I think the father leaving his phone so Sydney would not know he was coming home is strange. I think she did not have the relationship with them that he claims 😢
@@gingerale1861 Plus that text from the mother to Sydney, asking "why do I feel like I'm being scammed?" when Sydney told her all was fine and her grades were good.
@@jettsomaparents know lmao, if there’s anything i learned as that they can totally tell when you’re lying. she could’ve been saying she had no classes for a while or saying everything is good every day when realistically, it isn’t.
@@gingerale1861he left the phone after he got a call from his wife, she explained that they were waiting for a call from the school with sydney and he was on his way but didn’t want sydney to know since it’s probably nerve wracking
@@gingerale1861honestly I feel like it’s not too strange because it’s a confrontation on a topic that shouldn’t be avoided. Him not wanting to give her the opportunity to prepare a story or leave the house makes sense
There's no shot work is more important than your child dropping out of uni, showing up at home unannounced out of nowhere and acting weird. He obviously could never have known, but this was a reckless move regardless
It’s chilling how the college staff heard it over the phone, then she answered their call back pretending to be the mum. I don’t believe she suffered psychosis…
Also during the time they called back she propably killed her mum in this time... And after she " finished" picked up the phone. Thats truly gruesome...
Meth use for staying awake to cram. Everyone using meth is always diagnosed by some ( SPECIALIST PROFESSIONAL QUACK) to have bipolar, or some schizophrenia, or other false mental disorder. Not all, but so many are just lying on meth.
Is it just me, or can anyone else see the recurring pattern in this story? The alarming frequency of teenagers failing at university and resorting to violence against their parents is hard to ignore. It's evident that there must be a solution to break this tragic cycle.
See this is the thing, I was a failing college student, yes it was embarrassing, yes it was hard, yes I did lie but I never resorted to violence. If anything my dad supported me and helped me figure out my next plan.
I think the young nowadays are under much more pressure to perfom. There is so many ways to get traumatized/stressed out. Hint social media. Not excuses but there is always an explaination. Brain damage or we cannot really know whats behind closed doors at home. Somethings made her nervous long before this horror idk
Depression is very different from psychosis. You don’t loose touch with reality when you’re just depressed. You don’t have hallucinations or delusions.. the 2 aren’t even comparable.
Exactly. Depression is anger turned inward~depressed people harm themselves. And we can all trace blame back to the beginning of time but at the end of day there's personal responsibility and for someone with mental health issues that means taking meds eg. God is love +
I do believe she was sane and alert at the time of the murder. She tells her dad that everything’s fine and dandy, but as soon as he says the cops are on the way it’s a different story, now she’s freaking out. Now she’s curling herself up on the floor and tapping her head on the floor. BS. Rest in peace Brenda Powell 🩵🩵
@@Turdinthepunchbowl yes! Chandler Halderson. Get out of your parent's house if you're going to be a problem. I'd move my kid out and pay for the few months of rent, stock up the kitchen and bath and you're on your own. You'll appreciate your parents a little more.
I found it hard to believe Dad told the truth When He was asked if Sydney and mom ever argue and he said no. Based on mom’s text to Sydney that said “I feel like you’re always scamming me”. For her to have that feeling, trust and believe there’s been some arguments! Just my opinion! No matter how close a mom and child are, u can’t tell me that no arguments have occurred during hormonal teenage years!
Dad struck me as the peacemaker in that household. I suspect he saw his role as pouring oil on troubled waters between his wife and daughter. As you say, it's hard to believe there wasn't at least the usual hormonal, mother-daughter tensions and petty arguments, from time to time. Sydney's ability to lie and manipulate (acknowledged by her Mom in that 'scamming' text), is a huge red flag that she was a handful! I get the impression Brenda was quite a different personality to her husband, ie an assertive woman who knew her own mind, and wasn't afraid to speak it. Old habits die hard. Sydney's father has been keeping the peace in that family for all of her life. Even now the family unit no longer exists, with his wife dead and his daughter locked away in prison, he won't stop. He will continue to sell the lie that Sydney and Brenda were best friends, and their home was a latter-day version of 'The Waltons'. Families are based on so much mutual delusion.
I would be like initially shocked at her latest lie. But as the smoked cleared from my mind and realizing her history of lies, 'take the bull by the horns' and discuss possible resolutions.
The thing that really stood out to me was the mom saying "why do I always feel like you're scamming me". You don't say that without having felt it for a while.
Couldn't agree with you more. There were issues with that girl for some time and the parents don't want to admit it. These things don't just happen overnight. Let along the parents were tracking her on their phones. Red Flag!
Right that stood out to me as well. Tells me that there's some kind of history there. Dad's probably covering for her with that clip of him saying how perfect her and moms relationship was..not a whole lot of mother daughter relationships r without, at least, some kind of problem in it .....
