GRAFTON, N.Y. (WRGB) — The mother of the man accused of carrying out a triple homicide in Rensselaer County is speaking exclusively with CBS6 News — expressing heartbreak, anger, and, even, guilt after the deaths of three family members, including her own mother.
Eleanor Crandall, the mother of 26-year-old Joshua Fowler, says she is grappling with unimaginable grief.
Her son is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Whitney Fowler, his father Wilson Fowler, and his maternal grandmother, Anita Crandall– who is Eleanor’s mother– on the evening of June 18.
“To me, my son died that night, too,” Eleanor said in an emotional interview with CBS6’s Briana Supardi.
Fowler is facing one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and a weapons charge.
Investigators say his wife Whitney had called 911 during a domestic incident at their South Road home in Grafton — but the call was cut short when dispatchers heard what sounded like gunfire. Police arrived minutes later to find Whitney dead outside the home and the other two victims, Wilson and Anita, inside. Joshua Fowler was taken into custody after a brief standoff.
“I just need help so I can see my mom. So I can bury her,” she said. “And be there for my sister — she needs me now more than ever.”
Her sister, who is married to Wilson, one of the victims, also lived in the South Road home with Joshua, but she wasn’t home at the time of the shooting.
Eleanor lives in Virginia with her wife Krista.They are currently trying to travel to New York to reunite with her family and to organize her mother’s funeral.
They’ve started aGoFundMe to raise funds to pay for the funerals.
Eleanor, says the tragedy is the culmination of years of mental health struggles her son faced — and signs she says were long ignored.
“I told his father when he was 15 years old ‘you need to get him mental help because he’s going to kill somebody someday,’” she said.
Crandall described feeling a deep conflict — mourning her mother and the other victims, while also acknowledging her son’s spiral.
“I hate him,” she said. “And that’s a very strong word in my vocabulary. I don’t use that word unless I have to.”
Police have confirmed that this was not the first time they responded to the Fowler home for domestic disturbance calls.
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