, which was that it could have been possibly named after someone named Brigantia, who was possibly around during pre Celtic times and was named for the Goddess of the Land of Britain.

I mean, it's Braintree, I expected quite a bit more. So between me, you and everyone listening, I say we stick with my Braintree King of the forest thing, and let's just see if, if it definitely works, let's see if it sticks, start a whole new revolution about it. So that's all I have this week. It was really scraping the barrel for this one.

Thank you. Keep going. All right, so we mentioned that the um, story this week is about Dr. Amy Bishop and we said that she grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts with her brother, and his name was Seth, and he was three years younger than her. The bishop children were raised in a beautiful Victorian home with a large covered porch.

Amy's mother, Judy came from an old New England family and was described as having [00:04:00] beautiful, curly blonde hair and an infectious smile. Judy was well connected and well liked in the community, and she also had quite a few male admirers, which was really a contrast to her husband Sam, who was a lot quieter than his outgoing wife, both hardworking and intelligent.

Sam came from a family of Greek immigrants and he worked hard and graduated from the University of Iowa in fine arts where he painted during the day and worked as a janitor at night. Once Sam moved back to Massachusetts, he got a job teaching in the art department of Northeastern University. While Sam was off teaching, Judy got involved in the civic life of the town, befriending and hanging out with all the right people.

Judy knew everyone, and as one neighbor put it, Judy was like the town spokesperson. If you had a question, Judy is who you would call. Although Judy was extroverted, the family as a whole seemed to be pretty closed off to other people [00:05:00] as a child, Sam and Judy's daughter, Amy was not only a talented violinist, but was also brilliant as well, and her IQ measured in the gifted range.

She also liked having her things in a particular way. Specifically, she would line up her little toys as if they were all in a parade. When Amy was young, she suffered from severe allergies, and that meant that she spent a huge chunk of her childhood surrounded by doctors and nurses in the ER as well as doctor's offices.

Amy desperately wanted to find a cure for all of her ailments, and in part because of her own medical issues, she became fascinated with science and becoming a scientist herself in order to find a cure. Her brother Seth, on the other hand, was a healthy young boy. Whereas Amy found it difficult to make friends, friendships came pretty easily to Seth growing up.

Amy could be described as a bit of a social outcast, and it is believed that she resented her brother for his easygoing ways. [00:06:00] A big turning point in Amy's life came on the evening in 1985 when the bishops returned home to find thieves. Had to ransack their home. The thieve stuffed the children's pillowcases with Judy's wedding ring, a pair of silver cups that were commemorating the birth of Amy and Seth, as well as other valuable items.

Judy was so upset about this, um, robbery that she wrote to the local newspaper pleading for the return of these items. So these were like sentimental items that you can't just. Go out and buy a new one of right. Sam, on the other hand, handled this ordeal in a different way. He went out and purchased a 12 gauge shotgun, much to the dismay of his wife and daughter.

The weapon was kept in Sam and Judy's room unloaded and served as protection. Should somebody ever break into the house again. Fast forward six months later, the 12 gauge shotgun that was purchased for protection tragically ended up being a murder weapon used to kill Seth. [00:07:00] According to Judy, Seth had just returned home from the grocery store and was in the kitchen.

When Amy came downstairs holding the shotgun, Amy claimed that she had loaded the gun but didn't know how to unload the gun, and was actually coming downstairs to ask for Seth's help. Just moments earlier, Amy had actually shot the gun upstairs and broke the mirror in her room and put a hole in the wall, which she covered up with a simple post-it note.

Amy was 21 years old at this time, downstairs. When Amy swung the weapon around to show Seth the gun actually fired shooting Seth. Point blank. Amy immediately left her home in Braintree on foot carrying the weapon with her. So you have this young lady. Walking through the streets with a shotgun. It's gotta be quite a sight to see.

Yeah. Judy, who claimed to see the entire incident immediately got on the phone, but her first call was not to nine one one. It was actually to the police chief who she was rumored to be having an affair with while her brother Seth lay dying on the kitchen floor. [00:08:00] Amy calmly walked to a local body shop and pounded on the door.

