Tory Margaret ball and her twin sister Lily Terry ball were born on September 12 2007 to parents Monica mccarrick and Michael Ball in San Diego California now from the beginning things were not ideal in the household the couple had a 10-year age gap which although not always a problem should be noted Monica had been arrested multiple times for using drugs and additionally she was arrested for a DV in 2006.
afterward the couple apparently split up as she took Michael to court for child support in 2009. eventually Monaco to find herself living on the other side of the country in the state of Pennsylvania a year later the young mother would find love again with an old flame Monica and Robert Paulson had known one another for about a decade but had recently reconnected over Facebook around Thanksgiving of 2009.
the two began a long-distance relationship and things moved very quickly as they sometimes do eventually the pair became engaged in May of 2010. Monica appeared to be happy and stable she worked at a dental office and was going to school at the time of our story Robert was grieving the loss of his ex-girlfriend Jill in April of 2010 Jill chose to end her life several months after the relationship had ended with one of his own guns Robert kept a variety of weapons in his home including guns and swords as Robert grieved and likely dealt with a lot of feelings of
guilt Monica was a supportive shoulder to cry on during the last week of August of 2010 the couple decided to close the gap with the help of his mother Roxanne Monica and her three-year-old twin daughters Lily and Tori ball moved from Pennsylvania to California to live with Robert they got an apartment together at the summit at Paradise Valley complex located at 3001 North Texas Street in Fairfield that complex was later renamed waterski Monica looked for a school to transfer to so she could get a license to be a
dental assistant in the state and Robert provided her with the funds to do this to Robert Monica was a good mother who wanted to provide for her two girls she never did anything that would make him think otherwise Robert’s job required that he frequently be away from home on business on September 9th shortly after the couple moved into their new apartment Robert was called away on a month-long assignment in Minnesota two to three weeks after he left he began to notice changes in Monica changes that would lead him to believe
that she was slowly mentally deteriorating now according to Robert Monica found a synopsis for a horror movie that he was writing with a friend which he described as a slasher film about a man stalking children on a beach in this script everyone died Monica was upset because she thought that Robert had written a story about her and that she might be in danger Monica repeatedly brought the subject up during their conversations during Robert’s absence and suggested that he resumed their relationship in order to
hurt her she also questioned Robert about whether he had driven Jill to end her life accused him of being with another woman and claimed that his female friends hated her she expressed her fear of a UPS delivery man and said he had entered their apartment at times she said she would not leave the apartment because someone was sitting in a car outside additionally Monica became upset about a Facebook post that Robert didn’t even make Apparently one of Robert’s friends made a joke about breaking up with a girlfriend using
Dobermans tasers and rounds somehow Monica believed that this post was directed at her as Monica’s mood fluctuated Robert would spend hours reassuring her and then she would seem fine and then the next day they’d have to repeat the same process over again Monica also indicated that she needed help with Lily and Tori but as soon as he was done with the assignment he was called away on another rather than heading home to be with the family Robert was told that he would have to head to Alaska for five to ten days
after he left Minnesota when Robert informed Monica of this she went berserk and the couple thoughts she said that she missed him and wanted him to come home Monica’s fractured mental state became all too apparent to her friends whom she kept in contact with via text message on September 25th Monica texted her friend Regina saying she was afraid that Robert and his mother were out to get her and she should let someone know if anything happened to her if she went missing that same day she texted her friend Maritza
and said my fiancee Robert Paulson and his mom are acting strange so FYI if I end up missing or turnip dead or they try to say I committed it is a cover-up so feel free to get revenge for me now clearly concerned Maritza called Monica who told her she was afraid Robert was not going to approve of her and the children she was jealous of his relationships over Facebook that they were not getting along whatsoever she also said she was afraid because of a book that he was writing about a murder of a wife or girlfriend on September 29th Monica sent
