Sometimes people do things that to us seem unimaginable and when this happens we try to find answers to the always present question, "Why?" that makes sense to us. The truth is sometimes life just doesn't make sense.
David Crowley, his wife Komel, and their 5 year-old daughter Rani were found dead in their Minnesota home on January 17, 2015. According to reports, friends and neighbours hadn't heard from the family since around Christmas, a fact that I personally find just as disturbing as the deaths themselves.
There are two stories now circulating about what happened to this family. The first, documented by the Medical Examiner and Police, is that this was a murder-suicide. The second is that it was murder, conspired by the Government to stop the production & release of the filmmaker's anti-establishment movie, "Gray State".
I'm all for conspiracy theories. I like it when people think outside the box, and I don't believe that we should always take "their" word for it when our guts are telling us something different. Any type of theory provokes thought and sometimes change. I do believe conspiracies exist, and that there are many things our Governments do that are hidden from us. History has proven this to us. However, with what I have read and seen so far I cannot believe this is one of them. My opinion is that it seems much more plausible that this was a murder-suicide. Of course, being one with the "Establishment" I guess I would think that way, right? Well, even us law-abiding citizens get to have opinions so let me continue.
David Crowley was an American screenwriter and producer of his own independent film, "Gray State". I watched the original trailer for this movie and must admit he was extremely talented. This trailer made me want to watch the movie, although I'd probably need to hide my eyes through most of it. I'm not much into gore, but for a good movie I will stomach it. The movie is about what could happen to America after the turmoil of war, geological disaster, and economical collapse. It paints a picture of an emerging totalitarian Government state in America and the fighting of its people against it. A tag line for the movie is, "The Second American Revolution... May not be remembered". It's a great concept, but not necessarily unique. There are many Hollywood films out there that have already depicted a collapse of society and a Government trying to take control whether that be from a natural disaster, viral outbreak, or even things less believable like aliens or zombies taking over the earth. As a teenager I began writing a story with a somewhat similar premise, however in my story the "New World" Government was promoting "anarchy" as a means to control society. I stopped writing it because it began to sound too "1984" to me and I figured I'd leave George Orwell with the classic. That's not to say what David Crowley was creating didn't have any validity. What makes a great movie or story is not necessarily that it's unique, but how well it's written and whether or not it can draw an audience. From the trailer it seems it could have done this. Although set in the future, during a time we cannot possible conceive, it is believable! What I find hard to believe however is that he and his family would be murdered over a film which is more "futuristic" than it is "documentary". There have been so many that have come before him, and none were murdered over it.
David Crowley was also an Iraq war veteran and Airsoft enthusiast (which is sort of like paintball but the guns are realistic and the pellets don't splatter you with paint). I have also seen reports stating he was a gun enthusiast and have seen pictures of him with guns (although I know nothing about guns so far all I know these could be airsoft rifles, but regardless they are still guns). One of the theories people are suggesting is that he was murdered because of his "anti-war" beliefs. I'm not getting the feeling that he really had these beliefs. I can understand a veteran coming back from war overseas developing a hatred for war. I can't even imagine the horrible things they must experience. However, if I hated something so much it's inconceivable to me that I could then go on and love the things that represent it, such as guns or a game that mimics war.
My reasons for believing it was suicide go way beyond this. Gray State began it's inception in 2010, and although Crowley has eluded many times since then that it was well on its way it really wasn't. An email he sent to a prospective producer on Dec. 17 confirmed that his backers were backing out, and he seemed frustrated writing that he was "exhausted from carrying and managing this burden for so many years." He mentions in many of his Facebook posts that he is pretty well carrying this project on his own. I don't know what it takes to make a movie, but based on what he had done to date, I know it must have cost a lot of money. Besides the filming of the trailer there are a lot of promotional products that were created. It looks like he poured everything he had financially into the making of this film. And it's also obvious that he poured everything he had emotionally into it as well. The following two posts are from his Facebook page in June.
David Crowley
June 30, 2014 ·
Last weekend's trip to LA to visit friends and talk shop with producers may just shake the country up, because for the first time I feel like I'm connecting with the people who will take Gray State from amateur to pro. Things are gonna start to move fast now.
David Crowley
June 27, 2014 ·
The Gray State press kit is updated, my pitch is in order, I've got on my shiny shoes, and I'm packing my bags. This weekend is going to change my life forever.
How devastating it must have been for him to realize a few months later that the excitement he had was all in vain. If you follow his Facebook posts after June you do get the feeling that things were going downhill for the man. There were no more optimistic posts about Gray State which seemed to be a theme on his page for a very long time prior. One of his last posts is very telling of the pain he must have been experiencing.
