I am a 41 year old woman who grew up with a psychopathic brother named Mike. Mike died of AIDS in 1996. I am very glad he is dead.

One sibling is now a multiple personality due to his years of rape and torture. I have post traumatic stress disorder.

Mike never spent a day in jail even though he committed hundreds of crimes. My father normally helped talk him out of trouble with the law. My father minimized Mike's behavior. I testified against Mike in one assault against me, for which I was manipulated to ask the magistrate for a minimal fine ($1 plus court costs).

The worst part of having a psychopathic brother was that he charmed, manipulated and intimidated the family into his web of lies. Every single one of us learned to think two things at the same time, the truth and his lie related to the truth. To this day if someone says something to scare me, I detach from the situation from years of detaching when Mike was talking.

I am twice divorced. My siblings never married. Of the five original children in my family, I am the only one to have had a child. I fear I will never have a healthy relationship.

My mother died and my father has remarried. My father appears to have gone about his life as if he did not have a psychopathic son who ruined the lives of his other children. My father lives in a permanent state of denial and emotional unavailability. My earliest memories of my father were of a different man, a man before my psychopathic brother had altered the family. My father was involved in my life when I was young. He enjoyed spending time with me. After a certain point, though, he escaped the family through work.

Due to also having multiple sclerosis, I lack the financial resources to seek proper counseling so that I can lead a productive life. The horror invades my awareness in the form of flashbacks and night terrors. I have a pervasive sense of keeping memories at bay that are more horrible than I can bear to face. I have a cold, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I witnessed something really horrible.

I want Mike's surviving victims and the family of his dead victims to have closure. It weighs heavily upon me that there are people who do not know who killed or raped a family member. How do get someone in law enforcement to investigate Mike with him being deceased? Will contacting law enforcement hurt my sister who is damaged so badly from what Mike did to her?

Hi HowManyVictims

I am so sorry that your lives have been devastated in this way. It is far more difficult to overcome things that have happened in your childhood than it is to come to terms with the same kind of things if they happen to you as an adult.

Is there no free counselling service in your area? If there is not an official one, many churches offer a counselling service. I think that would really help you; there must be so many things that you need to be able to let out and discuss with someone who can help you to put them in perspective, and free you to get on with your life. He/she would be able to give you some advice on how best to help your family as well.

What would you hope to achieve with law enforcement agents? I think it is unlikely that they would do anything constructive at this stage. But again this is something a counsellor may be able to give you advice on.

I do hope that you can get some help, and also that this forum will help you.

Best regards