When a Parental Alienator Murders her child before Allowing Targeted Parent to have Custodial Rights

Father Pushing For ‘Eryk’s Law’ After Son’s Murder At Hands Of Ex-Wife January 5, 2012 10:47 PM By Jack Fink SACHSE (CBSDFW.COM) – All Rod McCall can do is take comfort in the memories he had with his 7-year-old son Eryk. “That’s what I remember. Just a happy go lucky kid. When he was with me, we had a good time.” Those good times were cut short in October. McCall’s estranged wife Karen shot and killed their son, then herself at their home in Sachse. Only an hour before, a jury awarded McCall sole custody following a bitter battle in which McCall was accused of abusing his son, but cleared of any wrongdoing. Mccall says, “My attorney said Rod, go get your son. Go now.” He says Eryk wasn’t at school that day, but home with his grandparents. So McCall says he got to the house as quickly as possible and knocked on the door. “I was hoping to avoid a confrontation.” While still standing at the front door, McCall says he remembers seeing Karen’s parents walk across the street. “That’s when I heard the gunshots. Police tell us to get down, and I’m just standing there mortified.” McCall says a week before their custody trial, he warned his attorney something like this could happen. “I wish I had asked that she not be allowed to leave the courtroom until Eryk was safe.” Now, nearly three months later, McCall is on a mission to create a new state law, named after his son. “I want to try to make Eryk’s death mean something by changing the way in which once a case goes before a judge or jury, that children can be protected in a way they don’t suffer like Eryk did.” McCall contacted the office of State Representative Stefani Carter of Dallas about his proposal. In a statement to CBS 11, Carter says she is “Currently researching whether there can be a legislative solution to prevent such a tragedy from happening to another family.” McCall says they’ve raised money to make pins calling for Eryk’s law. He says he appreciates all of the cards and letters he’s received from his former high school students, and even strangers from other states. But he says it is still difficult to get through the dark days. “I was looking forward to teaching him how to play ball, cub scouts, teaching him all the things my dad taught me, and now, I don’t get to.” McCall says he has set up the Eryk McCall Memorial Fund at the American National Bank in Wylie and Sachse. He says the money raised will help him make up for the costs associated with funeral expenses.