Posted on Sat, Sep. 3, 2011
Leonard Egland came home from Iraq in 2009 a changed man, his slain wife's attorney says.
And not for the better.
Within a year of his return to Fort Lee, Va., the Army captain and his wife were seeking a divorce. He was seeing a psychiatrist, court records show, and was prescribed medication for unspecified mental problems.
Above all, he was obsessed by a belief that Carrie Egland, his wife of 14 years, had been unfaithful, according to her lawyer, Rick Friedman.
"We really don't know where that came from," Friedman said, adding that he knew of no infidelity in the marriage. "The important thing was that he believed it was true."
The extent of Leonard Egland's jealous rage has continued to emerge since last weekend, when his multistate rampage left five people dead, including his estranged wife, her mother, and himself.
On the evening of Aug. 26, authorities say, he shot and killed Carrie Egland, 36; a male friend of hers; and the friend's 7-year-old son in the suburban home the couple owned near Richmond, Va.
The next day, he surfaced in Bucks County with the couple's 6-year-old daughter, Lauryn. He shot his mother-in-law to death in her Buckingham Township house, abandoned Lauryn at a Quakertown hospital, wounded two police officers in a midnight shootout in Doylestown, and killed himself hours later in Warwick Township.
But police say they believe Egland, 37, had even more targets. Among them was a Bucks County man whom Carrie Egland, a Doylestown native, had dated two decades ago, beginning when both were students at Central Bucks High School East.
That man, William Brower, probably "dodged a bullet" when Egland was unable to find him Saturday, District Attorney David Heckler said. "The people [Egland] was looking for up here, he was looking to kill."
Just after 11 a.m. Saturday, Egland had called Brower from a Wawa store on Route 313 in Hilltown Township, trying to confirm his address, police said.
Egland borrowed a store phone to call Brower's cellphone, police said. He claimed to be a Doylestown police officer investigating a hit-and-run accident from the night before.
Egland asked Brower to confirm the address of a house Brower owns about four miles up the road from the Wawa in East Rockhill Township. Brower did so, and Egland said police would call back if they had further questions, Pennridge Regional Police Officer Tim Maloney said.
Police do not know whether Egland, who was in the store with his daughter, then drove to the house. Brower no longer lives there, and a friend who rents it had gone elsewhere for the day because of Hurricane Irene's approach.
Why Egland would have gone after Brower isn't clear. Brower did not return calls seeking comment.
According to Maloney, Brower described himself and Carrie Egland as "high school sweethearts" who had kept in touch by phone over the years and whose mothers remained friends.
"He considered Carrie a friend," Maloney said, "but there was no kind of love triangle or reconciliation going on that Mr. Brower revealed to me."
But irrational jealousy had long overtaken Leonard Egland, his wife's lawyer said.
"Regardless of what triggered his mental illness - and there are many factors, I'm sure - this is a case of someone who is not getting the mental health help that he needed," Friedman said. "I don't think we can blame the military, Carrie, the child, or him for it. He was a charming guy who just wasn't able to get the help he needed."
Testimony in their divorce suggested that Egland, having previously served in Somalia and Afghanistan, pulled especially dangerous duties on his last tour of duty in Iraq, Friedman said.
"He was on a select team, a small squad whose job was to clear buildings, which sometimes meant knocking the door in and removing the enemy," the lawyer said.
In addition, Friedman said, a fellow soldier had convinced Egland that his wife had been unfaithful to him. When Egland returned, he could not get past those suspicions, the lawyer said, and the couple sought a divorce last fall.
In court filings, Egland denied having post-traumatic stress disorder, but he acknowledged being under psychiatric care and being prescribed medication. Heckler said Carrie Egland's family believed he had bipolar disorder but often did not take his medicine.
Friedman and police say they don't know what specifically set Egland off last week.
When he turned up at the Hilltown Wawa with his daughter Saturday morning, he seemed "polite and normal," assistant manager Joyce Forsyth recalled.
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