Is it possible that Elliot Rodger was autistic? According to court documents from his parents divorce in 1999, his mother, Li Chin Rodger, claimed her son was a ‘high-functioning’ autistic child with special needs.
New information about Elliot Rodger, 22, has been revealed from his parents 1999 divorce. According to his mother, Li Chin Rodger, her son was a “high-functioning autistic” child who could be considered special needs. However, Elliot’s father, Peter Rodger, countered Li’s claims, stating that he had not been made aware of this diagnosis. Could Elliot have been autistic on top of the alleged mental illnesses he suffered from?
UCSB Shooter Elliot Rodger’s Mom Claimed He Was Autistic
This is an interesting new detail about the UCSB shooter who claimed the lives of six before killing himself.
When Elliot’s parents divorced in 1999, his mother, Li, made a request for child support, citing that her son was “special needs,” according to documents uncovered by Radar Online.
“The parties’ son Elliot has special needs; he is a high functioning autistic child,” Li’s attorney wrote in the official request.
Elliot Rodger: Virgin Killer’s Parents Apologize, ‘This Is Hell On Earth’
This raises the question of whether or not Elliot was autistic all along and went untreated. If so, could going untreated for so long caused him to erupt in such violence?
HollywoodLife.com reached out to psychiatrist Carole Lieberman for some expert insight on this topic, and she told us:
“Autistic children are generally not violent. Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook [Elementary School], had also been diagnosed as having a form of autism. However, although autism can make social interactions more difficult, it does not inherently cause people to be violent.”
As previously reported, Elliot was being treated by multiple therapists, and the Santa Barbara police department believes he managed to conceal his mental instability for quite some time. Obviously autism is not considered a mental illness, so this could have been in addition to his psychosis.
Elliot’s Father Claimed He Was Not Involved In Autistic Diagnosis
In another interesting turn of events, Elliot’s father countered his mother’s claim that their son was special needs and autistic.
“Though Li Chin Rodger claims in her court documents that Elliot is a high functioning autistic child, I was not involved in any prior evaluation of Elliot. Li Chin did not inform me about any evaluation of Elliot,” Peter wrote in the court documents.
This statement obviously upset Peter, and he claimed he would have his son properly evaluated by medical professionals, which Li agreed to.
“This disturbed me greatly. I am now in the process of having Elliot evaluated by a child psychiatrist. Li Chin Rodger has agreed to be a part of the process.”
There is no word on whether or not Peter and Li had Elliot evaluated after their divorce, or what the end result of the evaluation may have been.
Our thoughts remain with the families of the victims of the UCSB massacre at this time.
– Lauren Cox
Follow @Iaurencox
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View Comment
VC
Posted at 8:05 AM on May 31, 2014
Draco
Posted at 12:21 AM on October 16, 2014
Cindy Marshall
Posted at 10:31 PM on May 29, 2014
I have known a few autistic children as a teacher, and I am sorry, but I full on disagree with the claims of the psychologist. Some of the most violent kids I know are high functioning austitic. Their parents let them play violent video games to get them out of their hair. I had a student last year that spoke of death and killing people and that was third grade! Adam Lanza and Elliot Rodgers had social difficulties with serious violent streaks that caused them to blame others for their isolation. Either way this story, as was Sandy Hook, is just plain sad.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 7:54 AM on May 30, 2014
Kristi Webster
Posted at 1:41 PM on June 9, 2014
I have a child that lives, works, and goes to UCSB. You shut up!!
Henrey Tank
Posted at 7:56 AM on May 30, 2014
Too bad for you you don’t have a beautiful loving autistic child in your life like I do and all you can be is a bitter old hag hating other people’s children and abusing them as a “teacher” that should be fired.
Kristi Webster
Posted at 7:54 PM on June 10, 2014
Henrey, you crack me up, you are uninformed and uneducated and have no idea who the audience is that you are spewing your crap on. My son who lives, works, and goes to UCSB HAD A FATHER THAT WAS BIPOLAR AND COMMITTED SUICIDE WHEN HE WAS 16!! NOW HE GETS TO DEAL WITH THIS. If you don’t have a child going to school in Santa Barbara, why would you even waste you time and/or life on this subject. It has nothing to do with you and doesn’t affect you, and your family is not a player is this senario. If I am incorrect and you actually do have a child at UCSB, then I stand corrected..otherwise SHUT YOUR UNEDUCATED MOUTH!!
