AA member Nancy Franzen’s daughter Julia Franzen has been arrested in her murder. Julia Franzen had a history of arrests and mental problems. This is such a tragic story. Even though I do not know if Julia Franzen was mandated to AA for her arrests, I do know that her Mother was very involved in Alcoholics Anonymous. After reading this story I could not help but wonder what led up to this? True the daughter was very troubled indeed. Did her Mom being an AA member impact this very volatile situation in a positive or negative way? AA is known for telling people not to take their meds, and look poorly on the professional mental health community. They also are known for encouraging people to look at their part in it, and going through confessions.
Did the fact that Nancy Franzen was an AA member help or hurt her and her family in the end? R.I.P. Nancy Franzer.
Sebastopol woman accused of killing mom had history of arrests
Published: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 7:07 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 7:07 p.m.
A Sebastopol woman suspected of stabbing her mother to death made her first court appearance Wednesday, whispering “I love you” to someone in the audience before blurting out statements to the judge.
Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite warned Julia Katherine Franzen, 24, that she was charged with killing her mother, former Palm Drive Hospital nurse Nancy Franzen, 59, and that anything she said could be used against her in the murder case.
Still, Franzen, who authorities said has a history of mental illness, kept talking, offering up a fragmented statement that sounded vaguely like a confession to some spectators in the audience.
“After being abused it just didn’t make sense for me to go through it the normal way,” Franzen said. It was unclear exactly what she meant.
Neither her lawyer, George Boisseau, nor any of the half-dozen people who came to see her would comment outside court. Her next court date is Feb. 11.
Franzen was arrested Monday at her mother’s Tocchini Street home. A neighbor reported Franzen had a knife in her bloody hands and had admitted killing someone, authorities said. Deputies found her mother’s body on a bedroom floor. A trail of blood in the home showed Nancy Franzen was attacked in one room and followed through others before she collapsed, Sheriff’s Lt. Dennis O’Leary said.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday.
The mother and daughter moved into the house about 15 years ago, neighbors said. Julia Franzen graduated from Analy High School in 2006 and had a daughter. They lived with Nancy Franzen for a period of time.
Nancy Franzen worked at Palm Drive as a medical-surgical nurse sometime before 2007 and was active in local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, according to friends and former colleagues.
“She did her job very well and tried to have a smile doing it,” said Lori Semmelmeyer, a Palm Drive emergency employee. Semmelmeyer said she knew the woman had ongoing problems with her daughter. Local police officers had been called out to the home many times, she said. Semmelmeyer and Nancy Franzen often sought advice from a Sebastopol police officer who stopped by the hospital to drop off patients.
“He knew a lot of us had troubles with our teenagers,” she said.
Nancy Franzen did everything she could to help Julia and her granddaughter, including building her an apartment unit on the property, Semmelmeyer said.
“When Nancy would try to talk to her she would never get just a logical answer,” Semmelmeyer said. “The daughter was always over the top. She built her an apartment, but she would say, ‘That’s just not enough.’”
Deputies said they were dispatched to the house several times over the past two years on domestic violence calls in which Julia Franzen was the suspect.
Court records show Franzen was convicted in a March 2011 assault on her mother and sentenced to two years’ probation. The judge, Thistlethwaite, issued a stay-away order from her mother’s house. Later that year, she served six months in jail for vandalism and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. A male victim received a restraining order against her.
A judge sentenced Franzen to 90 days in jail last year for violating the order and obstructing officers. She had another violation in August but was released on credit for time already served. Over the past two years, court records show Franzen was ordered to take medication and was examined by court psychologists, who had mixed views on her mental competence. The last doctor to look at her in March found she was mentally fit.
Franzen is certain to be examined again. Criminal proceedings will likely be suspended until the court can make a finding of whether she can assist in her own defense.
She could later mount an insanity defense that could send her to a state mental institution until she is restored. She would go to prison for 25 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder.
At Nancy Franzen’s Tocchini Street home on Wednesday, friends and neighbors stopped by to drop off flowers and cards at a makeshift memorial on the steps of her front porch. One card read, “We are so sorry you had to go that way. She knows not what she did. May you rest in peace in a better place.”
Several visitors said they were fellow members of a local Alcoholics Anonymous group and they had just come over from a meeting. They said Nancy Franzen had been an AA member for several years and described her as a “happy” person who was “enjoying her life.”