David Crowley
October 24, 2014 ·
I've had more servings of absinthe this week than I've had meals, and the balance of life, work, family have never been more balanced.
I reject your notions of sanity and supplant my own.
Is there a reason why consuming more alcohol than food during the course of a full week would help balance your life? If I were to read between the lines I'd see this as a cry for help. He wrote on his page every month during 2014 but his last post was November 9th and that was only to change his profile picture. I understand people who knew him well would not see this. They will say, "There's no way he would have killed himself or his family. He was such a fun, great, optimistic guy". They will say, "He was so smart, so driven, so calm, so easy-going." They will describe him with only the best attributes a human can possess. Perhaps it's the stigma that suicide still holds in our society that makes them fail to realize that you can be, or seem to be, all of these things and still suffer from depression. Heck, you can seem to be all of these things and be a serial killer. Depression is not something that is stamped on someone's forehead. It's not always visible. The majority of people who suffer with depression in their lifetimes do not seek help. The majority of people who commit suicide do not talk about it beforehand. That's why it is sometimes referred to as "the silent killer".
Thankfully I have so far known only one person who had taken their own life. The news came as a shock to me. In all the time that I knew him he never said a negative word about anything. He was fun-loving, easy-going and always smiling. He was the last person in the world I'd ever think would commit suicide but his death changed my perception on the issue. It's very difficult for people, especially ones who have lived most of their lives with optimism, to talk about their problems. They see their problems as failures, not challenges, and they don't want anyone to know that they have failed. There is the saying "What happens behind closed doors" for a reason. We really don't know what was happening in that house during the months leading up to their deaths. What happy couples project to the world isn't always the whole and honest truth. What is known is that Gray State was at a standstill and his other business, The Bullet Exchange, went out of business in July. David Crowley could not have been feeling very successful at this point in his life.
In closing, I am also dumb-founded by the comments made from people who can't believe that no one found their bodies for weeks, despite the fact that there were packages piling up outside their door, and that the curtains in the living room where their bodies were found were wide open. Does everyone out there live in "Whoville?" I see more people on a daily basis that don't want to get involved in other people's problems than ones who do. Yes, I find this fact very sad but in today's world it makes perfect sense to me that this would happen. And what I find even more sad is the fact that I can also see, depending on how much press this conspiracy theory gets, that Hollywood will open their eyes and now see this as a money-making possibility.
Ah, Capitalism. Isn't it great?
David Crowley, his wife Komel, and their 5 year-old daughter Rani were found dead in their Minnesota home on January 17, 2015. According to reports, friends and neighbours hadn't heard from the family since around Christmas, a fact that I personally find just as disturbing as the deaths themselves.
There are two stories now circulating about what happened to this family. The first, documented by the Medical Examiner and Police, is that this was a murder-suicide. The second is that it was murder, conspired by the Government to stop the production & release of the filmmaker's anti-establishment movie, "Gray State".
I'm all for conspiracy theories. I like it when people think outside the box, and I don't believe that we should always take "their" word for it when our guts are telling us something different. Any type of theory provokes thought and sometimes change. I do believe conspiracies exist, and that there are many things our Governments do that are hidden from us. History has proven this to us. However, with what I have read and seen so far I cannot believe this is one of them. My opinion is that it seems much more plausible that this was a murder-suicide. Of course, being one with the "Establishment" I guess I would think that way, right? Well, even us law-abiding citizens get to have opinions so let me continue.
David Crowley was an American screenwriter and producer of his own independent film, "Gray State". I watched the original trailer for this movie and must admit he was extremely talented. This trailer made me want to watch the movie, although I'd probably need to hide my eyes through most of it. I'm not much into gore, but for a good movie I will stomach it. The movie is about what could happen to America after the turmoil of war, geological disaster, and economical collapse. It paints a picture of an emerging totalitarian Government state in America and the fighting of its people against it. A tag line for the movie is, "The Second American Revolution... May not be remembered". It's a great concept, but not necessarily unique. There are many Hollywood films out there that have already depicted a collapse of society and a Government trying to take control whether that be from a natural disaster, viral outbreak, or even things less believable like aliens or zombies taking over the earth. As a teenager I began writing a story with a somewhat similar premise, however in my story the "New World" Government was promoting "anarchy" as a means to control society. I stopped writing it because it began to sound too "1984" to me and I figured I'd leave George Orwell with the classic. That's not to say what David Crowley was creating didn't have any validity. What makes a great movie or story is not necessarily that it's unique, but how well it's written and whether or not it can draw an audience. From the trailer it seems it could have done this. Although set in the future, during a time we cannot possible conceive, it is believable! What I find hard to believe however is that he and his family would be murdered over a film which is more "futuristic" than it is "documentary". There have been so many that have come before him, and none were murdered over it.