Ive been seeing this so often recently. Everyone needs to tell their kids FAILURE IS OKAY. It doesnt mean youre a horrible person or that you dont have it together. My grandmother always told me when you make a mistake the only time its an issue is if you didnt learn from it. If you learned from it then youre okay. Theres many many people who dont know what they want to do with their lives, im almost 30 and still have no idea wtf im doing im just winging it lol.
Personally I have only learnt what I wanted to do when I was in my 30s, I failed college but started an artistic career that made me so happy, albeit not rich. I have learnt how to live simply, enjoying my job. Your grandma was a very wise woman.
Still, killing is a choice. You do not call your mother. Your argument does not have sense and it is not really related. This girl is a psychopath and a murder.
Well said.. And that's where a lot of these issues are. This younger generation thinks that if you fail at something, or to be average is some type of negative, or as if it's the end of the world. Social Media reminds them that average isn't acceptable and they can't handle it.
@@juliuswilliams6471not just social media, it’s really society as a whole, these kids today are just gonna crack under all this pressure bc they’re still human and no one has empathy for them, especially if they’ve had a silver spoon in they mouth
@@hollygram6065Completely wrong. She had zero diagnosed mental conditions. She is looking for an excuse to cover up her murder. Death penalty for 1st degree murder. If she has a serious mental problem like you say, she should NEVER be around people again. Life without parole in solitary confinement seems reasonable.
@@christopherdunn3094 guilty and many fall for this insane tactic . she got kicked out of school and couldnt face her mom . she tried covering it up, she was very sane
All the mental health specialist say she was in a psychosis and being someone who has had lots of psychotic breaks her behaviour is understandable to me Maybe the medication helped and that’s why she didn’t seem sick during the trial Andrea Yates was a good example of this She needs to be in a psychiatric hospital
she might've had mental health problems but sounds like she lost it completely lost it when her mom confronted her about school. She knew what she was doing. Reminds me of chandler handerson.
@@victoriabrown2534 yeah, the more I learn about him the more pathetic of a person I see him as. He put so much work into make it seem like he was working towards something when in reality he just wanted to sit in his room. Then he just couldn’t handle it when people started finding out. I just don’t get how he could have thought his lies would work forever
@@jakemiller4411I remember him. Many sociopaths are impulsive and don’t think about the long term repercussions or even how to sustain their lies. Same thing with the dude that was with two women, one with a daughter and bought a house telling them both it’s for them. Of course it was going to explode.
Yes, that comment stood out to me as well. In a trusting, loving relationship I can not imagine saying that. Sounds like there were other occasions that built doubt. I am completely confused why murder was the only answer this girl could come up with.
Very well said indeed. There is a difference between mental health issue and insanity. We can't always use mental health as an excuse when crimes happen.
Isn't the latter just a little more extreme version of the former? Isn't insanity a form of mental health issues? arent mental health issues a mild form of insanity?
Sooooo… not only did she lie to her dad and said things are fine until she’s notified the cops are coming, lie and say there was an intruder and actually break the window to support the intruder story, but she also answered her school call and tried to pretend she was her mom. She was definitely sane.
A schizophrenic person is completely capable of doing that. There will generally be some strange statements involved but they’re still able to plot & scheme.
@@loudtim265even if she was suffering from schizophrenia at the time, all of that evidence points to her knowing what she was doing, and knowing it was wrong
@@loudtim265 lol give it a rest she was thrown out of school and couldnt face her mom for it , her cell phone history showed normal activity including social media . insane ppl do not stage a crime scene because they dont know right from wrong , and no need to coverup a murder
@@tankthearc9875Google is free. It sounds impossible, but a mentally i’ll schizophrenic person can do all those things. She definitely knew what she was doing.
The jury got it right, thankfully! I watched a lot of the video of the trial, and her poor father. I don't know how he's even able to love/hate his daughter and go through the trial. He lost the two loves of his life that day. Her mother's comment about feeling scammed by her all the time could have been the triggering event. It's no excuse whatsoever.
Why is it like no mentally ill person i have seen so far has killed himself or harmed himself?? If thy know not to harm themselves thn how can they be called as mentally ill or diagnosed with this or tht mental illness???
That was an odd comment for someone reported as an expert in dealing with troubled kids and in a close caring relationship with her daughter, who by all accounts was a worrier when it came to impressing her parents and teachers. She was a model student and suddenly at college age she starts behaving very different? That's a classic sign that she was either abused at college or symptomatic of a mental breakdown. But her mother took it as scamming her because she couldn't perform and didn't want to disappoint everyone.