Draco
Posted at 12:29 AM on October 16, 2014
Nah, violent video games have been around for a long time, you would think there would be violence by video games a lot in the past, right? Wrong, there haven’t been. @Kristi Webster, there’s violence in movies, on the internet, news etc…it’s not anything new and DOES NOT cause people to act violent. It’s the actions of the individual’s fault and not the whole industry.
Do I think Elliot Rodger autistic? Of course not! His parents were divorced, he had rough childhood. Children from broken homes often get in trouble from small to something tragic.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 8:01 AM on May 30, 2014
Yeah his Dad was a sleazebag who had to cheat on his Mom run off with some scummy gold digger and he leaves his son. Yes he had him for weekend visits with his homewrecker. He would have been better off staying with his first family and raising his children. He didn’t even know about the diagnosis shows how much he cared. Shrinks were too afraid of giving a diagnosis late afraid rich Daddy would sue them. He wouldn’t have accepted a diagnos of bipolar or whatever. Too vain to acceopt son had any mental illness OR disorder that’s clear so his son couldn’t get any real help.
Kristi Webster
Posted at 7:59 PM on June 10, 2014
Really, are you a legal expert that is factually stating that they would not 5150 a child because they are afraid of making daddy mad. Mental experts have a responsibility to society to hospitalize anyone, even Owen Wilson, if the are a danger to themselves or others. I highly doubt that one if not all practicing psychiatrists would ignore signs and symptoms and place anyone including the patient in danger because they are afraid of daddy, who really isn’t anyone. Find something more productive to do with your lives and let us parents help our kids get through their final exams. You are just a nuisance.
Kristi Webster
Posted at 1:43 PM on June 9, 2014
Obviously you have read the 141 manifesto or any videos or other incriminating information. Your statements make you appear very uneducated at best.
Roisin
Posted at 1:09 PM on May 29, 2014
ok so since i have multiple mental illnesses, that could excuse me from killing people? The fact that mental illness is even trying to play a part in this is infuriating.
laura
Posted at 7:59 PM on May 29, 2014
Kristi Webster
Posted at 1:45 PM on June 9, 2014
Sorry Laura, I wish it were that simple, I lost my children’s father, my boy a UCSB student, to bipolar and a completed suicide at 40. Get educated and if you think “take your meds” is the solution to mental illness, then there would be any for those that did just that, would there Laura?? Go back to school!!
This entire article is disgusting. This person had a narcissistic personality disorder, and other things besides autism. To go on about how he is “autism” and then continue to mention how this played a role in the shootings is not only contributing to ignorance about autistic people, but fueling that ignorance that we should fear them. I’m pretty sure that if he had autism, given he was under so much psychiatric care from the top therapists, etc, they would have officially determined he had autism. This guy was just an entitled spoiled brat who was brain washed by patriarchy and american ideals that you need to f*ck as many women possible in order to be considered worth something to society.
laura
Posted at 7:40 PM on May 29, 2014
He may have been on the autism spectrum but Elliot suffered from Avoidant Personality Disorder. Look it up, it fit him to a T. He had Narcisistic P.D. as well. Many who suffer from P.D.s usually have more than one, with one being more dominant. Read his manifesto, it’s all there and obvious to anyone with a brain who can comprehend (obv. @angel ferey cannot and is a complete moron). While reading the manifesto I felt so sorry for his family, esp. his mother. For years they tried to get him help but I doubt anyone could have helped him. He was just too damaged, showing signs of mental illness from a very young age, way before his parents divorced. The only solution would have been to commit him, which is difficult to do in this day and age. Too bad he didn’t just commit suicide (as his parents feared he might) without taking anyone else with him.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:00 PM on May 31, 2014
He definitely suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder but there’s no way the shrink was going to tell rich Daddy that when he was paying the shrink. No one diagnosed him with Aspergers. It was just his mother’s opinion that was never confirmed by any professional.
Cathy
Posted at 11:12 PM on May 28, 2014
Here’s my full comment
I read the manifesto, 141 pages, and the father seems really terrible.
When he was very young, he heard his parents arguing and asked his mom if they were going to get divorced, she said no. Shortly after, they were divorced. So, not the mom’s idea.