As the employees opened the door, they were met with a loaded shotgun pointed at them. Amy, who didn't appear at all excited or stressed, told the workers to put their hands up and to provide her with a car. Amy claimed that she had recently gotten into a fight with her husband and needed this car to get away.

Interestingly enough and completely separate of Amy's problems, the two workers she held at gunpoint had actually recently robbed an ATM and were stashing $25,000 inside this shop. Oh my gosh. Yeah, like, like what are the odds? I know, exactly. So they quickly shut this door behind Amy and she's out of there.

However, the body shop wasn't actually Amy's first stop moments earlier. She had tried to carjack quite a few people unsuccessfully, which is kind of remarkable considering she's holding a shotgun and walking around telling people to give them her car and they're not giving it to her. Yeah, yeah. So onlookers that day said that Amy looked really dazed and confused.[00:09:00] 

The Braintree police started to receive these calls about this deranged woman roaming around the streets with this shotgun, and it's at this point that her mom, Judy, actually places a call to nine one one. The police officers didn't know at this time that the case of this wandering woman and the shooting of Seth were actually related.

As police caught up with Amy, they ordered her to drop the loaded weapon, which was now pointed at the officers. She refused. So the officers didn't shoot her, but instead another officer came up behind her and grabbed the shotgun. I'm assuming this has to be because they see, she's kind of out of it. Like from everything I was reading, it looked like she wasn't excitable.

She wasn't, she didn't seem stressed. She didn't seem anything. It was just like she was there, but not really there. So I guess. It was easy enough for them to come around her, but that seems terrifying in itself. So the gun was indeed loaded and Amy had a shell in her pocket. And we're gonna get back into so much more of this story after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

Before [00:10:00] we took the break, we were talking about how Amy Bishop had just been apprehended by the police after shooting her brother in their family home. And of course, she's saying that this was an accidental shooting. Back at the Bishop residence, the ambulance had arrived to find a strangely calm Judy.

So unlike most mothers that were in this situation, instead of actually sitting with her dying son in the kitchen, Judy spent his last moments. Voluntarily speaking to the police officers. The paramedics who were working to save Seth's life found this choice to be pretty odd. As you know, she wasn't being questioned or forced to speak to the police, but she was just freely talking to them instead of trying to go and be with her son.

And Judy would later say that. She knew her son couldn't be saved and therefore didn't feel the need to plead with the paramedics to try to do anything. So that all sounds like, you know, you can look at the, she wasn't really there and people just [00:11:00] react different ways in different situations. But to hear that she actually said that is really bizarre.

You know, it's one thing to do it that, but then to be like, well, I knew they weren't gonna save him, so what was the point of being there? That's, that's a little more concerning. I mean, yeah. But I feel like whether, whether you think that. Your child can be saved or not. Like you would still wanna be there with them in their final moments.

It just does seem really weird that you, yeah. You know, maybe would say that, but people, do people react in weird ways? You know? Like that might not be, you might think I'm a very big rule follower, so not saying that I would do that, but I can see where my brain would be like, oh, I have to help. I have to help.

I have to help. Even with that going on, even though that doesn't make sense, I can see how somebody would Yeah, be like going through the motions, but then to say afterwards like, oh no, I figured they couldn't save him. So it didn't, that's where it gets weird to me to like verbalize that. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

So later that day, Seth was pronounced dead and he was sadly just 18 years old at the time. [00:12:00] Back at the Braintree Police Department. Amy told the police that she had the gun loaded in the house that day because she was afraid of robbers coming in once more to their home and she wanted to be ready. She claimed that the shooting of her brother Seth, had been an accident on orders of the police chief.

The same police chief who Judy had placed a call to Amy was actually released from police custody. She was neither fingerprinted nor photographed. The case was tossed before the detectives were given the chance to really even interrogate her, claiming that she was too emotional to be questioned. As the bishops were at the police station, some neighbors came and scrubbed Seth's blood off of their kitchen floor.

11 days later, Amy returned to the police station. The police concluded at this point that the shooting was an accident and the gun went off while Amy was trying to have Seth help her discharge the weapon. Back at home. Life went on [00:13:00] as usual. Amy continued to attend Northeastern and to eat in the same kitchen where her brother was tragically killed.