@@pakde8002her moms feelings are valid. She felt scammed because Sydney kept lying. If Sydney was truly having a psychotic break she wouldn’t have known to try to stage the crime to look like a break in
@@clairewillow6475could be a drug induced phycosis. But they never stated if she started doing drugs or not. Certain types of drugs can induce phitzophrenia and/or phycosis. I knew a person who tried to poison her whole family because she thought they were all out to get her. She was on methamphetamine and other drugs and had been (in secret) for years.
She had clarity of mind to lie to dad and tried it with mom. She had clarity of mind to take the Dean's call, pretended to be her mum, Brenda and when she realised the cops were at her house, tried to stage the crime scene and lied to the police. Now these paid for professionals are trying to say she had a psychotic episode and shes schizophrenic? Yeah she does NOW because she killed her mom. That trauma she created will haunt her for the rest of her life.
I’m not saying she met the legal definition of insanity. You don’t seem to understand that people in a state of psychosis can do these things- lie and cover up a crime scene. They’re not suddenly mentally disabled. They’re in a psychotic state where they have delusions and are acting in accordance with them. It has to be a situation where they don’t know they’re doing something wrong at the time they killed someone, though. For example, in this case the person might think her mom was an intruder, trying to kill her, or another situation where she didn’t know it was wrong. The person might clean a crime scene thinking they killed a leader of a group of people who are trying to kill them and hide the body so the rest don’t see it and come back to try to kill them. Something like that. Still can function. I don’t see it in this case but it’s a thing that has happened before in a case of insanity. What is the hardest part about actual cases of such is that 9/10 times the person could have been okay if they were diagnosed early enough, medicated, & taught how to manage it. The younger you catch it, the better you are in most cases. The age she was is when it usually first appears. Mid to late teens and they suggest it started in high school. I think she had schizophrenia but I don’t know if, or think that, she committed the murder in a state of mind that fits the legal criteria of insanity, still.
@apeyoutube7485 why does the first psychotic episode she has end in her murdering her mom. She didn't have other minor episodes before this? I'm not buying it. Even people with psychosis show some signs before they get murdery
Absolutely believe she was sane, I just can't believe she had a psychotic break when her mother was talking to the university staff. What I believe she had was, " I'm busted"
Exactly, it hit a boiling point she could not escape, so it consumed her mind. She lied for way too long and did not know how to handle the actual truth.
I just can’t understand how someone who experiences a “psychotic break” can be considered sane in that moment of time? 🤷🏼♀️ In my view, a psychotic episode should be considered an episode of insanity. My heart breaks for the Powell family 😢
If she was so sane then why would she do it while her poor mom was on the phone? And, knowing she was on the phone, then answer and pretend to be her? And then tell her dad that everything was fine? That does not seem sane to me. I don't really support the girl, either, I'm on the fence. I'd personally need to see more then this video to make a determination. But from this video alone I would not side with the jury.
I don’t know why I’m on the edge cause she did have a psychotic break maybe she was also aware but I know cause I’ve had a few one lasted for 6 months and I was not in reality
Her mom texted her, “Why do I always feel like you’re scamming me?” I don’t think she would have said that openly if she hadn’t been thinking that for a while. As much as I want to believe she was mentally insane at the time of her mother’s murder, the facts just don’t line up.
Her mother felt like she was being manipulated. Something her daughter is doing during this whole thing. If you ever know someone like this, they are the most terrible people. Seems like her dad and other family members didn't ever hold her accountable for anything. So when she is out in the real world and doesn't get away with it, she loses her mind.
She is just like Chandler Halderson. Psychopaths roaming around among us 🥺. As well as Antonio Junior. The kid who killed mum and dad. Took 4 trials to finally convict him.
As a former therapist, it appears that families spend less time in promoting character traits (honesty) and teaching problem solving than they do talking about grades and sports.
@@HKim0072Actually no . School and sports are where they can have experiences but how they interpret those experiences and act and process it depends on their character traits which is taught and learned at home. You don't just think life will teach your kids the lessons they need. It is us parents who teach them how to see things and what is the right thing to do.
@@gracie30ish Lots of kids have shitty lives at home and find refuge in sports and school. Always amusing how people make definitive conclusions off their own experiences and can't expand beyond it.
@@HKim0072 You missed my point and you missed the point of the person you commented on before me lol. What we're saying is character traits are taught by parents just like if you're an envious child and your parents didn't scold you or taught you that you shouldn't be envious. You are going to school and do sports and view those experiences through your envious mind. You talk about people with shitty lives at home you are talking about the situation and that wasn't what I and the person you commented on was talking about. And you are amused about my conclusion well maybe you should open your mind more and take a step back before you believe what you think is perfectly right. Or else you will always be amused while missing other people's point.
