The woman who was found dead with her husband and daughter in their Lake Murray home earlier this week had taken her husband for mental health services at a Veterans Affairs site on Tuesday, but the pair were turned away, the woman’s father said Thursday.
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“They told him there was nobody available, and people were busy,” said Gerald Austin, whose daughter, Amy Voight, was found shot the next day.
A neighbor found Amy Voight, 54, and David Voight, 56, dead Wednesday morning, telling police she heard “loud bangs” from the Boulder Lake home the night before.
Police also found their 13-year-old daughter dead. Amy Voight’s father identified the child as Mya Jane Voight. She was an eighth-grade student at nearby Pershing Middle School, according to school officials.
Austin, 78, said his son-in-law was a retired career U.S. Navy veteran who had worked in explosive ordnance disposal and had served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Austin said his daughter, a digital forensic examiner with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, had communicated with him Tuesday — her 54th birthday — that she had taken her husband to the VA but were told to make an appointment. He declined to say which VA site.
“If the VA had tried to help, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” he said. “Show some compassion.”
The VA did not immediately respond to the Union-Tribune’s request for comment Thursday evening. A VA spokesperson told Fox 5 San Diego that it could not comment on the specific case because of privacy concerns.
“What’s being alleged regarding VA services is not accurate,” VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven said in a statement. “All VA healthcare facilities offer same-day mental healthcare to all Veterans who request it.”
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Austin said he’d texted with both Amy and David Voight on Tuesday.
Austin said he was told his son-in-law shot his daughter and granddaughter. The Medical Examiner’s Office will perform autopsies on the three to determine their causes and manners of death, but police have said preliminary evidence indicates all three died from gunshot wounds, and a gun was found in the home. Police have not indicated who they suspect the shooter was, but have said it was an isolated incident and there is no known danger to the public.
Austin said David Voight was a “great guy” and had never been violent with his daughter. “She adored him,” Austin said. “I’m telling you, it was PTSD. It was not him.”
He said he believes his son-in-law suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but did not know if he had been diagnosed with it.
“Never, ever did he give me any idea that he was a harm to her,” he said.
Austin said he, himself a Navy veteran, uses a VA clinic in Lancaster and has had good experiences with the organization.
A neighbor called police just before 8:20 a.m. Wednesday and reported she had gone into the home, at Boulder Lake and Renkrib avenues, and found the couple.
Officers were on scene within minutes and determined the Voight couple was dead. They also found the girl deceased.
The neighbor told police that she had “heard loud bangs” Tuesday night and went to check on her friend the next morning, police said. The neighbor was able to enter the home because the family had previously given her keys to access it.
The deaths left the neighborhood in shock, and Pershing Middle School’s Principal Kristy Aragon issued a message to families noting that district counselors would be on hand at the school for the rest of the week. “We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with those closest to the student and family,” she wrote.
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