Joe Sutter is the father of Michael Sutter, a boy with quadriplegia after a car accident where Joe was behind the wheel. Joe was briefly suspected when Michael was murdered.
Background[]
Joe and Michael were driving back from skiing and slid in their car from black ice. The accident paralyzed Michael severely, but Joe gave him CPR and saved his life. Michael was left nearly vegetative and needing special care, badly enough Joe had to work overtime at his job at a garden depot and his wife Lois had to quit her job to care for Michael. The family was both devastated and strained, with Michael's sister and the couple's other child Stephanie becoming rebellious and Lois taking up dancing and having an affair with her instructor. Joe reportedly said drunkenly at a bar that he wished he never saved Michael with the state her and his family were left in.
Burden[]
Michael suffocated to death and was presumed to have been killed before the paramedics were called by someone in his house. Joe came under scrutiny with the rest of his family as suspects, especially after the account of Joe's statement when he was drunk. Michael was determined to have been poisoned by hemlock, which was sold at the garden depot. Despite flimsy evidence, Joe was still arrested and arraigned.
It was revealed Dr. Lyle Semenko, the physician on Michael's case, was the real murderer, and a serial killer of dozens more patients. Joe was called to testify when Michael was taken to trial. He had to answer to his family being dissolved and their despair to the point his daughter lost her college fund to pay for Michael's medical expenses. Joe insisted he lamented Michael was still dead even though he lamented Michael was barely alive before he was murdered and never wanted him to die.
Semenko was convicted on manslaughter two and remanded of sentencing. Joe and Lois were revealed to have set up Michael's murder by luring Semenko to Michael. Joe personally requested Semenko, and Lois previously worked at Bergen County Clinic, where Semenko committed several murders. It's unknown if the parents were penalized.