Suzanne Delisle Statement To Parole Board

March 21, 2024
My name is George Brown. I represent the inmate’s former wife, Suzanne, and she
requested that I read the following statement from her:
To the members of the Parole Board,
My name was once Suzanne DeLisle and I was married to Larry DeLisle. I had four children
with him: Bryan was 8, Melissa was 4, Kathryn was 2, and Emily was nine months old. On
August 3, 1989, Larry murdered them and he tried to murder me. It was not the first time he
tried to kill his family.
These words may be surprising because they stand in stark contrast to what I said I
believed decades ago. I have been too scared to speak and believed my ex-husband was
safely locked away. Now I am too scared not to speak. I have remarried and have two
teenage children who only learned last week about my first marriage and my four other
children. I am speaking out for my family and my children who did nothing to deserve what
happened to them.
It was not until after the trial and Larry went to prison that I was able to break free from him.
Even after he killed our children, Larry had absolute control over me. He even tried to
convince me over the phone from prison that I should kill myself.
I finally gathered the courage to stop speaking to him and file for divorce. The story he tells
is that he insisted I leave him because he loved me and could tell I was in pain. That is a lie.
The truth is that I eventually became honest with myself and accepted what happened. I
also accepted that Larry had previously tried to kill me and our son when Bryan was a baby.
Years before he murdered our children, Larry tried to blow up our house with a lit candle
and natural gas while my baby and I were asleep.
Why did I let him do these things? Why did I go along with his preposterous stories? Why
did I tell everyone that I believed him? Larry had total control over me. He regularly gaslit
me and made me question my own sanity. My brain would short circuit when I tried to think
about Larry killing our children. I recently learned about something called betrayal trauma,
a phenomenon where a victim of betrayal is not capable of acknowledging that they have
been betrayed by a person they trust. That is exactly what happened to me. My brain simply
would not allow me to face the truth.
Prior to the incident, I was completely dependent on Larry. He controlled our money and
only gave me an allowance for groceries. If I wanted to purchase anything else, I needed to
ask him for it. He conditioned me to accept what he said without question, and he made
me feel that I could not survive without him. When he told me that the gas leak had been an
accident, I accepted it. The only alternative was that my husband had tried to kill me and
our baby. When he told me that driving into the river was also an accident, I accepted it for
the same reasons.
I have been silent all this time because Larry was in prison and would never be allowed to
get out. Over the last 30 years, I have received regular communications from the media
and advocates every time there is an anniversary or news about the case. I never respond.
Larry tried to convince me to kill myself because he needed my silence to manipulate the
public into believing that he was innocent. He has been methodically shaping the narrative
with interviews, podcasts, and documentaries to paint himself as a victim who was denied
a fair trial and falsely imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. If I was no longer publicly
supporting him, Larry’s plan required my silence, and he has had it until now.
I am well aware of the legal issues my ex-husband is raising and I remain disappointed in
the way that the case was handled, but I now know for certain that he intentionally killed
my children, that he tried to kill me, and that it was not the first time he tried to kill his
family.
Larry took everything from me and I have spent decades building a new life. I now have a
marriage that is founded on mutual respect with a husband who loves me. He has known
since the beginning of our relationship about my past but our children only recently found
out. I decided they needed to hear it from me before this hearing led to them finding out
from someone else.
This is the last time I intend to ever comment publicly about the case. I am not selling a
book or looking to participate in a documentary. The media took my family’s tragedy and
turned it into a spectacle. The deaths of my children became the object of public
fascination, and I was forced to participate in a humiliation you cannot imagine so that
people I did not know could sell newspapers and advertising. Because of the media
exploiting the story and because of Larry’s hold over me, I was not able to grieve the loss of
my children until years later when I finally broke free. I have been in hiding since then,
silent but worried that the man who murdered my children may find a way to get out of
prison.
I am coming forward to protect my family and to fulfill what I believe is my obligation to

Bryan, Melissa, Kathryn, and Emily. Larry DeLisle did not just murder my children. He
erased them and he is where he should remain for the rest of his life. My hope is that you
will vote against recommending that his sentence be commuted, and that the media will
respect my family’s request for privacy. Thank you.

Suzanne Delisle Statement To Parole Board

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Suzanne Delisle Statement To Parole Board

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

March 21, 2024

To the members of the Parole Board,

I am coming forward to protect my family and to fulfill what I believe is my obligation to

You might also like