Maritza another chilling message it read they want to steal the girls and kill me I think additionally Monica texted her friend Pamela the text read quote he scares me I feel like he is going to hurt me I never meant to hurt him I need to know I am safe so hopefully this is a paranoid delusion but I’m telling you if I end up missing or turn up dead or they say I tried to commit it is a cover-up in response Pamela suggested she pay a visit to her mother further conversations between the two friends consisted of Monica saying that she was
seeking counseling before going off the rails and suggesting maybe Robert had killed his ex-girlfriend Jill however a lot of Monica’s text messages seem to contradict what she was sharing with her friends and family in some she discussed the stress she experienced because she had to care if the children on her own and one she said she wanted to be young and free and able to party Facebook messages Monica exchanged on October 3rd and October 7th revealed no delusions paranoia or fear of Robert now it should be noted that Monica wasn’t on
her own in the Golden State Tori and Lily’s biological father still lived in San Diego in addition she had a wide network of relatives and friends that she could lean on in times of need including Pamela in Los Angeles and her own mother Margaret in San Diego yes some of these support systems were several hours away but overall Monica had relatives that were checking up on her and keeping close contact according to her mother Monica was managing well before the move however shortly after arriving in California she began
expressing a fear about Robert Monica visited her mother in San Diego from September 29th to October 4th she brought the synopsis of the horror movie Robert had worked on and asked her mother what she thought of it whether it meant he was feeling violent towards her Monica expressed her concerns about the fact that Robert kept guns in the apartment she did not mention the swords during this visit she repeatedly discussed her fears and her uncertainty about getting married however when mother and daughter subsequently went
shopping for a wedding dress during the visit her worry seemed to fade she even sent a picture of herself in a wedding dress to her friend Pamela additionally Terry Fay the paternal grandmother of Monica’s daughters lived in Southern California the two spoke to one another regularly by phone and she had cared for the girls on occasion on October 11th Monica called Terry and asked her who was going to take the girls according to Terry Monica did not sound rational during this conversation she claimed that Robert whom she had
just become engaged to at a vendetta against her for 10 years and was kicking her out of her home now mind you she’d just driven across the country with her daughters in tow to be with this man concerned Harry told Monica that if she brought the girls to her home that she and her family would begin proceedings to have custody of them Roxanne Paulson Robert’s mother also began to have concerns about Monica she found her to be nervous and anxious and found that she was having a difficult time managing while Robert was
out of town in early October Monica and her girl spent the night at Roxanne’s home however between two and three in the morning Monica decided to leave when she took one of the girls to the car she told Roxanne there was a car outside she thought someone was watching her Roxanne reassured her that the person was a neighbor who left early for work after the girls were in the car Monica texted Roxanne to ask if it was safe to leave once I got home she texted Roxanne to tell her that they were safe on the same day that she had her
irrational conversation with Terry Fay Monica called Roxanne at work and told her that the UPS driver was coming into the apartment in addition Monica also contacted her mother on October 11th her mother advised her that it was not a good time to talk when she asked if Monica had called about something important she replied no it’s okay in a sad and subdued voice on the morning of October 12th the assistant manager of the apartment complex where the couple lived asked Monica to move her car as it was blocking other parking spots at first
Monica would not open her door and then try to articulate why her car was parked the way it was but had a difficult time doing so finally the assistant manager watched Tori and Lily while Monica moved her car later Monica contacted the assistant manager regarding a work order to have her locks changed during that call the assistant manager could hear Tori and Lily crying in the background according to that manager Monica seemed to want her to help her with the girls that same day Robert and Monica had several conversations via
text message and over the telephone some of them made no sense in one Monica was going on about robot butterflies and concluded the text with you will never have me again in another she told Robert to say to the children’s father quote let the bunnies go forever so we can keep what’s ours and say that defending them is the number one most high for on your priority list end quote this was apparently a reference to their hope that Lily and Tori’s father might give up his parental rights so that Robert could adopt them later in the evening
