The Douglas County man accused of allegeldy killing his wife and infant son with a double edged sword last March has been declared incompetent to stand trial.Douglas County prosecutor Chris Wade says, "I received documentation this week pertaining to Dan Andrews competency...and at this time he has been found unfit to stand trial."
Andrews is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action in the deaths of his wife and son.
A family friend who had been living with Andrews and his wife, Mary Lee Burchell, and their 9-month-old son Taylor called police in the early morning hours of March 16, 2009, to tell them that when he got home he found Andrews standing in the driveway with blood on his hands.
When authorities arrived at the couples home they discovered Burchell, who was pregnant, lying on the couples bed with extensive injuries to the left side of her face. According to court documents she also had multiple stab wounds on her body, according to a (note the pc is graphic) probable cause statement filed with the case.
If that scene wasn't horrifying enough, deputies then spotted a crib in the bedroom.....and when they pulled back a blood-soaked baby blanket they found little Taylor lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds to his tiny body.
According to family members Dan Andrews has suffered from mental health problems since he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash several years ago. They say they had attempted to have him hospitalized on multiple occasions for mental health issues prior to his allegedly killing his family. They say hospitals would keep him for a few days, then release him.
In the six weeks leading up to the killings there were two hot line calls made to the Department of Social Services regarding Burchell and the Andrews' son. In each instance a caseworker found no cause to open a case file on the family.
Andrews family says that they became so concerned that he might harm his family that they took him to a West Plains hospital a month before the killings.....only to have him released again without any long term mental health intervention.
Wade says, "Andrews will stay at the hospital in Fulton and the court will keep reviewing his progress."
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