Her hyperventilating right at the beginning sounded so fake. It immediately reminded me of Chacey Poynter, the woman that cheated on her husband with loads of men, then planned with a boyfriend to kill him. Her hyperventilating in the ambulance was a memorable absurdity! As was this girl's! May Brenda Rest in Peace xxx 🙏🏻
Oh yes and in the cop car ..God her acting was AWFUL !😂 my.......husband......got....got .....got....hurt.....and.....i.....i....😂😂😂I was like lady SHE DID IT IN THE FIRST 2MIN NOBODY HYPERVENTILATES LIKE THAT AND STUDERS 😅 SHE WAS A CLASSIC
Her father confirmed in court that he left his phone at work so as not to alert Sydney that he was driving home via the @360 app, which suggests he suspected all was not well.
@@tarachristensen3848 You didn't listen. He went home when the girl arrived, her mother was not HOME at that time. He was asking her daughter about what has happened, and called her mother to talk to her from work and the father went back to work.
@@tarachristensen3848 doesn't seem like that. You can accept your faults. Don't be like this girl. Just say, thank you for raising this. Don't have to be perfect. It's ok to miss the detail.
@@iammz81I’m not sure where you came from. My first comment wasn’t to you so I’m confused as to why you felt the need to reply. I’m also not interested in engaging in your childish keyboard warrior crap, so go find someone else to troll and have a good day! 😊
Watch at the end when they’re reading her charges how she is “sniffling, putting Kleenex up to eyes”, but yet no tears…not one tear, streams down her face. Chilling.
Schizophrenia doesn't turn you into a murderer. She didn't want to face the fact that she was failing and couldn't tell her parents. You dont kill your mother because you flunked out of college. She's a monster. RIP Brenda❤
@@serendavies7375 I’m saying theirs a lot of individuals who have murdered people because they are having a schizophrenic episode. It was to the commenters point of it not turning you into a murdering though true , their is still countless cases of the opposite being true as well.
Unfortunately I don't think it's even top 5 of cases where someone takes the path of murder due to web of lies they created (and as someone pointed it out, were starting to see more and more of those type of motives). I think one of worst (not that all of them are not absolutely horrific) is John List, who murdered his whole family (wife, mother, three kids) to cover up his lies and failures. He cut himself out of every single picture and planned it all so we'll that no one even noticed the family was missing for a month. He went on his merry way, assumed a new identity and was caught almost 20 years later due to an age progression sculpture done by quite legendary guy in this type of thing Frank Bender, featured on America's most wanted. He had almost nothing to go on and yet his sculpture was almost identical to List when they found him. Eerie similar case come from France where Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès murdered his wife and four kids and again run away. I think he's still not been caught and his family believes they are all alive, despite their bodies being found under the house (it's quite a crazy part in already crazy story. He told them they are going to US into witness protection, because they will testify against some drug lord, absolutely ridiculous stuff he pulled out of his ass, but they believe him). Weirdly enough, another case like that and again it happened in France! Jean-Claude Romand murdered his wife, children, his parents, and attempted to murder his mistress to cover that for the past 18 years he lied about being a doctor. I know it's not a contest, but these dudes annihilated their whole families... Jesus. Another biggie and possibly most known od these type of cases in US is Chandler Halderson's case. When his lies came out he murdered and dismembered his parents, throwing them out like trash, piece by piece (one part even on the property of his girlfriend's parents). Or Grant Amato's case. He murdered both of his parents AND his brother. And for what? A cam girl. He had a cam girl addition, stole from them, so he can buy time with her and lied about who he is, his status etc. They cut him off from money and told the cam girl and other people in the community surrounding that specific girl that he lied, he was unemployed, lived with them and stole to buy her time. When he learnt that, he snapped and murdered them. It's scary how often shit like this actually happens. The first case I mentioned reminded me immediately of Joel Guy Jr. While he didn't murder his parents to cover his lies, his story is interested enough to mention. He murdered and dismembered both of his parents, because they wanted to retire and said they will stop supporting him (he was 28 or 29 at the time btw...) There's a body cam footage of officers just doing a wellness check and stumbling upon random pair of limbs not attached to anything. I think he also boiled his mother's head in a pot.
The thing is that the cat was already out of the nag. Her parents knew what was going on and she knew they knew so I dont understand her logic by committing the crime
@@Monika-bc3dqwhile those cases are definitely more vicious and thought out, this girl is still on par with the behavioral issues that these same men had. I think if she had the opportunity, she, too would have fled and never looked back. In a way, she tried to, by claiming insanity so that she would be absolved of the crime
I lost my mom to cancer when i was 16yo. She was everything i had and it had a massive effect on my whole life after. I am furious watching this right now!!! I dont understand how anyone cannot cherish their moms!!
