Matthew Tucker's history of addiction, mental health issues put before court
Matthew Linus Tucker had a long involvement with addiction and mental health services in New Brunswick in the years before he murdered his mother, Dorothy Tucker of Oak Haven, in 2014.
The 36-year-old's pre-sentence report submitted to the Court of Queen's Bench this week shows a troubled childhood during which Tucker was enrolled in the Portage addiction treatment program three times, starting at age 15.
Tucker also did a stint at the Fredericton detoxification unit when he was 18.
Probation and parole officer Angela Martin said in her report that Tucker began using alcohol and marijuana as an adolescent.
"At 14, his experimentation expanded to include acid, ecstasy, mescaline, and cocaine," Martin wrote in the report, which was filed at the launch of Tucker's sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
"From the age of 14 to 19 his addiction issues resulted in numerous attempts to access treatment with little success."
The report said Tucker claims only the use of marijuana in recent years, although on a daily basis.
But if addiction to alcohol and narcotics was being put behind him, mental health problems were taking over.
Depression in mid-20s
In his mid-20s, according to the report, Tucker began to experience depression.
In 2006, he was ordered by the courts to complete a program called ADAPT — it stands for Amending Destructive Abusive Patterns — with a focus on partner abuse.
In the years after that, his involvement with mental health services became more extensive, and Tucker sought help for "paranoid ideations," the report said.
A little over a year before he killed his mother, Tucker went to mental health services saying he was having thoughts that an aunt, with whom he was living, was putting medication in his food and drinks.
He was diagnosed with "acute stress disorder with paranoid and narcissistic personality traits, substance use disorder, and aberrant thoughts likely related to substance abuse."
Files closed in May 2014
After four appointments, Tucker's file was closed in May 2014.
In July that year, he again contacted mental health claiming suicidal thoughts.
He was assessed and discharged after a determination he was not a risk to himself.
Three months later, according to the report, he went to "various hospital ERs as he thought that he had a condition which turned out to be unsubstantiated."
On Nov. 9, 2014, hours before Dorothy Tucker's disappearance from her home in the St. Stephen area, Tucker had his most dramatic brush with the system.
'Paranoid state'
On that date, two RCMP officers brought him to the emergency room at Oromocto Hospital after finding him "in a paranoid state."
Witnesses at his trial said he claimed to be seeing a "disembodied head" in the woods behind the Oak Haven home he shared with his mother.
An appointment was made for him to see a psychiatrist that same day in Fredericton.
He did not keep the appointment.
Dorothy Tucker's plastic-wrapped body was discovered in a wooded area 10 days later by two hunters.
Doesn't remember shooting
During his sentencing hearing, Tucker told the court he did not remember shooting his mother.
In her report, Martin said Tucker admitted he "must have" killed her because he was "the only one there."
Tucker will be sentenced for second-degree murder on Wednesday.
He faces life in prison with no chance of parole for a minimum of 10 years.
The length of time he must wait before applying for parole will be determined by Justice William Grant.
