THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502270074
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
A Delaware man who shot his three children and then killed himself on the Outer Banks was troubled because his wife had told him three weeks earlier that she and the children were moving to Texas.
Friends of the family say Doug Mont's reaction to Nancy Mont's decision was one of many factors that played into the Feb. 19 shootings in Kill Devil Hills.
``He was always saying that he was going to hurt Nancy in a way that she would never forget,'' said Peggy Granger, Nancy Mont's close friend. ``Now he's done it.''
Doug Mont killed the children with a .357-caliber Magnum that police said he bought the week before in a Delaware gun shop. Then he set their bodies on fire by torching them in his Ford minivan.
As the police closed in on him, he shot himself in the head. For reasons no one has been able to explain, Mont, who lived in Seaford, Del., chose a parking lot in Kill Devil Hills for his crime.
Family members said this week that Doug Mont was diagnosed manic-depressive and once was hospitalized six months for it.
Mont's neighbors, who never suspected that he suffered from mental illness, viewed him as a classic family man.
``He loved those kids,'' said Bob McBride, who lives on the same quiet, tree-lined street as the Monts. ``You just knew it.''
But others who knew him say it seemed he could conceal or reveal two sides of his personality at will.
``On one side is a friendly, warm person,'' Granger told The News & Observer of Raleigh during an interview in Seaford. ``He flips that shade up, and on the other side is the most cruel, vindictive, vengeful person you could ever meet.''
For Doug Mont, the prospect of separation apparently was unbearable. As Granger saw it, Mont decided that if he couldn't see the kids, no one would.
Nancy Mont buried her children - Catrina, 9, Daniel, 6, and Theresa, 4 - on Friday. She spent much of last week sitting on her living room couch, clutching her children's favorite stuffed animals and the quilts she made for each of them when they were born.
From the beginning, Nancy and Doug Mont's marriage had its rough spots, Granger said. After about a year in the Azores while Mont was in the Air Force, Nancy Mont had had enough.
Pregnant with their third child, she decided to move to Seaford, where her parents had just bought a retirement home.
Her sister, Donna Hautz, said Doug Mont's mental problems became evident when he remained in the Azores after his wife left.
``They put him in a hospital and diagnosed him as having bipolar disorder - manic depression,'' Hautz said. ``For six months, he stayed in that hospital and talked about the different ways a person could kill himself.''
About a year after she moved to Delaware, Nancy Mont decided to let her husband move back in.
Then, matters grew worse.
Last May, she concluded that Doug had harmed Theresa, the youngest daughter, Granger said. She told him to get out.
In August, after Nancy Mont accused her husband of unspecified abuse, the couple went to a hearing in family court. Doug Mont denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to vacate the family residence.
He was ordered to stay away from his wife, who was awarded custody of the children.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SUICIDE by CNB