I hate when psychiatrists make excuses for evil. I was a 3.9 gpa in high school and dropped out of college because I didn’t thrive and wasn’t doing well. Guess what I didn’t do.
Thank you for saying this. I was thinking the same thing. Not thriving in school can be devastating for anyone and mentally triggering, even unbearable but that doesn’t equate to insanity.
It amazes me that these teenagers think they can act their way out of a murder charge. As soon as Sydney opened her mouth, it's obvious she's putting it on.
Her Family begged the state not to take it to Trial and give her community Service.He Whole Family was on her side those Defense Experts had them Fooled but the Jury Wasn't.
you being sarcastic right? like it’s no way they really asked for community service for a murder trial without realizing how stupid that sounds .. yes it’s very unfortunate that their family had already lost Brenda but Sydney for the rest of her life as well .. I could’ve understood the plea for community service if she committed a nonviolent crime like stealing clothes from the mall , possession of drugs , etc like typical teenager but she killed her mother .. like not only did she repeatedly hit her mother in the head with a skillet she doubled down & proceeded to stab her in the neck fuck that minimum of 15yrs when you do heinous crimes like this it should be no possibility of parole
I’m so happy the jurors saw through the lies , thankfully they stood up for a mother who was brutally murdered by a conniving daughter , someone needed to care about this mother ❤️
the way she replied to her mom when her mom was reminding her about her grades and that if she doesn’t keep her grades up, she’ll lose her scholarship was all I needed to know about her character. She seems like she keeps up a face of this perfect, kind, driven young lady but she’s a completely different person underneath that. Most likely her and her mom got into an argument regarding school and her lying about it, because clearly keeping up this facade would disappoint any parent. Then her mom contacts the school , clearly now she’s irritated probably because her mom is treating her like a kid and stepping on her toes and she probably does not like people pointing out her wrongs. Then them calling her back and seeing her mom get on the phone with the school board pissed her off and she snapped. The dad saying they never argued or had any issues was just naive. The daughter was literally being snippy and passive aggressive and we only heard one text message. You can also tell the father wasn’t really a disciplinary figure and kind of left all the issues to the mom so she knew she could get over on them. Sad situation.
I agree. Starting college and trying to live independently while juggling the responsibilities of class workloads is a huge stressor. Once things start dropping, they just start to spiral. I think she was incredibly stressed and just snapped when her mom went on the call with the student services.
She's a perfectionist, that one panicking about no seeing the number was very telling. Tis girl isn't right in her mind n the way minor inconvenient could make her lost herself all the way like that, is quite scary.
The dad is the kind of dad who thinks putting a roof over his family's head and providing for them is where his responsibilities end. If you asked that dad any details of his daughters life like her friends' names, her minor subjects and etc. He wouldn't know a thing. I'd be surprised if he remembered when her birthday was. The daughter is also hella manipulative
@@kimyeona7628 A perfectionist, a narcissist and master manipulator. I don't, for one second, buy her excuse that she couldn't see the numbers which was why she had to do the presentation at another day. She manipulates and makes excuses so her well-crafted facade of the perfect student stays intact. Everyone goes through hell in college. Heck! My last semester I took 32 units in 1 semester because I was a transfer and wanted to graduate with my batch which also meant that I had to do my thesis all alone. All that while dealing with then undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
I'm father and grandfather, what a nightmare for the family, especially the father and husband. Seeing him in court is heartbreaking to me. He seems to be a soft person. He'll be a broken man.
💯 and you can tell he blames himself for not waiting for his wife to get home but it’s NOT his fault. He could have never imagined that would have happened
@@shay4415 I would like to know more about the Powell family dynamics here, to get better insights into how this shocking, violent murder happened - and where the killer's rage came from. It's interesting that the father deliberately left his cellphone at work, so his daughter Sydney would not know he was coming home to talk to her about flunking college. Seems the parents were in the habit of thinking strategically, and treading carefully around their daughter. Had she shown previous signs of mental illness, or perhaps a personality disorder like Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Her father presented on the witness stand as a gentle character, who was potentially manipulated/dominated by his daughter. One has to wonder what kind of personality the victim, her mother, was? As a professional child behaviourist, I suspect Brenda was more assertive with their daughter, and played the 'bad cop' role in confrontations. The phone call from Sydney's college to her Mom that day, appears to have been the trigger for her brutal, fatal attack. The $hit had finally hit the fan - the college was about to expose her as a failure, in a telephone show-down with her mother. Sydney could not allow that conversation to take place. Her escalating lies and deceptions had caught up with her, and she could not face it. I believe Sydney is a narcissist - and one thing a narcissist cannot handle, is SHAME.