Monica sent a text message that said Tick Tock another message said read James Patterson now according to Robert when they spoke on the telephone later that evening Monica sounded incoherent in jumbled it almost sounded is that she was running around the house doing something he could hear her freaking out and as he put it hysterical noises going on in the background she would hang up and then he would call her right back then Monica told her fiance something bizarre she said quote if Tori and Lily are okay tell them it was an accident
it’s okay it’s going to be okay we’re going to make a fire we’re going to make a fire end quote then Robert heard a fire alarm go off and then a scream and then the call ended abruptly rightly concerned he tried to call the apartment several times but no one picked up but what Robert didn’t realize is just how far off the rails Monica had gone to any parent what she did was beyond unthinkable strapping both Tori and Lily to their high chairs the two little girls had no way to escape from what their mother was
about to do we don’t know the exact timeline of events but here’s what we know based on the evidence Monica brandish what police described as a katana one of the weapons that Robert had in his collection she then proceeded to hack away at her two bound and helpless daughters one of the twins was stabbed multiple times in the stomach the other was partially decapitated in a bid to prevent First Responders from accessing the apartment Monica propped their bodies up against the front door before attempting to set the apartment
Ablaze finally foreign to neighbors they didn’t hear much noise from the apartment apart from some loud thumping there’s no mention of them hearing any screaming an hour or two later the fire alarm went off and a downstairs neighbor saw smoke coming from one of the windows this neighbor Andre Douglas ran upstairs and kicked in the front door but found it was blocked not knowing the twin girl’s bodies were what stood in the way of him entering he was able to break through another entrance a sliding glass door given Monica’s apartment was on the
third floor Andre would have had to scale the balconies to get inside however when he entered the apartment he saw on the floor covered in blood the sword used to take poor Lily and Tori’s lives according to Andre quote once I actually got past her room there was a sword a bloody Katana style Japanese fighting sword in the hallway and a bottle of pills end quote firefighters arrived and found the door to the apartment slightly ajar but difficult to open they forced the door open found a fire in a Closet near the front door and
extinguished it retracing their steps it was then that they discovered the mangled bodies of Tori and Lily search of the apartment revealed an assault rifle a shotgun in the living room and a box with a loaded handgun and additional live rounds the model of these guns was not disclosed anywhere in the report in the hallway was the sword Monica had used alongside it also covered in blood was the lighter she used to set the fire two high chairs have been overturned in the dining room with their food trays removed
these high chairs were completely soaked in blood on a table facing the high chairs was a laptop computer playing an animated children’s program the kitchen a landline telephone was on the counter both the telephone and the countertop were covered in blood water was running from the bathroom faucet and blood was in the sink and on the counter a cell phone was on the bathroom floor and on a stool was the James Patterson novel double cross the book was about a serial killer and it was open to a page that contained the
words my daughter is dead according to the Solano County coroner’s office Tori had 11 cutting wounds to her face two to her neck a gaping wound on the front of her neck nine superficial cutting wounds to the chest as well as two deep stab wounds to the chest one of which penetrated her heart and the other her lung there was also a deep stab wound to her abdomen three small superficial cutting wounds to the abdomen and defensive wounds on her arms and hands Lily had five cutting wounds to her face forward her neck and nine to
her chest a large gaping wound was found on the front of her neck that had severed her larynx and cut her carotid arteries she had a six inch deep stab wound to her abdomen and multiple defensive wounds to her arms and hands it was found that neither of the girls had inhaled any smoke it died before the fire had started Monaco was located in the kitchen of the apartment she was unconscious and had sustained multiple self-inflicted injuries just taking a John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek in critical condition she had two large
lacerations to her throat in multiple cuts and lacerations on her arms and wrists the tendons that Flex the wrists and fingers were severed on one of her arms she had a large laceration on her upper thigh and large lacerations on each ankle which cut her Achilles tendons despite her neighbor finding a bottle of pills near the katana no drugs were found in her system upon release she was arrested and charged with two counts of homicide two counts of CA resulting in death and one count each of arson and destruction of