According to Amy, her father did not believe in counseling, and Amy received no therapy or a psychiatric evaluation after this incident. Despite her brother's death back at Northeastern, Amy really excelled. She joined a Dungeons and Dragons Club where she met a fellow biology major named Jim Anderson.

The two shared many interests and seemed to really balance each other out. Jim was a calming presence to Amy's more intense personality. The two would soon marry. Although Jim's father never felt like he really knew Amy even after several years of marriage in one interview, his father is quoted as saying that she was a strange duck.

The new couples settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Amy got accepted into the graduate program at Harvard. While Amy excelled at Northeastern, Harvard was a totally different ballgame. She was [00:14:00] used to being at the top of her class, but Amy struggled her way through Harvard. Eventually, she graduated in 1993 after revising her thesis.

By this time, Amy and Jim have two kids of their own. Amy was described by those that knew her as being a very high strung mom. While Amy was working, Jim stayed home to raise the children and would find work sporadically at various labs. Amy claimed that Jim was quote, just too smart to work, and so Amy became the main breadwinner in the family.

She started working as a researcher at Boston Children's Hospital under Dr. Paul Rosenberg, who was a Harvard Medical School professor and physician. Dr. Rosenberg did not feel that Amy could reach the standards needed at work, and he felt that she also exhibited violent behavior. This upset Amy greatly, and she was very concerned about receiving a negative evaluation from him.

Amy resigned from her position before this could happen, and colleagues remember her appearing like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Just weeks after her [00:15:00] resignation, Dr. Rosenberg received a suspicious package. This was during the time of the Unabomber, so Dr. Rosenberg, as well as others throughout the US were really on high alert from, you know, packages that they weren't expecting just arriving.

He carefully opened the package, which blew up, and he barely missed what could have been a deadly injury. Investigators looking into who would have sent Dr. Rosenberg. This package soon narrowed down on Jim and Amy, who were really refusing to even cooperate with them at all prior to the pipe bomb. Jim had once told a witness that he wanted to shoot, stab or strangle, Dr.

Rosenberg. Wow. Yeah, but due to a lack of evidence, the case of the mysterious bomb was closed to this day. Dr. Rosenberg believes that Amy and Jim had something to do with the mysterious package. Over the next nine years, the bishop struggled to pay their bills, [00:16:00] and Amy began to work lower paying research jobs.

And her lack of financial and professional success really started to affect her deeply and personally. Her academic skills would win awards, but her interpersonal skills left much to be desired. By 2003, the couple had four children, three girls, and a little boy who they named Seth after Amy's brother, but more kids did not make for a more tranquil Amy.

There was actually one incident when the family went out to breakfast at ihop and Amy requested a boost receipt for her son, Seth. The restaurant was crowded that morning and the waitress informed Amy that the last booster seat had just been given to another party, and Amy got really, really upset to the point that she began to scream at this other mother who had her child in the booster seat.

She yelled, quote, don't you know who I am? I am Dr. Amy Bishop. [00:17:00] So the waitress. Asked Amy to leave, but she refused to leave and instead she escalated the situation even further and punched this strange woman, this mother with her child in the face in the middle of this restaurant. These are like, this is like my big fear.

It's like why I won't honk at people in traffic even if they aren't going. 'cause I'm just deathly afraid that someone is gonna be unhinged. Like the slightest thing will make them go off. Like you could sit in front of me in traffic for 14 hours. I will never honk at you. I'll just sit there with a smile on my face.

I'm terrified. All these kind of things. I'm very, very polite and I don't think it has a lot to do with like wanting to be a polite person, but just being afraid of people killing me. That's about it. Yeah. I know I'm the same way, but you know, I'm paranoid about every situation, so Yeah. I don't, but that lady at the booster seat, she didn't even know.

Yeah. Like, what are you gonna do? Like, it's just bizarre that that would cause such a, such a fight in the middle of a restaurant. Right. [00:18:00] So Amy was actually arrested, but the charges were later dropped that were against her. She wasn't having much success with her career. So when she got an offer to teach at the University of Alabama, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

Amy had really made quite a terrible reputation for herself in Massachusetts, but she hoped that moving to a new place, you know, moving to Alabama meant that she would have a true fresh start. The family also desperately needed a steady paycheck, and Amy was hopeful that she would finally, you know, this would be her time to shine.