“She seemed to be in a really good mood around the holidays,” said one fellow AA member, who asked that his name not be used. The AA member said Franzen had recently made “pink cloud” cookies and cupcakes to celebrate the fact that she was in a good state.
Another fellow AA member said she was in contact with Franzen’s sister and that she was not yet willing to speak to the media because she was still “in a state of shock.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify a quote attributed to murder suspect Julia Franzen. According to a Sonoma County Superior Court transcript, Franzen was speaking in the present tense when she made the following statement in court: “I’m being abused. It doesn’t make any sense for me to go through it the normal way.” An earlier version of this story presented her statement as in the past tense: “After being abused, it just didn’t make sense for me to go through it the normal way.”
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130206/ARTICLES/130209699/1033/news?p=all&tc=pgall&tc=ar
Daughter Covered in Blood Said She Had Killed someone
Posted: Monday, February 4, 2013
by David Abbott Sonoma West Editor
Upon arrival, Sheriff’s Deputies called into the house and eventually Franzen exited, unarmed and with blood on her hands and clothing.
She was subsequently taken into custody while deputies went into the house and found another woman dead on a bedroom floor.
The deceased woman, identified as Nancy Franzen, 59, had injuries consistant with stabbing, according to Lt. Dennis O’Leary from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Julia Franzen was living with the victim, who was her mother.
“There were multiple areas of the house where the crime occurred,” O’Leary said. “It was a bloody crime scene and we’re still investigating the motive.”
Franzen was placed under arrest for suspicion of homicide and is in the process of being booked into Sonoma County jail
BY CLARK MASON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
March 21, 2014, 8:23PM
Case against Sebastopol woman accused of killing mother moves forward
Criminal proceedings were reinstated Friday against a Sebastopol woman accused of stabbing her mother to death.
Julia Franzen, 25, was given a new court date to enter a plea in the death of Nancy Franzen, 59, who was killed in her Tocchini Road home on Feb. 4, 2013.
Police arrested the daughter after witnesses reported seeing her outside the home carrying a knife with blood covering her hands.
Franzen was initially charged with murder, but she was declared incompetent to stand trial.
The determination came after she made bizarre statements at initial court hearings and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Following a six-month stay at Napa State Hospital, Franzen was found competent, meaning essentially that she understands the nature of the charges against her and what the court process is, said her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Tyler Hicks.
On Friday, she appeared to be much calmer than in previous court appearances, observers noted, and not as thin as before. Sitting handcuffed in a wheelchair, she smiled briefly at Judge Jaime Thistlethwaite.
Hicks said outside the courtroom Friday she had improved through medical treatment, “but she is a mentally ill person.”
He said it is possible she may enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Her next court appearance is set for April 4.
Franzen, a 2006 Analy High School graduate, lived with her mother for about 15 years at the Tocchini Street residence, which is just outside the northern Sebastopol city limits.
Nancy Franzen had worked as a medical-surgical nurse at Palm Drive Hospital and also worked at Sutter-VNA & Hospice in Santa Rosa.
Friends said she had ongoing problems with Julia, who has a 5-year-old daughter. Nancy Franzen built an apartment unit on the property for her daughter and tried to help her and her granddaughter, friends said.
Sheriff’s deputies said they were dispatched several times over a two-year period on domestic violence calls in which Julia Franzen was the suspect.
She was convicted three years ago of assaulting her mother and sentenced to two years probation. Judge Thistlethwaite also ordered her to stay away from her mother’s house.
Later in 2011 she served six months in jail for vandalism and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. A male victim obtained a restraining order against her.
Authorities said the evidence suggests she chased her mother through her house, attacking her with a knife before the mother collapsed in a bedroom.
Investigators found a large kitchen knife believed used in the attack.
(You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.)
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/1859486-181/case-against-sebastopol-woman-accused?page=0
JULIA FRANZEN OF SEBASTOPOL EXAMINED BY A PSYCHOLOGIST IF SHE IS MENTALLY COMPETENT OF MURDER OF HER MOM NANCY FRANZEN
Published by Staff Writer on February 11, 2013
Criminal proceedings were suspended this afternoon against a Sebastopol area woman charged with the stabbing murder of her mother last week. Julia Franzen, 24, will be examined by a psychologist to determine if she is mentally competent to participate in her defense. Her next court date is March 11 in Sonoma County Superior Court. Franzen has not entered a plea to killing her mother Nancy Franzen, 59, in their Tocchini Street home on Feb. 4. Nancy Franzen’s body was found on the floor of a bedroom after Franzen showed up at a neighbor’s house with a knife and blood on her hands, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said.
