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Particulars emerge in tragic San Francisco murder-suicide involving 9-year-old

Further details came out of the murder of a nine-year-old boy from San Francisco who allegedly came from his father.

Pierce O’Loughlin, 9, and his father Stephen O’Loughlin, 49, were found dead in the Marina District on Wednesday, San Francisco police said. In the late afternoon, officials arrived at the 3800 block on Scott Street to check their well-being and discovered that both individuals had died. The police are investigating the deaths as suicide.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the check was requested from Pierce’s mother, Lesley Hu, who divorced O’Loughlin in 2016. Recently, Hu has been in the middle of a legal battle with Stephen O’Loughlin over Pierce’s health care. Lorie Nachlis, an attorney for Hu, said Stephen O’Loughlin’s untreated mental illness manifests itself in part as a paranoia about vaccinations and a general obsession with Pierce’s health.

“I think there is no denying that Pierce’s father suffered from an untreated mental illness that caused him to take his son’s life and his own life,” Nachlis said in a statement.

“Pierce was not killed because of a disagreement over a nasal congestion, and he was not killed because of a disagreement about vaccinations,” Nachlis told KRON. “He was killed for more complex reasons.”

The Chronicle reports that September 2020 court records show Hu’s growing concern over O’Loughlin’s obsession with Pierce’s health. According to a file, Hu said O’Loughlin joined a “new age support group” in 2012 and believed the government was using mind control on civilians.

“(O’Loughlin’s) attitude towards vaccinations has taken on a cultic tone,” Hu says in The Chronicle.

Hu reportedly tried to get Pierce vaccinated over his father’s objections and the couple had a future court date over the dispute.

“He punished Leslie with the ultimate act of violence and killed her child. I believe she will suffer for the rest of her life,” Nachlis told KRON.

A police investigation is still ongoing.

If you are in need, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255 or visiticidepreventionlifeline.org for more resources.

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