The neighbors, you know, in their neighborhood in Massachusetts specifically, remember the day that the Bishop family left, they said that the Bishop kids weren't bad, but Amy was very disliked and said that she yelled at the children in the neighborhood that were playing, and rarely, if ever kept her opinions to herself.

So the day that the U-Haul pulled away and the family was moving, [00:19:00] all the neighbors came outta their houses and started cheering. And one family suggested that they all get together and have like a, a neighborhood pizza party. And so that's what they did. They were so excited that Amy was leaving their neighborhood, that they actually, the neighbors threw a party.

This just reminds me of your favorite movie, the Wizard of Oz, and the. Wicked witch is dead and all the munchkins come out and sing and dance and there's a whole glorious party. Like that's basically what it was for them. That's, imagine having that kind of impact in your neighborhood that when you leave people cheer for you to drive down the road.

People come out in the streets and cheer. Yeah, but I mean, I feel so terrible for her poor kids. 'cause you know, they're in the car and neighbors are. Cheering and throwing pizza at each other and, you know, that's, it's, that's so crazy. I just, I've never heard of that, of somebody leaving in a neighborhood, throwing a block party.

That's, yeah, that's a lot. So we have more details of this story that we're gonna get into after one final break for award from this week's sponsors. [00:20:00] Before the break, we mentioned that Amy and her family had moved outta the neighborhood so that they could move to Alabama for a job opportunity for Amy.

And that, of course, her neighbors cheered and loved that, threw a whole pizza party, just craziness as soon as she left the neighborhood. So while the neighbors were really glad to see Amy leave, the University of Alabama was super excited to add a scientist with a Harvard PhD to their list of teachers that they really didn't even bother to scrutinize.

Amy's resume. In hindsight, though, they probably should have a quick check after the fact showed that much of her resume was fudged and her references were left unchecked at the University of Alabama. Amy went for a 10 year track position, which meant really lifetime job security. Part of a 10 year requirement is being published, which is something Amy really did not focus on.

She did publish an annual article from 2004 to 2006, but then she went unpublished for three years. Her lack of publications was likely used against her [00:21:00] during her future tenure battle with the university. But in her early years, Amy really thrived at the university. She was well liked, she was friendly, and she was enthusiastic.

She was successful in her research and she even teamed up with her husband, Jim to design an electric Petri dish to help keep cells alive longer. It was a huge success and earn the university not only bragging rights, but over $1 million in research funding. As the years passed, Amy became less engaged in the needs of her students and more focused on receiving this tenure.

Students started complaining that she didn't make eye contact during class and that she would just read verbatim from the textbook. Many students actually requested to be transferred out of her classes in 2008. Just five years after arriving in Alabama, students met with the department chair about Dr.

Bishop's odd ways and her ineffective teaching. Even went as far as putting together a petition with dozens of signatures, asking that she no longer be at the university. [00:22:00] It appeared that Amy was so wrapped up in getting tenure that she completely stopped caring about the steps that were necessary to even accomplish to get there.

In 2009, Amy was denied tenure, which meant that her contract would end the following year. Not only would she not be locked into a teaching position for life, but she would also be jobless. Amy became enraged and turned to students and professors for support. She has said to have yelled at her colleagues when they received tenure and she did not.

And in 2010 she appealed the decision, but she was once again denied. On February 12th, 2010, Amy was late to her 10:50 AM class, which was unusual for her. Amy didn't usually carry a bag, but on that morning she carried a canvas bag packed with a nine millimeter gun. Students remember that day during her class that she appeared to be somewhat distracted?

That [00:23:00] afternoon the biology department would gather to discuss the upcoming semester. This wouldn't really have been a meeting that Amy necessarily needed to attend since she would not be working at the school during the semester that they were preparing for. Yet Amy showed up and sat right next to the department chair blocking the only door.

That day one of Amy's colleagues noticed that Amy had this strange behavior. Normally, Amy was a commanding presence, happily giving her opinion on different topics. But that Friday afternoon, Amy was quiet and even appeared to be depressed. As the meeting came to an end without warning, Amy pulled out her weapon in seconds.