I’ve seen ppl acting completely normal, laughing, talking, smiling going about their day as usual, then all of sudden they have a psychotic episode out of now where. We’ve had to call 911 and they would be placed on a 72 hour hold. They would come back to the Inpatient rehab facility I worked at and feel completely embarrassed and super apologetic. They didn’t remember most of it and terrified it would happen again.
I wonder if she had some type of neurological condition, also. The first symptoms of my seizures involved not being able to recognize letters/numbers in my teens. And psychiatric symptoms often coexist with neurologic/metabolic conditions 🤷... It's definitely terrifying, I've told my Drs that even if I didn't have previous psychiatric problems I definitely would after all the years of undiagnosed seizures that people/Drs told me were "anxiety" 🙄. I feel sorry for her that she was asking people for help and nobody thought to recommend a neurologist or psychiatrist at least... I can't believe this happened so recently. it's like our society's mental/neurological-health awareness hasn't improved much in the last 30 years 😓
oh please. she had no signs of it until the day she butchered her mother. those people had a documented history. you said they had to "come back" to the facility. they also didn't make up stories during their episode. can you please stop defending a murdering piece of trash?
Nothing Bizarre about this case ! She murdered her mother in cold blood and she knew exactly what she was doing ! She wasn't insane or she wouldn't have been able to concict a story about an intruder ! Glad the jury got it right ! 🙏👍🏴
It's so sad to see her dad get emotional when talking about the fact that he left before Brenda got home.... you can tell he regrets it and maybe takes some of the blame. but he shouldn't because who would ever think something like this could happen after they left
She knew exactly what she was doing when attacking her mother. She would rather take her moms life than to admit that she failed out of school 😢. Her pride was her downfall
She's the female Chandler Halderson. I had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of college in my senior year. You know what I did? Told my parents! Yes, they were disappointed. They were upset. They thought I was being irresponsible and they worried about my future. But I never thought about killing them. That's insane! Instead, they got me help and I eventually finished college and ended up having a really successful career. My mental illness is under control with the help of therapy and medications and has been for a long time. Dropping out of school isn't the end of the world, especially now when you can get your degree online. That's how I was able to finish. Your parents may be pissed, they may even kick you out, but that's still a better scenario than killing them and ending up in prison for the rest of your life. And these killers like Sydney, Chandler, and even Grant Amato are REALLY stupid. They always try to blame the killing on someone else when it's so obvious that they did it. I swear they think detectives and juries are idiots who will ignore the mountain of evidence against them. (BTW Someone having a psychotic break and murdering someone while they're "out of their mind," would not have the foresight to break a window to stage a break in and then tell everyone that there was an intruder. I personally know someone who killed his mother in a fit of psychosis. By the time the cops got there, he just said, "I killed her." He didn't try to invent some crazy story, he told them the truth: He was hallucinating and had no idea what he was doing.)
@@southernmama7606 you clearly don’t understand what psychosis is. It isn’t losing your temper or freaking out in a situation. It is truly losing grasp on what reality is. You believe things that are clearly untrue to the average person and see and hear stuff that is not actually happening
Because you have mental illness and she was insane. You said it yourself in the first paragraph of your youtube thesis there: 'You know what I did? Told my parents! Yes, they were disappointed. They were upset. They thought I was being irresponsible and they worried about my future. But I never thought about killing them. That's insane!' You aren't insane, and most people now have a little pathology I would say. It's the natural consequence of being the smartest monkeys. She literally has documented existence of previous auditory and visual hallucinations. It don't get much nuttier than that, lady.
I think Sydney is a perfectionist that didn't know how to handle not being perfect in college. I can relate to this because I was a straight-A honor roll student that struggled with the newfound freedoms and distractions of college life. It sounds like her parents were very supportive, loving people that likely would have understood if she needed to take time off to refocus for her mental health. Instead Sydney backed herself into a corner by internalizing her situation until the moment was about to be revealed that she was not perfect, and she lashed out at the one person who cared about her most.
@LeeLee1985Official I think because her mom was there and about to talk to the school. I do think this girl was way stressed out & having mental issues but clearly was not insane as she had the forethought to not let her mom here & to stage a break-in. I think she felt desperate, ashamed, a failure, etc.
For a video that was done so well, with all of the police and courtroom footage, I don't know how you dropped the ball at the end with "she is yet to be sentenced." She was sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, back on September 28th.
@@ellybean5868 Did it ever cross your mind that they could have updated the last tidbit of the video with the pertinent information if that were in fact the case, son? Not too hard to make an edit.
It's very clear she has mental health issues but I don't think she was insane when she committed the act. I think she was so desperate to hide her failure due to all the pressure she was under that she killed her mom. I don't think she planned to do it but when mom got a call back from the University, she went into panic mode and killed. No doubt in my mind she tried to cover it up.