They get divorced, and the mom, Elliot and his younger daughter HAVE TO LEAVE THE HOUSE and move into a smaller house. How small? Elliot and his sister had to share a room so small it only could fit bunkbeds.
Then, about two months later,his dad has a girlfriend that moves into the dad’s ( big) house.
Elliot is amazed that his dad got a girlfriend so quick…….. Not realizing that probably, this girlfriend broke up the marriage ( that’s my guess). Never does Elliot speculate that two months after his parents split up and a new woman moves into his dad’s house, that maybe this was not a new girlfriend.
In 4th grade, his dad had a financial setback and cut child support down for him and his younger sister. Then, another move……..
In fact, his whole childhood is a constant moving from small houses to small apartments, over and over.
In 11th grade, his dad cut off all child support for him and his younger sister.
But, the next sentence is his dad might be having a mid life crisis as he bought a Harley.
The dad could buy a Harley, but can pay ZERO CHILD SUPPORT?
When he stayed with his dad, the dad was traveling and he was with his stepmother who he didn’t get along with at all. So, he was taken away from his mother, who truly cared for him, to spend time with a women who didn’t get along with him.
I feel really bad for the mom, she worked really hard to provide a nice life for her two kids with very little help from the dad. The night the boy killed people, the mom is checking his FB and the dad is out to dinner with his wife.
Cherys
Posted at 12:50 PM on May 29, 2014
I agree with your interpretation of his early life. I read his manifesto too. The boy was shipped round numerous homes and schools. He was twice made to stay abroad at his father’s whim, missing the crucial settling-in weeks of first semesters at new schools. For a desperately shy child, these constant disruptions must have deeply dented his confidence. His father seems absent and dismissive. His mother, weak. At age 12 he says he was down at a gaming café until 3 am sometimes and spent up to 14 hours a day playing violent video games. He was shipped off to endless therapists from when he was at elementary school but it seems little attention was given to him as a person, to his needs, as a child in a very fractured, chaotic family.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:02 PM on May 31, 2014
The therapists don’t want to anger rich Dad with a diagnosis. If they did that they think Dad will get mad and they’ll lose the money for seeing him. He had NO diagnosis. Though it’s clear he had about three or four different psychiatric conditions.
brry
Posted at 8:01 PM on May 28, 2014
Lots of autistic and asperger males – referring to themselves as ‘aspies’ – get involved in PUA thinking it will help them talk to girls and from there get brainwashed into hating women. PUA teaches them a toxic version of masculinity. Parents keep your sons out of PUA.
Ss
Posted at 7:08 PM on May 28, 2014
Li Chen picked autism children’s trouble to make hearing people think: fear or not want to talk with them. This is NOT he has autism that she was very wrong pick she thinks Elliot is autism.
Autism children are NOT violence self, they are not shy.
Ridicules Li Chen!
DD
Posted at 6:57 PM on May 28, 2014
Without releasing his medical records, they can ‘claim’ anything. When the records are released, they will tell the story.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:04 PM on May 31, 2014
Li Chen has retracted the autism statement as his father became angry about it as there was never a diagnosis of it.
Kristi Webster
Posted at 2:11 PM on June 9, 2014
Medical records are confidential and protected under HIPPA law. You will not be seeing those unless someone is looking for a major lawsuit!
Kristi Webster
Posted at 2:11 PM on June 9, 2014
My post was a reply to DD
Kristi Webster
Posted at 8:12 PM on June 10, 2014
many people keep talking about medical records.. Medical records are confidential under the HIPPA law, and some of you who seem to think nothing was done because they might get sued. That wouldn’t even have to court if they released any medical records. The family would win with no contest. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I understand aspergers is mild autism, and autism is social aloneness. He was very articulate, not slow as far as gaining knowledge is concerned, and calculated the entire incident very analytically. His behavior bordered psychotic. Im not offering any diagnosis and HIPPA laws will prevent you all of ever viewing his medical records
elin
Posted at 4:44 PM on May 28, 2014
I have autism, adhd and terrible parents and the only person I have ever wanted to kill is me. I think speculating and having a vote like this is despicable and respectless to anyone that has this.
