Terry Lawlor is the mentally ill grandson of financial and political influencer Carl Anderton, and the murderer of his baby half-sister Diane Lawlor.
History[]
Terry developed a worsening bipolar disorder which he inherited from Anderson, who was always embarrassed and vulnerable from his problems he buried to protect his professional life. Terry couldn’t hide his issues, badly enough that his previous prep school, Selwyn Academy, saw him withdraw from a race for student council from hearing voices in the walls telling him his opponents planted spies throughout the race.
Terry’s guardianship was under Anderton, out of his own conceit and shame from his hidden bipolar disorder and to be in control of the family. Terry’s father Roy had a drinking problem, so he and Terry’s mother Elaine divorced, and while Roy remarried, Terry lived with Anderson and Elaine. When Roy had Diane, nicknamed Didi, with his new wife Sandra, Terry became jealous for his father’s affections, which translated from his bipolar disorder signs into nearly crushing Diane in his arms when he held her and erratic phone calls to Roy that Diane was keeping Terry and Roy apart.
Terry had a paranoid episode, where he believed a demon possessed Roy into drinking and Diane was a strong connection to the demon. Reading that indigenous American rituals involved fires to exorcise of demons, Terry started a fire in Roy’s apartment while he was passed out drunk. The fire got out of control, and Diane died. Roy took the blame, no penalties coming to him from the assumption it was an accident from a cigarette butt. Terry assumed he solved the problem when Roy got himself into rehab. He eventually placed a call meant for Roy giving a confession to the murder in hopes Roy would understand. However, Roy moved out of the apartment, so when a new tenant brought a woman home, she heard the message and reported it to the police.
After Roy was identified as the last resident and Terry was figured for the crime, Terry was recorded in a sting, but his voice matchup was inconclusive. When a former nanny, Irish citizen Grace Killeen, told the police she found one of Terry’s smoky shirts in a Salvation Army bag, the detectives arrested him. Anderson barred every chance of Terry getting psychiatric help, convincing the judge Terry was sane and have his lawyer shut up any questioning about Terry’s state of mind. When Anderton’s own bipolar disorder became evident, the prosecution realized he was covering for himself more than for Terry, even with a manslaughter plea. Elaine stepped in with Schiff, Anderton’s friend and political partner, and Anderton decompensated enough he was in no state to resist any longer. Terry was encouraged to testify to the crime, admitting his delusions and that he told Anderton, who buried all the evidence effective immediately.
Terry was remanded to psychiatric custody and institutionalized for proper treatment. (L&O: “Burned”