Rage, Drugs Led to Triple Tragedy : Simi Woman Says Estranged Husband’s Meth Use Made Him Abusive, Paranoid

Just before firing one bullet each into the heads of his two small children and then killing himself on Father’s Day in his Simi Valley garage, Larry Sasse opened the overhead door.

His roommates figure Sasse wanted his wife, Debra--who had filed for divorce because of his attacks and drug abuse--to see what had happened to her family.

He got what he wanted, Debra Sasse said Monday.

Moments after learning of the shootings Sunday night, she sped to his house, jumped from her car and rushed up to the yellow police tape skirting the garage.

“The police tried to stop me. They said that I didn’t want to see, that he had killed my kids,� Sasse said in an interview, her blue eyes wet and distant. “But I saw them.�

There lay the bodies of Breanna, 4, Michael, 3, and Larry, 31--all that was left of more than a year of Larry Sasse’s methamphetamine-fueled paranoia, death threats and rage, according to his wife and court documents.

It was just days before Larry Sasse was to be served with a three-year restraining order keeping him from Debra and her parents and brother, his wife said.

Nearly six years ago, Larry Sasse and Debra Forrester married and settled in Arizona.

Back then, he did not drink as much--he was putting away up to a 12-pack of beer daily in the months before he killed his children, said Debra Sasse, 29, a pharmacy technician at Simi Valley Hospital.

It got worse after the couple moved into Debra’s parents’ home in Simi Valley two years ago so Larry could work at a new job at a Wilmington refinery, his wife said.

He drank more heavily, admitted using methamphetamine and began assaulting family members, according to divorce papers.

Larry Sasse also became increasingly paranoid--convinced that there were police officers in the bushes, electronic bugs in his bed, and men watching him from every roof in the neighborhood, the documents said.

On Christmas, he shoved furniture up against his bedroom door, barricading himself in for the day. He stayed there, the papers say, drinking heavily.

He feared the electronic wail of a new toy ambulance that Michael was given for Christmas, thinking it was the police arriving to take him away, Debra said.

Later that evening, she said, she went upstairs and talked her way in.

Larry showed her the drugs he had been using and flushed them down the toilet so she could not call police, the divorce papers say. Then he promised to get help if she would keep the marriage together.

But the threats and drug use continued, she said, and he began carrying a gun everywhere.

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One night in February, she awoke with him straddling her chest, gripping her throat and threatening, “Don’t make a sound or I’ll snap your neck.�

Eventually he backed off, but he grabbed her throat every time she tried to get up, the papers said.

The next day, she called police and he moved out.

But on Feb. 19, court papers say, Larry phoned in another threat to Debra: “I am going to kill your entire family.�

“And we believed him,� said her father, Dan Forrester.

Three days later, the papers say, Larry--apparently on drugs--barged into the Forresters’ home, knocking over the Forresters and their son. Larry barricaded himself, Breanna and Michael in the children’s room, emerging only after police arrived.

Sometime that week, Larry also waved a gun at a co-worker at Huntway Refining in Wilmington and threatened him, then quit. He walked out with an $18,000 pension, which was spent in just a few weeks, Debra said. Officials at Huntway said they knew of Sasse’s death but did not comment further.

In March, Debra filed for divorce.

“He was living out of his car and calling here numerous times,� Dan Forrester said.

Debra Sasse added: “He was saying, ‘You’d better come back to me or you’ll pay.’ It was always, ‘I didn’t do anything. Why’d you do this to me?’ �

And although he won partial custody of Breanna and Michael--entitling him to see them on weekends and Wednesday evenings--he often refused to visit with them if he could not see Debra too, she said.

“They were just beautiful kids,� said Rebecca Stephens, a friend of one of Sasse’s roommates. “They were the kind of kids who, when you said hi, they’d just giggle and hide.�

Three weeks ago, Simi Valley police tapped the Forresters’ phone lines, hoping to build a case against him for making threats, said Simi Valley Police Lt. Anthony Harper.

They also gave Debra a panic button, a small electronic box that--when triggered--would automatically dispatch police.

She also pursued another restraining order--one that would allow him to see the children but keep him away from her, she said.

Meanwhile, Larry had moved into the house on Delilah Street with a friend, Lori Bischoff, her three children, her sister and another woman, Jane Bishop.

“My son adored Larry,� Bischoff said. “Everybody adored Larry. He was very good-looking, very sweet, very affectionate.�

But he also had his paranoid ramblings and vicious rages, often fed by drinking and, the roommates suspected, drugs.

“When he dropped off his kids, he would go home and sit on the couch with a 12-pack of beer,� Bischoff said.

One time, she found him weeping because Debra had rejected him. “I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and he said, ‘I just love her so much.’ �

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Neighbor Shannon Osmun said she saw Sasse careen out his front door and into the street one night, howling, pounding a nearby fence and then dissolving into sobs. And neighbors said they often heard Larry and his roommates quarreling.

Finally, after a screaming match last month in which Larry bellowed a vile slur in Bischoff’s face, the roommates ordered him out. While he was at a nearby bar, where he often drank heavily until closing time, they moved all his belongings into the garage, Bischoff said.

He moved into a friend’s vacant house next door, she said.

On Sunday, Larry took the children to a nearby park for a time, then returned home, Bischoff said.

At 7:30 p.m., Debra was waiting at the Simi Valley Police Station, where Larry had recently agreed to start handing off Michael and Breanna.

But over on Delilah Street, Larry was ushering his children into the garage, where he had them sit on the floor among his belongings, Bischoff said.

Jane Bishop, who could not be reached for comment, was home at the time with two of Bischoff’s children when she heard the shots.

“When Jane saw Larry, she thought he was pulling a stunt, she thought he’d just fired the shots into the ground,� Bischoff said. “She opened the door, and she said, ‘Larry!’ Then she saw the kids.�

Bishop called 911.

As Debra stood at the front desk of the police station about 8:20 p.m., she heard the dispatcher’s radio call reporting shots fired on Delilah Street.

She raced to the house a few blocks away, running red lights and screeching to a stop in front of the garage, she said.

And there, she found that her husband had--in the most brutal way possible--carried out one of his most frequent promises: “He kept threatening to leave with the kids.�

Times correspondent J.E. Mitchell contributed to this report.