Obviously, we need tighter gun controls to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. But what about knives and telephone cords and plastic bags etc?? Better Mental Diagnoses need to be made. Heard he was being helped by The Regional Ctr. ISSUE: A lame diagnosis of Aspergers was only enough to get Elliot FREE help from the Govt funded Regional Ctr. The problem is- the FREE Regional ctr Only serves the mentally #$%$, epileptics, those with cerebral palsy and autistics. Check the online Intake application. The Regional ctr Does NOT service anyone with any other mental illnesses. Their diagnoses are Very limited. Why wasn’t he soon refereed to other medical professionals for a more thorough diagnosis & help? The family’s $$ money would have been MUCH Better spent on better psychological help instead of repeated upper class airline tickets to Europe & Malaysia.
They need to stop putting the blame on autism they know darn well that their son was angry at home about them not paying him attention and bragging about their 6 year old son and ignoring this one.The parent’s knew about their sons online rants and that he was very shy and having problems at school.Adam Lanza was another guy his father couldn’t stand him his mother gave him access to guns and he was also angry at being ignored at home and bullied.When these parent’s are seeing signs of violence or ranting that’s the time to lock up their guns,and get them professional help.Had Roger had his issues addressed he would have been able to meet a nice girl like himself and that would have helped him quit the womens haters club that was fueling his violence.Autistic children are not violent like these two cases,these 2 guys had alot of resentments at home with their moms,dads and then their peers at school didn’t help.Bet you now that everyone that saw those rants for months wishes they had said something then not now, it’s too late.
Autistic children are not necessarily violent, but they are certainly not less violent than other kids. After reading Elliot manifesto I feel rather sure that he would have a diagnosis in the autism spectrum.
Robert
Posted at 3:18 AM on May 29, 2014
I am not so sure, the over riding push was that he was deserving of a blond blue eye girl. Autism has no definition for that type of behavior, but narcissism does. He had to be superior to anybody else, if he wasn’t he quit ( skateboard ), and then feel really bad. I see no comments for attention to detail, no comments for OCD behavior, no need to have order in his day. BTW I am autistic.
Cherys
Posted at 1:02 PM on May 29, 2014
I saw no specific signs of autism in his manifesto. Yes he had fixations: Pokémon, then skateboards, then gaming but these are very mainstream and age-appropriate obsessions. He didn’t express overt stress at the enormous amount of disruption he was expected to deal with in his childhood – moving house over a dozen times. Typically autistic children find change particularly disorienting.
But there are many signs of narcissistic personality disorder and maybe even psychopathy: his inability to show empathy for anyone else, or understand why they behaved differently from him or from how he’d choose for them to behave was evident on every page.
And he clearly suffered quite deep depression from a very young age. I wonder if any of the therapy was CBT? His distorted thinking was text book: projecting ideal circumstances onto others’ lives and then taking those projections as fact; all or nothing thinking; inability to rationalise and empathise. I’d love to know more about what sort of help he received, because there’s no evidence in his manifesto that he was ever taught, either through competent parenting or professional input, how to train his negative thought patterns towards more stable and positive ones
sdffd
Posted at 3:59 PM on May 29, 2014
“I saw no specific signs of autism in his manifesto. ”
Heh u dumb or what. There are several asperger traits you can see from the videos.
Ss
Posted at 7:01 PM on May 28, 2014
Daniel Dennis
Posted at 8:56 PM on May 28, 2014
Hi Valentino, I would just like to say that it’s surprising how adamant you are about administering blame. I agree with your point against listing autism as the primary cause but I personally want to say that I somewhat disagree on the way you are directing blame. Please don’t take any offense since this is just my opinion, but I do not believe we should unfairly, without knowing 100% of the facts, direct blame to the parents or say without a doubt that this specific reason was the cause. Well that is, unless such person was witness to the family’s interactions over the years and Elliot’s development for most of his life. If it bad parenting was the sole cause, should we seriously expect his sister G****** at some point to follow in her brother’s footsteps? She did after all grow up in the same household and shared numerous experiences. I honestly doubt this very much although I could be wrong. Although it is possible that the failings of his family could have been the deciding factor in the development of his psychosis, it is more probable that it was, as I have stated again and again on different instances in the past; the result of a culmination of Multiple Factors. In Elliot’s case, he openly admitted, that he was a jealous person by nature even as a young child. He would feel jealousy for reasons that any rational person would consider completely unwarranted and absurd. He was however, by his own choice, never able to share these feeling, allowed them to fester within him and as such he never had someone to guide him through understanding, coping and eventually alleviating with those feelings. With that said, is it a child’s fault for not sharing their feelings due to fears of ridicule and feelings of shame? Should we expect them to understand the eventual and psychological ramifications of not doing so? Can you blame a parent for not knowing what’s wrong with a child when that child does not communicate? Elliot Rodgers by his own admission, spent much of his life abnormally weary of ridicule and felt too ashamed to tell anyone negative thoughts he had.