evidence Shackled to a wheelchair and heavily bandaged Monica made her first appearance in court on October 26. she pled not guilty by reason of insanity between October of 2010 and June of 2011 Dr John Shields had met with Monica nine times and had spent more than 20 hours with her he administered psychological tests interviewed her mother and reviewed other documents including reports of other interviews police reports and mental health records in his opinion Monica suffered from a mental disease most probably a depressive
condition this condition first manifested in 1995 when she was 12 years old Monica was hospitalized for ideation and superficial wounds that she had inflicted upon herself according to hospital records this was not the first time that Monica had exhibited this type of behavior at age 14 Monica was diagnosed with a form of attention deficit disorder and received medication according to Dr Shields adolescence with untreated depressive disorders often develop substance abuse problems in his opinion Monica had bipolar disorder with psychotic features
signs of a delusional disorder and poly substance abuse according to Monica she started using alcohol at the age of 12 and began using illegal drugs including weed acid mushrooms and ecstasy and possibly Coke around the age of 14. she graduated to using Crystal at age 18. she continued to use it regularly except when she was pregnant with the twins now although she claimed that she used it less as time went on she was using it nearly every day until she was 25 years old Monica was using it during the month of
September 2010 and into October in fact she told Dr Shields that she smoked it in Roxanne Paulson’s garage four days before the killings in an October 10 2010 text message to Robert Monica wrote you wanted me to stay thin and said it was important and okayed me to use to do that in another she wrote I am dying to smoke I am leaving them alone here they probably won’t wake up but I can’t help it it’s too hard to bring them everywhere sometime between 2003 and 2005 Monica was diagnosed with major depression at
the time she was still living in San Diego and received psychiatric treatment during that time she reported experiencing paranoid thoughts according to Dr Shields paranoia is a common side effect of ongoing Crystal use long-term drug use can cause mental problems well after someone uses the drug and it can cause delusions in his view drugs were not the primary cause of her actions although he acknowledged there was a possibility that her long-term daily drug use could have caused her to have the issues she had on the day of the killings in his
opinion Monica’s actions were largely motivated by the delusional idea that she was being persecuted and that someone was going to take her daughters separate them enslave them in a camp setting and torture them eternally this delusion was fueled by the story Robert had written about the girls or women being taken to an island mistreated and killed she believed the UPS driver had keys to her apartment was part of this conspiracy to harm her and the girls and that messages were embedded in the videos or shows she and the children
were watching after the move to California she told Dr Shields that while she was reading the novel double cross she understood a reference to the time of day in the book to refer to the time that people were going to come and take her daughters away into slavery Dr Shields characterized this belief as an idea of reference this is a psychotic symptom for those unfamiliar with the term ideas of reference are beliefs that certain things that seem mundane or normal are special messages for that person and they may see secret messages
on things like license plates or feel personal significance with a news article for example a few days before the killings Monica and the girls were eating pizza at Roxanne’s house Monica told Dr Shields that the pizza made them sick and she believed it was poisoned as a part of an effort by someone including Roxanne to kill her and her daughters when Robert told her he was going to Alaska instead of returning to California immediately Monica believed that it was a sign she or one of the girls was going to be taken to an
enslavement camp she became increasingly desperate to prevent that from happening she believed the only way she could save the children from enslavement was to kill them on the day of the killings she sent Robert a text that read you’re separating them Monica told Dr Shields she started the fire because she wanted to hide the evidence of what she had done so her family would not find out Dr Shields testified that Monica’s mental disorder affected her ability to understand the nature and quality of her actions she