What do you mean "it's very clear she has mental issues" there was NO evidence she ever had mental issues until she killed her mother. She then SELF REPORTED that she heard voices. Also, her own mental experts called this her first psychotic episode, just when she killed her mother. Plus the state's expert found she was pretending to have mental issues which is very easy these days, and the state's expert pointed out that in ALL of the thousands of pages she reviewed of emails, texts, online searches, and other indicia of communications the girl made not ONE of them showed a girl with any psychotic features at all. ONLY AFTER SHE KILLED HER MOTHER did she suddenly have mental breaks.
Yes, I agree. And I still believe she is schizophrenic, and was in psychosis. You can still have a break with reality and know right from wrong, as evidenced by her attempting to cover up the murder.
For sure! Because how would she explain her mom's sudden and convenient disappearance to him? Chandler Halderson took out his dad first, then waited for his mom to come home.
there's literally like 15 separate clips in this video alone of Sydney crying at multiple points where her mother and their relationship are mentioned, why are true crime fans such disgusting braindead savages, jesus fucking christ.
She's the female Chandler Halderson. Her mom texting "why do I always feel like you are scamming me?" tells me she was completely sane, a liar and a manipulator but totally sane.
I got put on academic probation due to my grades dropping, and I was utterly embarrassed. When I actually got kicked out of school, I told my parents even though I was humiliated. They worked with me to file an appeal, and it was accepted and I went back to school. They helped sign me up for tutoring. I graduated on the deans list. Sometimes owning up to these things and asking for help can turn things completely around. I wish she had just honestly spoken to her mom about it…I know they would have helped her.
She is someone who never learned to face her problems or ask for help. Look at how calm and understanding her dad was. All she had to do was sit down and talk it over and things would have been worked out one way or another.
I know right?! So bizarre. I fecked up at uni and I kept going. I didn't get kicked out but I was so miserable being there. I kept going home. I kept being sick. My mum took me to the doctor. In the end it was my doctor who said 'you don't need to go to uni if it's not right for you ' I immediately went home told my parents I wanted to leave and felt a huge burden lifted from my shoulders 🤗
@@LittleBlueOwl318 integrity means being honest about who you are, in every aspect. As a mother, I think it’s wrong to have high expectations for your child but not helping them achieve those expectations. While I believe Sydney is in the wrong here, I also know that allowing her daughter to be so controlling is what let Sydney to believe she could kill her mother without consequences. She never had them before, but also was scared of how her mother would react. As a mother, you should remain consistent and stable for the child, so they know how to regulate themselves based on our reactions, as parents. Of course, people are their own. But children are a lot like their parents.
I was in a similar situation at her age. I went to an all-girls private high school and was dealing with anxiety, depression, “body image” issues starting in my junior year. (Not sure what terms would get me banned from YT). I went away to college which turned into the freedom to continue those behaviors to the point that I stopped going to lectures because my stomach would growl in a silent room of 500 students. My focus became perfecting the strict routine of succeeding at getting away with what was destroying me. I avoided my parents visiting because the change was drastic all the while feeling the impending doom of my grades dropping by the day. I knew it was going to be the end of college, freedom, any financial help, trust, etc. And it was. My parents were going to be pissed to a scary degree. Bottom line: It was going to be absolute hell when my dad found out. Hellish hell. And it was. I came clean about all of it. It sucked for a very long time, but I put myself in that position. I beat myself up for it…because it was MY fault. Not my parents’. My point is that I struggled with mental health issues, addiction, etc. for 15 years and life blows sometimes, but in my case, I created that. This is just a whiny little brat unwilling to own her own crap. She just took out her biggest and only fan club. 💔
I was shocked to hear that she was out of custody and living with her grandmother before the trial, and she was having enough difficulty with her mental health that they had to adjust her medication..... If her grandmother had confronted her for some problem, she may have snapped and killed her also. They can't have it both ways....either she's mentally ill enough that she killed a loved one (then she should have stayed in mental institution until her trial), OR she's cold-blooded enough to kill a loved one and then has the presence of mind to create a fabricated story (then she should have been kept in jail until her trial).
Mental health is NOT insanity. I'm so tired of society using mental health, stress, and/or trauma as an excuse to evade, ignore, and /or get out of consequences to harming others.
It is insanity though. Mental health is a descriptive term, and a level of very low mental health is quite literally the definition of insanity…. 3 different people with doctorate degrees who dedicated their entire lives to the study of psychology testified that she was insane. We need to stop throwing these people in a prison cell only for them to deteriorate further and make the overall problem much worse for society… These types of cases need different types of sentences, where people like this can be sentenced to a facility similar to a prison but is dedicated to psychiatric rehabilitation. We need to stop throwing people in prison and pretending it somehow works, because our statistics clearly disprove it. We have the largest prison population in the entire world despite not being one of the largest countries by population and we also have the highest rate of recidivism in the world. When are we actually going to do something about this?
