A Father Lifts His "Burdens"

By Ed Magnuson

The dazed father's story sounded plausible. On Aug. 3, Lawrence DeLisle, 28, took his family for an evening ride along the Detroit River. The two older children, Bryan, 8, and Melissa, 4, sat in the back of the family's 1977 Ford station wagon. Snuggled beside them in a child's safety seat was Kathryn, 21 months. While DeLisle drove, his wife Suzanne, 32, sat in front with nine- month-old Emily, also in an infant's seat.

As their car neared the river on Eureka Avenue in Wyandotte, a Detroit suburb, DeLisle complained of leg cramps. He backed the car away from the street's dead end, stopped to buy some crackers and said he felt better. Shortly before 9:20 p.m., he drove toward the river again. Suddenly DeLisle felt a cramp in his right leg, which stiffened, jamming his foot against the accelerator. As he tried to hit the brake with his left foot, his shoe wedged between the pedal and the accelerator. Frantically, Suzanne grabbed for the ignition key and gearshift to stop the speeding vehicle.

It was too late. The car crashed through a wooden barrier at an estimated 45 m.p.h. As witnesses watched its one working taillight disappear in water 30 ft. deep, first DeLisle and then his wife splashed to the surface. Luckily, two men in a powerboat saw the couple and pulled them to safety. Divers hit the water six minutes after police were called, but none of the four children could be revived.

Acquaintances described DeLisle, who earned $31,200 a year as a service manager for a tire store, as hardworking and quiet. His wife, who had studied criminal justice in college, was rarely seen without the children. Wyandotte + police chief Edward Rothermal assured the Detroit Free Press, "This was a loving couple, good family people." Hundreds of area residents left toys and flowers at the accident site, in memory of the lost children and in sympathy for the parents.

But Wyandotte detective sergeant Dan Galeski found problems in DeLisle's story. The father reportedly said he got out of a car window only after the wheels touched the bottom of the river. In fact, the current had flipped the auto onto its roof. Some witnesses said they saw DeLisle in the water while the taillight was still visible. Others reported that a day earlier, a car with one taillight had moved slowly along the dead-end street.

During a lie-detector test, DeLisle broke down, admitting that he had deliberately driven into the river. Why? According to Galeski, he wanted "to get rid of his present burdens: his wife and his children." DeLisle, who owes some $13,000 in bills and loans, was charged with four counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

As anger at the father was added to sorrow for the children, Wyandotte residents last week were still visiting the site on Eureka Avenue. One young woman carefully placed four tiny stuffed animals beside the growing mound of pink carnations and red roses.

With reporting by Linda DiPietro/Detroit