was not able to appreciate her acts harmful nature because she believed she was saving the children from harm and not causing them harm in Dr Shield’s opinion at the time of the murder Monica was unable to recognize the moral or legal wrongfulness of her actions Monica’s County jail records indicated that by nine days after the killings she said she was no longer experiencing thoughts of causing harm towards herself she told the jail psychiatric staff she never heard voices although she later said otherwise a jail psychiatrist who
saw Monica for a year and a half diagnosed her with chronic and recurring adjustment disorder issues she also received diagnoses of bipolar disorder with psychosis and depressive disorder with psychosis the psychiatrist also considered a diagnosis of a disorder on the schizophrenic Spectrum Monica was given antipsychotics and antidepressants in jail on October 25th 2011 she told another inmate to essentially hurt themselves and claim to hear voices so they could meet each other at the hospital in November of 2011 Monica
reported paranoid thoughts that people were going to attack her in April of 2012 she used Coke and drank 12 cups of coffee and was treated for possible overdose allegedly she obtained these drugs from the prison guards themselves she was described as paranoid delusional and psychotic she stated that gangs were out to kill her for snitching on a boyfriend 10 years prior and that if she had the means she would self-cancel so to speak I’m sorry YouTube is very strict about phrases and words surrounding themes like this I hope you
understand during her imprisonment Monica was also interviewed by Dr Pablo Stewart and Dr Janice nakagawa much of the information is redundant when compared against the interviews with Dr John Shields what is important is that Dr naka gawa concluded that Monica met the criteria for not being Guilty by reason of insanity Dr nakagawa did not believe that Monica understood the nature and quality of her acts because she was paranoid or delusional much like Dr Shields she also believed that Monica was not capable of understanding that
her Acts were legally or morally wrong she testified that Monica’s drug use could have been a factor contributing to the emergence of psychotic symptoms and that drug use can trigger predispositions to delusions paranoia or depression however a Solano County Superior Court jury found that Monica was sane when she used a sword to kill the three-year-old twins on June 15 2012 the jury convicted Monica of two counts each of first-degree homicide an assault on a child causing death at her sentencing on October 3rd of the
same year a tearful Monica addressed the court she said quote I feel really bad I pray for all of you every day and I wish there was something I could do to ease the pain for both of our families I love Tori and Lily more than anything in the world end quote Monica’s mother Margaret also addressed the court attributing her daughter’s difficult childhood in mental illness for the incidents and asked that she be placed in mental facility instead of prison however Tori and Lily’s Father Michael Ball also had words for the judge
instead of asking for leniency he went on to describe an indefensible crime committed by the defendant never referring to Monica by her name he said I will miss all of the joys of my father-daughter relationship judge Peter B4 sentenced Monica to two consecutive life sentences in state prison each without the possibility of parole two additional 25 to Life State Prison sentences for the two counts of assault on a child causing death were dismissed she was also ordered to pay six thousand three hundred sixty one dollars to the
state victims Compensation Board in addition to a ten thousand dollar fine Monica is currently serving her sentence at the California Institution for Women in Corona she’s attempted multiple times to appeal her sentence but every attempt has failed in the aftermath of Tori and Lily’s senseless deaths a petition on change.
org began circulating on August 22nd 2019 that petitioned California governor Gavin Newsom to overturn Monica’s sentence the petition was started by Margaret crony and claims that all experts who have evaluated Monica agreed that she was not fully culpable for her actions according to the petition and its author Monica has totally changed her life since her arrest and her major depressive disorder is in remission it goes on to state that Monica enjoys her prison job as a certified peer mentor who helps others please let us know what you think Down
Below on if Monica deserved the sentence she received or if this petition has any Merit at all in close we’d like to share a passage from Tori and Lily’s obituary it read Tory Margaret ball and twin sister Lily Terry ball were born in San Diego on September 12 2007. on October 12 2010 they received their angel wings after a tragic incident such beautiful little girls full of life love and smiles despair although their time with us was brief they touched the hearts of so many they will always be loved and adored by all who knew them as
twins they shared a very special bond one that only they could understand and one that will last in eternity Tori and Lily will be missed dearly but will forever live on in our hearts