You also state that his parents ignored him. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t, I don’t know. Maybe they tried the best they could with what they had. It is known from the evidence he left behind that he held his parents in fairly high regards. He did however develop a level of resentment against his step mother because he states that she was not his biological parent and therefore had no justification to discipline him.
There are instances where children who were raised in horrible, absolutely horrible households were yet able to perform well socially and academically and eventually leading highly successfully lives. So does bad parenting make a murderer? Well, it can be a contributing factor and so too were the severe bullying he experienced, the inability to fully understand why he felt his life was terrible, the thing he misunderstood were his physical shortcomings, his inability to communicate his feelings, social withdrawal from the world to video games, impulsivity, OCD, unaddressed sexual desires (not meaning that he needed sex, just counseling), etc. Combine enough of these ingredients together and you have a recipe for a “POSSIBLE” ticking time bomb. Possible, since every individual and circumstance is unique. Had most of these been addressed, would the tragedy on May 23rd been avoided? I would assume so, however, I still see the intense jealousy, that he often referred to, as being a problem at some point since I am sure we have all seen what happens when jealousy is combined with relationships.
I would like to mention one small example. Had his parents not moved to the US, had he been raised in England even though his parents eventually separated, would he have become depraved mass murderer we now know him to be? I don’t know, perhaps or perhaps not; different social environment and different experiences would have shaped his life.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:07 PM on May 31, 2014
One of his former room mates who escaped death by moving out in time says he could hear Elliot screaming into a phone for hours talking to someone about his problems. But he didn’t know who was on the other end of the phone.
You obviously haven’t read the autobiography Elliot left behind, or you would know the parents – especially the mother – tried to get him help all trough his life, and he saw many therapists, shrinks and counsellors.
Cathy
Posted at 11:00 PM on May 28, 2014
I read the manifesto, 141 pages, and the father seems really terrible.
He sounds like a dick – this from the perspective of a mentally dysfunctional boy imploding into a state of severe psychosis, mind you – I agree to an extent, but he isn’t THAT bad. He isn’t any worse than most fathers, and probably a lot better than many. You certainly can’t correlate his father’s parenting to what happened, c’mon! And that’s what people are doing. He took his son with him when he traveled, he never hit him or spoke abusively, he was open to reconciliations (usually organised at the hands of the grandmother, admittedly!). He was too caught up in his own world and financial crisis to pay the attention he probably should have – but it’s all very well for us to see that in hindsight. And having a child that disturbed is obviously really difficult. There were occasions where the father did intervene towards the end too, but nothing worked obviously. So I think we need to be careful in blame. And the mother was amazing, I felt so bad for her after reading it.
Ultimately, when we look at who was abusive or traumatic to Elliot, it was clearly his peers. He was bullied repeatedly, and I think it’s a shame we won’t look at this. It’s what ultimately formed his views that became so toxic. His school failed him, where were they in all that was going on in it? He was deliberately hiding and not even going to class on time – just so he didn’t have to wait in the corridors and be bullied and yet the school doesn’t feature in anything at all. And why can’t we have a conversation about how cruel young people are, and how we think its okay and never connect bullying with such outcomes? It is the bullying (combined with his mental condition) that precedes all these other debates that have erupted from this.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:24 PM on May 31, 2014
The point is he may never have become that disturbed if his Dad had taken the first commitment he made to his first family seriously.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 6:26 PM on May 31, 2014
Yes the bullying is definitely part of it.
Henrey Tank
Posted at 5:57 PM on May 31, 2014
It’s only the mother who mentions Aspergers and his father has come out flatly denying he had it. It appears to be just a perception his family had but that he was never diagnosed with. His father obviously would not tolerate any diagnosis.
This is something people don’t realize if a well off or prestigious family is paying for their kids psychiatric evaluation the shrink won’t want to potentially anger the family and lose the income with a real diagnosis if he can help it so they just say “ah yeah kid is having trouble adjusting to college. No real help will be given.
Kristi Webster
Posted at 2:30 PM on June 9, 2014
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