After surrendering, one of the first things Pascarella Jr. asked police was, “Is he dead?” When told that he was, Pascarella Jr. said, “Thank God.”

That rage is common in patricide, a type of homicide experts say is rare and driven by a brand of anger unique to a parent-offspring relationship.

What drove Pascarella Jr., according to testimony by a police investigator in Marlborough Town Court? Pascarella Jr. told police he killed Nicholas Pascarella Sr., 67, because the father sexually abused him and other family members.

“I don’t think anything causes as much rage as intimate betrayal,” said David A. Crenshaw, a psychologist and clinical director at the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie. “When you’re betrayed in one way or another by the people you look to, to protect you and love you and take care of you, that causes an extreme form of anger.”

Pascarella Jr., 39, of Clintondale, has been charged with second-degree murder in the incident, according to police. He also is charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the Dec. 27 incident.

“There is plenty of research to suggest,” Crenshaw said, “in the case of young offenders who murder parents, abuse is often involved.”

The office of the Ulster County Public Defender, which represents Pascarella Jr., could not be reached for comment. The next step in the legal process will be for a date to be set for a grand jury to start hearing the case. Pascarella Jr. remains in Ulster County Jail without bail.

“Parricide, although it technically refers to the killing of a close relative, has become increasingly identified… with the killing of one or both parents,” according to “Parricide: An Empirical Analysis of 24 Years of U.S. Data,” a study published in 2007 in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. The term patricide refers to the killings of fathers; matricide refers to the killings of mothers.

Between 1976 and 1999, there were 5,558 patricide-related offenders — an average of about 241 annually, according to the study, authored by Kathleen M. Heide of the University of South Florida and Thomas A. Petee of Auburn University. In those cases, there were 5,781 patricide victims. The study utilized FBI homicide data from 1976 to 1999 covering 452,965 victims and 500,946 offenders — representing about 92 percent of the approximate number of homicides nationally in that span.

“To reach homicidal proportions,” Crenshaw said, “we’re talking about a very rare event.”

Joseph Perl of Pleasant Valley, a clinical psychologist, said the emotional dimensions framed by sexual abuse and parricide are incredibly complex.

Regarding the emotions that sexual abuse triggers in victims, Perl said, “It’s very difficult to know what to do with these feelings.”

He said a victim of sexual abuse can become “so overwhelmed with guilt and shame and anger,” fail to seek out professional help and then “start having fantasies” of harming the perpetrator. “And,” Perl continued, “the fantasies become all too real and all too powerful and... they just can’t stop themselves. It all becomes out of control.”

John W. Barry: jobarry@poughkeepsie journal.com, 845-437-4822, Twitter: @JohnBarryPoJo

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