James Barrett, PhD

The recent murder of Lauren Astley, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend Nate Fujita, has professionals and talking heads alike wondering how something like this could have happened.  Questions swirl such as “could it have been prevented?” “were there warning signs?” and “what can we learn from this?”  I have been reading Baron-Cohen’s book “The Science of Evil: on Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty” and he posits that  a lack of empathy or “zero empathy” is at the root of “evil” actions.  This has lead me to wonder what happened for Nate Fujita that his empathy for his former girlfriend eroded to the point where he could violently and brutally take her life?  Was it a gradual process or a rapid change?  Did he plan to kill her that night when they met?  Could anyone have intervened?  Friends are now saying that they noticed he was more angry and withdrawn after the couple broke up in the Spring.   Could his empathy been restored?  I don’t know if we will ever find the answers to these questions, but perhaps even small clues or insights could help us better recognize possible precursors to deadly relationship violence in teens.  For now though, a community and families must have time to mourn this terribly sad loss.