The sister-in-law of a man who had his brain eaten by a psycho killer has opened up on living with the news, revealing that she ‘now lives in constant fear’ for her life.
In December 2011, Tyree Smith was found not guilty by reason of insanity of slaughtering Angel ‘Tun Tun’ Gonzalez with a hatchet and eating his body parts, as per a Daily Mail report.
Smith admitted to being guilty in the case, yet a three-judge panel opted that his history with mental illness qualified for the insanity plea, and he was committed to Whiting Forensic Hospital in July 2013.
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Since then, Gonzalez’s family have continued to live in fear of a possible return by the psycho killer.
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The call by the judges had a huge effect on Gonzalez’s family so much so that his sister-in-law, Talitha Frazier said she phoned the hospital many times a month for five years just to be sure Smith was still under observation.
She was riddled with anxiety, thinking that she saw her brother-in-law’s killer on the street when he was in a psychiatric facility.
Frazier added that a secretary at the facility told her to stop calling and assured her that the psycho killer would be under close watch for a long time.
However, all of that changed a few weeks ago as Frazier’s worst fears became a reality when Connecticut’s Psychiatric Security Review Board granted Smith conditional release.
‘We got blindsided. We got hit with a big one,’ Frazier told local ABC affiliate WFSB News when recalling her and her family’s reaction to Smith’s release.
Smith had an initial sentence of 60 years in a psychiatric hospital, but a review board said his auditory and visual hallucinations had stopped in September 2023.
Doctors at the facility have had positive feedback on Smith, stating that he was a ‘joy’ to be around and provided support for the other patients.
Doctors added that Smith’s medication had “stabilized” him, and they believed he no longer heard voices urging him to commit violent practices.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Caren Teitelbaum told the review board that once stable, Smith had a “calming presence.”
“I believe the voices are telling him, ‘Tell the doctors you don’t hear us so you can get out,’” Frazier told WFSB, adding that her family feels Smith “beat the system.”
To Frazier, the new outcome of her brother-in-law’s death is utterly unacceptable and she’s decided no apology will be accepted for Gonzalez’s murder.
“It’s not fair. He gets to reunite with his son and talk to his dad. I don’t get to talk to my brother-in-law. He’d have to talk to God about that.”
Since September 2023, Smith has been in a group home on “temporary leave”, and a medical report states that he remains stable, symptom-free, and medication-compliant.
Police first learned of the crime in December 2011 when Smith told his cousin he wanted “blood on his hands”, only to later admit to eating the victim’s eyes.
In 2012, he was arrested and found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Nonetheless, over a decade later, the psycho killer who ate a man’s brain is back in society and is now a thorn in the flesh in the life of Angel’s sister-in-law.