Amy rattled off half a dozen shots, critically wounding six people. Amy put the gun up to her friend and fellow teacher, Debra Moriarty's head. Debra actually yelled out, Amy, think about my grandson. Think about my daughter. And Amy didn't. She pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. [00:24:00] Debra actually jumped off the ground and led the rush to push Amy out of the room and into the hallway.

The remaining survivors in the room then barricaded the conference room door. This act of courage by Deborah saved many lives at this point. Students hear this shooting, but they have no idea that the shooter was one of their very own professors. As Amy ran away from the conference room, she ran into a student and asked to borrow a cell phone.

She used the cell phone to call her husband Jim, to ask him to come pick her up behind the back of the building. While police are on campus searching for the shooter, Amy actually hides out on the second floor bathroom where she tosses her gun and jacket into the trash can. Back in the conference room, there's blood everywhere.

Three professors have been murdered and three others were in critical condition. As Jim pulled up to the parking lot, he witnessed his wife being taken away in handcuffs and he had no idea what was going on. Police officers put Amy in the back of the squad car and Amy has heard saying [00:25:00] quote, it didn't happen.

There is no way they are still alive. And if you look at these pictures of her during her arrest, Amy appears completely dazed and confused. And we don't know if you know her denial at this time is real or if perhaps she was using. Later to try and plead insanity in this case. But, and if you think back to the, um, shooting of her brother, that's kind of what everyone says.

She's dazed and confused. She doesn't appear to know what's going on. She's, you know, not acting in a way you would think somebody would react after this horrific thing has happened. She's just kind of there and kind of denying the whole thing, even though it's super obvious, you know, to what's gone on.

Right police interviewed Amy's husband Jim, but he denied having any knowledge at all of her plan to shoot her coworkers. Jim admitted that he had taken Amy to a shooting range prior to the shootings, and a neighbor revealed that he had seen the couple leaving their home that morning with duffle bags.

While Amy was in [00:26:00] jail, the police actually got a call from a police officer in Boston who told them that the woman they are holding in jail also shot and killed her brother. In 19 86, 4 months after her killing Spree at the University of Alabama, Amy was indicted on a charge of first degree murder in the 1986 shooting of her younger brother, justice would finally be served for Seth.

Amy's attorneys would spend 18 months preparing an insanity defense for her. Initially, she asked for the death penalty because she couldn't stand the idea of spending her entire life in a tiny box. The morning of the trial, Amy was wearing this red jumpsuit, a bulletproof vest and flip flops, and she really sat in the court pretty emotionless.

She pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. As you can imagine, someone as argumentative as Amy really has not had the easy life since she has [00:27:00] been behind bars. It was reported that she has gotten into numerous fights and has even been sent to the medical ward. About five years after the mass shooting at the university, Amy apologized to the victims and their families for the very first time.

She quickly followed up that apology by saying that she was reconsidering her guilty plea, blaming her allergies, schizophrenia, and steroids for her actions. As for Amy's family, her daughter was 18 at the time of the shooting and was a student at the University of Alabama herself. It is said that during the chaos that followed the mass shooting, she took her siblings to a neighbor's house.

Unlike Amy's neighbors in Braintree, Amy's neighbors in Huntsville supported her children and the victims and their families by bringing meals, offering prayers, and in one case, paying for repairs on a car. Amy's father-in-law described the community as giving kind of one universal group hug. [00:28:00] As of today, Amy Bishop is still sitting in Alabama's, Julia Tutwiler prison for women, and she will not be getting out anytime soon.

I, I actually don't think I was familiar with the story. It sound, parts of it sound really familiar, right? We, we talked about this the other day. I like, there's definitely heard of this case. I don't remember where, that's the thing. I felt the same way. We were worried that we may have done this one before.

I feel like I just specifically remember that it was a case where there was. You know, multiple people were killed and then they found out that she had also there was involved in this, this back story, you know? Yeah. So I've, I mean, I can't, I couldn't tell you exactly where I've heard of it. I know I've heard of this story before, but it's a really, really interesting and crazy story.