Franzen told her neighbor she had just killed someone then ran back to her house, sheriff’s Lt. Steve Brown said. In court on Friday, Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite warned Franzen not to say anything as she started speaking. Moments before the distraught thin, blonde-haired defendant was taken out of court in a wheelchair, she said, “Just grow a garden, it’s the most beautiful thing you could ever do.
” “This is a very sad case for all involved,” Franzen’s attorney, Interim Sonoma County Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi said. Court records show six cases since March 2011 involving domestic violence, battery, false imprisonment, vandalism and violations of probation by Julia Franzen. During that time she was found both mentally competent and incompetent, ordered to participate in an anger management program and allowed to have peaceful contact with her mother.
Outside the courtroom, Sebastopol resident Steve Einstein, a friend of the Franzen family, said, “We were aware of Nancy’s struggles with her daughter for many years.” He said Nancy Franzen tried to get help for her daughter, but Julia resisted. “It’s a struggle every parent has when a child resists their advice,” Einstein said. Einstein said Nancy Franzen worked as a nurse at Palm Drive Hospital and at the Sutter VNA & Hospice, now known as Sutter Care at Home. Julia Franzen’s 4-year-old daughter is in the custody of her father, Einstein said.
http://www.fugitive.com/2013/02/11/julia-franzen-of-sebastopol-examined-by-a-psychologist-if-she-is-mentally-competent-of-murder-of-her-mom-nancy-franzen/
BillU- Thank God Elena was not there. What a pretty name. In hindsight it sounds like it was best the mother did not come around that much. At four years old you don’t tell them what really happened. If it were me I would probably move to where people did not know the little girls past- so kids would not be cruel to her about it. She probably could already use therapy with the arratic relationship with her Mom.
I bet the Father was glad that he made it out of their relationship alive! Do you know what his reaction is to all of this?
I reread the article and see she worked as a surgical nurse before 2007. That is 5 years ago! Had she worked at all since? Usually getting a job as a nurse is not that difficult. I guess her drinking and other issues were impacting her ability to hold a job. I wonder how she was holding the fort down? Was she divorced and got help from her ex? She must of been really stressed out. I wish she would have done more to protect herself from matricide. It also sounds like she did not go quickly either as they said it happened in different parts of the house.
I haven’t spoken to the father in a while. Nancy hadn’t worked for a couple of years. She had hip replacement surgery and didn’t seem to have had a good outcome as her hips continued to bother her. She survived on disability income, but that ran out and several friends tried to help her. She had recently started submitting resumes in hope of getting back into nursing although she probably could not have physically handled a direct patient care position. I also wish she would have done more to protect herself. I wish I could have convinced her that Julia was truly dangerous. I tried several times.
Nancy had her arrested in the past and their was a court order to keep her from the house at some point. It seemed on some level she knew she was dangerous. Why do you think she allowed her to continue to abuse her?
Having hip replacement will put you out of commission awhile. But also make you more vulnerable when someone is trying to hurt you. Was it just her and her living daughter at the house?
I wonder if she put her own life in danger making amends to her daughter and feeling she had to allow her to live with her no matter her mental state? Just a thought, I’ve seen people throw away their own individual lives in most unhealthy ways in order to “make amends” to a loved one for being an alcoholic. Women with adult children seem especially ready to do this to try to overcome guilt.
BorderCollieMix- Hi There! You make a very good point. Some people espechially mothers can be very vulnerable to feel a lot of guilt when they have been an alcoholic. I can see where being in AA could exacerbate the need to make amends indefinitely. Also if a child or adult child realizes this they could take advantage of that mindset, and keep reminding the parent of their faults and could make them feel like they owe them.
Julia was known to be violent with her mother to the point of arrest and not allowed at her mothers house by court order. Yet the mother continued to allow her to stay there. If she was mentally unstable and was violent with her Mom, or threats of violence it would of been grounds for being committed to a mental institution or be rearrested. I wonder why Nancy did not have her at least arrested again. There were red flags galore. I wonder what advice her sponsor and AA friends were giving her?
So so sad.
OMG ….There is a pattern here now. Murder and AA. Im so sorry to hear this.
