Elliot Rodger’s Disturbing Mental Illnesses: Mom Also Claims Autism

Courtesy of Facebook

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