Police responding to a call reporting shots fired at a southeast Oklahoma City home yesterday morning discovered the body of a 15-year-old girl insidethe home, killed by a fatal gunshot. Later that day, they arrested the girl's brother, 20-year-old Patrick Brannan, on suspicion of his sister's murder.He is being held in the Oklahoma County Jail on a complaint if first degree murder. As of this writing, a judge has not set bond for the suspect.
While family violence is not rare, sibling homicide--fratricide--is relatively uncommon. FBI statistics from 2004 indicate that more nearly 77 percentof murder victims knew the person who killed them. Most of these cases involved murder by an acquaintance, but almost 30 percent of homicide victimswho knew their assailant were killed by a family member.
The predominant relationship between a murderer and victim in family homicides is the spousal relationship--predominantly wives killed by husbands. Thenext most common relationship is a child killed by his or her mother or father. These homicides frequently take the form of child abuse murder. Only7.4 percent of family murders are committed by someone other than a spouse or parent. Sibling homicides account for 18 percent of that small remainingamount--comprising roughly 1 percent of all murders.
But looking at recent cases in Oklahoma, lately, you might not think sibling homicides are all that rare. Currently, we have at least three cases involvinga brother accused of killing a sibling.
In addition to the Brannan case, where the older brother is suspected of fatally shooting his younger sister, we have the cases of Alan Hruby and Robertand Michael Bever.
Alan Hruby is the alleged shopping addict accused of killing his parents and younger sister in order to get an inheritance from his parents and to cuthis sister out of it. Hruby allegedly traveled home to Duncan from his dorm at the University of Oklahoma, killing his family, and then traveling toDallas, where he sold his OU/Texas tickets and partied at the Ritz Carlton while his parents and sister lay dead.
The Bever brothers are 15- and 18-year-old brothers accused of savagely murdering nearly their entire family in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The two brothersare accused of stabbing to death their parents and three siblings, and of attempting to kill a fourth sibling, who survived her injuries. A 2-year-oldsister was found unharmed.
The statistics regarding fratricide are somewhat out of date. With a recent rash of sibling killings in Oklahoma, it might be worth researching whetherfratricide is on the rise across the nation or if Oklahoma's cases are simply coincidental. If there is an increase in sibling homicide, it would certainlybe worth finding the root of the problem and addressing the issue.