Nancy was a kind soul. Her involvement with AA was beneficial for her. Her daughter, Julia, is a deeply disturbed person. This tragedy was in no way related to Nancy’s AA participation. People familiar with both Nancy and Julia were stunned at the news but not surprised. Nancy made repeated attemps to get help for her daughter but our society places resources for disturbed people far down the list. In effect, this outcome is an indictment of our society and who we are.
Well I agree as a society we put mental health far down the list of priorities. It sounds like Nancy was very generous to her daughter and grand daughter. Do you know what the daughters diagnosis is? As far as AA goes though how can you be sure? Many in AA are against people taking meds for mental health reasons. They can be pretty brutal making people confess their sins and always asking them what their part in it was. If Julia was seriously mentally ill- she might not have had as much control over her actions than AA puts on members. She could be schizophrenic that was worsening as Julia got older.
Also AA is known for knocking getting professional help unless the professional help follow and promote the 12 steps. I have no idea if this happened in this case, but I can see where AA is a perfect storm for these things to happen with people not getting the help they need in AA and NA.
Nancy wanted Julia to get professional help and would not have objected to any medication. I’m not sure of Julia’s diagnosis. In this matter, AA was really a non-factor.
So Julia was not mandated to AA? Or was she mandated but refused to go? I believe she was told she had to be on meds by her probation officer.
ANOTHER ISOLATED INCIDENT?
This is a HORROR!
I am so sorry for what the mother had to go through at what appears to be the hands of her own daughter. After what I have been researching lately all kinds of possible scenarios run through my mind.
But no one knows what EXACTLY happened besides the daughter and the deceased and she can only speak through evidence now.
This is the kind of thing that so many people just do not realize is a regular part of the lives of AA and NA members across the country. Can you even imagine having to deal with the complicated adult-daughter & mother relationship impacted by duo-AA membership?
Whatever mental problems the daughter has, Julia Franzen was very likely made far worse by being in AA. If her mother was following the usual AA way…well, I just can’t imagine that it helped Julia at all. Th eoutcome would state that whatever was done to manage the daughter’s mental issues…it was not enough, or right or effective.
Nancy Franzen was a nurse. Well, we do not know the details, but that raises all types of questions.
In some places they have special meetings just for health care and/or legal professionals so that people that they have worked with will not know about their substance use issues.
I know I would not have had a chance if either of my sponsors were also my MOTHER… Oh…that would not be good IF the mother was anything like my sponsors…
But, HEY…
There is just no way to know WHAT has happened here yet.
I look forward to finding out more…
I do know…that no mother should die like that.
It is a tragic, sad shame…
It is so tragic for so many reasons. I wonder though how the mom was in such a good place mentally and being on the AA ‘pink cloud’ when your daughter is batship crazy? I am sure this had a negative impact on the little girl, too. I don’t think I could be on any pink cloud with family problems like she probably was going through leading up to this. Was her daughter supposed to be attending AA and was not? This could have caused friction among the two. She stated in court she was abused. Regardless it is no excuse to stab your mother to death, who was providing a roof over her head.
AA World Services has admitted to their members playing a role in suicides by members telling other members to not take their meds. I do not doubt that does not extend to murder as well.
The notion that Nancy was in a good place mentally is far from the truth. She had been unemployed for a long time and had serious financial problems. Her health wasn’t the best, she smoked way too much and Julia’s comings and goings created much stress in Nancy’s life. Julia had NO involvement with AA. Finally, Julia was NEVER abused by her mother and had virtually no contact with her father. Julia is subject to rapid and extreme mood swings and behavioral abnormalities, urinating around the house and other unhealthy actions.
It was this comment in the article that was saying she was in a good state and made pink cloud cookies.
“She seemed to be in a really good mood around the holidays,” said one fellow AA member, who asked that his name not be used. The AA member said Franzen had recently made “pink cloud” cookies and cupcakes to celebrate the fact that she was in a good state.”
So you are saying this was really not the case in reality that she was in a good state? That certainly would make more sense. Otherwise it would seem to reflect some sort of denial or detachment of the situation.
Just from what I am hearing sounds like Julia could be developing schizophrenia, and could have been eligible to be committed to a mental institution if she had threaten violence to her Mom or herself in the past.
I was thinking about Julia’s little girl. Where was she during the murder? Poor little thing losing her grandma and Mom.
Julia’s daughter lives with the father who has some issues himself but he is a good person. The father has custody and Julia made virtually no effort to see her daughter. I can’t imagine how you “explain” this to a four year old. Her name is Elena. Julia was arraigned today but I haven’t heard the results.