Yeah. It's so sad though because it, especially this second one, I mean. I mean, all of it's sad, of course, with her brother and everything and you know, who knows what would've happened if things could have been different there, of course. Um, and the way it was [00:29:00] handled. Uh, obviously if, if she was later charged with her brother's death, that could have prevented all this other stuff from happening.

But just that it was, you know, this workplace violence from not getting tenure like she thought she wanted and all these other people that lost their lives for it. It's just. Crazy is the only word that comes to mind, but it doesn't even really do it justice. It's just so upsetting for the families that had nothing to do with it, you know?

And they lost their loved ones because somebody was ticked off about about that. Yeah. So to start with the updates first, the Alabama Supreme Court has recently rejected Amy Bishop's latest attempt to overturn her 2012 conviction for the 2010 mass shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

So the quick recap is Amy was convicted of killing three faculty members, Dr. Maria Davis, Dr. Arie Johnson, and Dr. Gopi Padilla. Following her frustration over being denied tenure at the university, there were three other people that were injured, but thankfully survived, and [00:30:00] she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Her direct appeals were exhausted back in 2013, but she had filed a Rule 32 appeal citing new evidence and constitutional violations, including claims that medication she had been prescribed for allergies caused blackouts and hallucinations that may have led to the shooting. This attempt to secure a new trial was denied in a recent court decision.

One thing I read about the, uh, medication she was talking about was, she said that it was steroids and she said she was taking them and at one point she took them blacked out and when she woke up she was being arrested. So like she just happens to forget. Mm. Okay. The entire part where she was. Killing everyone that she worked with.

But the updates really don't stop there. We actually have good updates. A key part of this ongoing story revolves around this trauma that came as a result of the shooting, and this has actually led to some really groundbreaking medical work. Dr. Joe Eng, who is a faculty member who survived the shooting.

Turn the pain and suffering from [00:31:00] this horrific traumatic event into something that could be potentially lifesaving. So over the years, Dr. Ing developed the Trauma Autoimmune Indicator Test, or TAI, and this is a blood test that looks at trauma induced inflammation in its connection to PTSD. So cool. Dr.

Ing and his business partner Army veteran John Schmidt, began investigating the long-term health effects of trauma, particularly the autoimmune disorders that seem to emerge in many survivors, including Dr. Ing himself. After experiencing PTSD, osteoarthritis and other health issues, they dove deep into understanding how trauma affects the body biologically, and this research ultimately led to the creation of the TI test.

So this test measures inflammation in the blood, a known marker for PTSD and other trauma related conditions such as autoimmune disorders and chronic pain. In fact, the test could really be a game changer for both veterans and civilian survivors of traumatic events, and it helps to identify the [00:32:00] physical impact of psychological trauma, potentially leading to earlier intervention and better outcomes.

Dr. Ing and Schmidt have been working tirelessly to get this test available to the public, and it was released just a couple of months ago in April of 2025. The cost of the test is $225, and while it is a new tool in the mental health and medical field, they hope it will eventually be covered by insurance and become just a standard part of annual health screenings.

Just much like a cholesterol test would be. This development is a full circle moment for both Dr. Ing and John Schmidt, who both experienced the effect of trauma firsthand. And their work is all about turning that trauma into something positive, helping others, and avoiding future suffering. It's really incredible to see how they've taken this horrific event and been able to use it to make changes for so many people.

Um, when talking about mental health and trauma and healing, I just think it's fascinating because. Autoimmune disorders in general, like they talk about stress being like a huge [00:33:00] factor in it. But if you think of like the ultimate stress would be, you know, I don't know, PTSD, that's like the ultimate. So it makes sense why so many people would come outta these events and have.

Autoimmune issues that they just didn't have before. So to me it's really fascinating that they're actually looking at the root cause and maybe being able to do something to block it or just to help people understand, or even if you, if you have this and you see that, you have this like indicator or whatever to know what you can do to help prevent it or what signs to look for.

I don't know. I just thought that was really incredible. Yeah, yeah, definitely is for sure. Well, thank you guys so much for listening to the updates this week. We will be back next Thursday with a new story. Have a great week everyone. Bye.