The Associated Press
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Police investigating the gruesome murder of a woman and her two children are getting some emotional support on the job.
Police Chief John Jaskolka has invited a special team to help his officers deal with what they saw when they discovered the bodies of Tricia Doyle and her two children stabbed to death at a home on Johnson Street Oct. 4.
Christopher Bernard, Doyle’s brother, has been charged with their murders, and police say he has confessed.
The critical incident debriefing team includes police officers, social workers and psychologists trained to help people talk about traumatic events, Jaskolka told the New Hampshire Sunday News.
Jaskolka said the investigation has been hard on his detectives because many of them have young children of their own.
The murdered children, 4-year-old Gillian and 2-year-old James Doyle, were stabbed multiple times.
Jaskolka said he could tell the deaths had deeply affected his officers the first night of the investigation.
“They were very quiet. There was little conversation. You knew they had seen a sight that really bothered them,” he said.
The debriefing team has been available to police departments around the state for the past 15 years, Jaskolka said, but this is the first time the Manchester police have asked for its help.
Former police Chief Louis Craig agrees this type of crime can be devastating for officers to investigate.
“People think police officers, because of the nature of their work, they don’t have emotions. They have tremendous emotions,” Craig said.
A child’s murdered body is as disturbing a sight as any officer can encounter, Jaskolka said.