David Crowley was also an Iraq war veteran and Airsoft enthusiast (which is sort of like paintball but the guns are realistic and the pellets don't splatter you with paint). I have also seen reports stating he was a gun enthusiast and have seen pictures of him with guns (although I know nothing about guns so far all I know these could be airsoft rifles, but regardless they are still guns). One of the theories people are suggesting is that he was murdered because of his "anti-war" beliefs. I'm not getting the feeling that he really had these beliefs. I can understand a veteran coming back from war overseas developing a hatred for war. I can't even imagine the horrible things they must experience. However, if I hated something so much it's inconceivable to me that I could then go on and love the things that represent it, such as guns or a game that mimics war.
My reasons for believing it was suicide go way beyond this. Gray State began it's inception in 2010, and although Crowley has eluded many times since then that it was well on its way it really wasn't. An email he sent to a prospective producer on Dec. 17 confirmed that his backers were backing out, and he seemed frustrated writing that he was "exhausted from carrying and managing this burden for so many years." He mentions in many of his Facebook posts that he is pretty well carrying this project on his own. I don't know what it takes to make a movie, but based on what he had done to date, I know it must have cost a lot of money. Besides the filming of the trailer there are a lot of promotional products that were created. It looks like he poured everything he had financially into the making of this film. And it's also obvious that he poured everything he had emotionally into it as well. The following two posts are from his Facebook page in June.
David Crowley
June 30, 2014 ·
Last weekend's trip to LA to visit friends and talk shop with producers may just shake the country up, because for the first time I feel like I'm connecting with the people who will take Gray State from amateur to pro. Things are gonna start to move fast now.
David Crowley
June 27, 2014 ·
The Gray State press kit is updated, my pitch is in order, I've got on my shiny shoes, and I'm packing my bags. This weekend is going to change my life forever.
How devastating it must have been for him to realize a few months later that the excitement he had was all in vain. If you follow his Facebook posts after June you do get the feeling that things were going downhill for the man. There were no more optimistic posts about Gray State which seemed to be a theme on his page for a very long time prior. One of his last posts is very telling of the pain he must have been experiencing.
David Crowley
October 24, 2014 ·
I've had more servings of absinthe this week than I've had meals, and the balance of life, work, family have never been more balanced.
I reject your notions of sanity and supplant my own.
Is there a reason why consuming more alcohol than food during the course of a full week would help balance your life? If I were to read between the lines I'd see this as a cry for help. He wrote on his page every month during 2014 but his last post was November 9th and that was only to change his profile picture. I understand people who knew him well would not see this. They will say, "There's no way he would have killed himself or his family. He was such a fun, great, optimistic guy". They will say, "He was so smart, so driven, so calm, so easy-going." They will describe him with only the best attributes a human can possess. Perhaps it's the stigma that suicide still holds in our society that makes them fail to realize that you can be, or seem to be, all of these things and still suffer from depression. Heck, you can seem to be all of these things and be a serial killer. Depression is not something that is stamped on someone's forehead. It's not always visible. The majority of people who suffer with depression in their lifetimes do not seek help. The majority of people who commit suicide do not talk about it beforehand. That's why it is sometimes referred to as "the silent killer".
Thankfully I have so far known only one person who had taken their own life. The news came as a shock to me. In all the time that I knew him he never said a negative word about anything. He was fun-loving, easy-going and always smiling. He was the last person in the world I'd ever think would commit suicide but his death changed my perception on the issue. It's very difficult for people, especially ones who have lived most of their lives with optimism, to talk about their problems. They see their problems as failures, not challenges, and they don't want anyone to know that they have failed. There is the saying "What happens behind closed doors" for a reason. We really don't know what was happening in that house during the months leading up to their deaths. What happy couples project to the world isn't always the whole and honest truth. What is known is that Gray State was at a standstill and his other business, The Bullet Exchange, went out of business in July. David Crowley could not have been feeling very successful at this point in his life.
In closing, I am also dumb-founded by the comments made from people who can't believe that no one found their bodies for weeks, despite the fact that there were packages piling up outside their door, and that the curtains in the living room where their bodies were found were wide open. Does everyone out there live in "Whoville?" I see more people on a daily basis that don't want to get involved in other people's problems than ones who do. Yes, I find this fact very sad but in today's world it makes perfect sense to me that this would happen. And what I find even more sad is the fact that I can also see, depending on how much press this conspiracy theory gets, that Hollywood will open their eyes and now see this as a money-making possibility.
Ah, Capitalism. Isn't it great?