@@PinkoKaneWhen did anyone say anything about gender? Both men and women are capable of and have not taken responsibility for their terrible actions. You sound like an incel. Evil does not discriminate. It is present in both genders.
She had excellent grades, had neurotypical tendencies and her interests reflect that. She probably built up a ton of pressure on herself, and concocted an image of effortless prestige to ensure her parents were proud of her, but things change. Emotions fluctuate, and Sydney probably had a severe bout of depression and a sense that her life was spiraling out of control, so instead of letting it be known to the world, she implodes. This is a super tragic story, but it's not even remotely uncommon. She had a wonderful relationship with her mom, but both parents were on the verge on learning the truth, and instead of letting the mask slip, Sydney probably thought in a moment of utter mania that rather than deal with the criticism and the requisite guilt that comes from it, she'd silence the critic....Which of course is ironic, given that she now has to live with the knowledge that her entire life story would be known to the public -- lies and all.
as someone who is both schizophrenic and struggling with college, cases like this make me so upset and angry. I understand her struggle, and i understand how horrifying it is to tell your parents the truth after lying but never have i felt the audacity or the privilege to kill my parents or anyone else because even through my psychosis, i understand that my actions are still my own. god this sucks. edit- especially when their families were so loving and actively would have helped them if they needed help. how can you be so privileged and still do something so heinous. disgusting. and faking schizophrenia??? bitch it’s a lifelong thing, and it can be triggered but it’s not rapid onset ommgggg….
An correct me if I'm wrong, you can't really conceal schizophrenia. From what I know its pretty apparent when someone is suffering from a severe mental illness.
I have borderline personality disorder and I'm pissed they blamed it on this. I would never do anything like she did. I do have a problem with interpersonal relationships but I take it all out on myself.
People with unresolved parental issues in the comments blaming the parents for "putting too much pressure on Sydney" She used TWO weapons to kill her mother which means she either brought both to the bedroom or she went back and forth from the kitchen to get the knife/cast-iron skillet. THEN she staged the scene after finding out the police were on the way and lied to them about a break-in. She's a murderer. Her parents were too hard on her? She had a brother, he didn't kill anyone. Give me a BREAK.
I agree, if she truly had a mental problem, it would have been spur of the moment and she wouldn’t have tried to stage the scene. She knew what she did wrong, and will have to pay for consequences of her actions.
I wish more people would closely think about that part -- actually being able to walk away, retrieve another weapon, and return to finish killing her mother. The about of deliberation that takes is astounding.
This almost could have been the description of my daughter. Perfectionist throughout high school, scared to death of failure, anxiety and panic attacks, self harm….etc. We did hospitalize her where we heard and saw the same exact story over and over again. Hospital unit was overflowing with girls from Middle-Upper class families who exhibited the same symptoms. Major difference was while we were/are very close, we fought like cats and dogs and more importantly we sought professional help in her junior year of high school. We recognized there were issues we were not able to deal with. Therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and a LOT of love, acceptance and judgement-free zones have pushed us over the hump. She is now a 21 yo living her best life. Yes, we still have some issues but she knows that as a team we will work together to overcome whatever it is. So important for parents to learn how to parent this Gen Z generation…..they are different.
Bless you for not ignoring her struggles. There's also some evidence of younger generations stressing over climate change and governments not doing enough to combat it. It's got to feel hopeless not knowing if the planet will sustain you long enough to even have a future 😢.
Kids don't just develop fear of failure out of nowhere. It is ALWAYS the parents that plant the idea of needing to EARN their love with social achievements. No kid ever gave a f about grades or achievements without parental pressure. The fact that you admit there was fighting in the family, shows that the environment was toxic. Kids living with loving, accepting parents do not develop anxiety. PERIOD.
@@thecommonchumps3937whew, your comment is….interesting. It is not always the parents actually. Childhood anxiety can be caused by the home environment but can also be caused by bullying, peer rejection, trauma such as death of a close family member or friend. There are numerous causes of anxiety in kids and there are plenty of kids who seek peer validation more than parental validation. Depending on the school, that level of competition can occur peer to peer. I say that from first hand experience. Your response screams negative personal experiences within your home growing up. All parents go back and forth with their teenage children. That is par for the course unless you believe in not actually parenting.
@apriljk6557 Its because of you people are lying about the climate. Constant doomsday scenarios and fear campaigns have taken their toll on young people....I hope you are proud of yourselves for harming young people more than the climate has.
@@thecommonchumps3937you sound Ludicrous bc that’s like saying that a S£RIAL K!LL£R can’t be bred from a “loving” TWO PARENT household Or like implying if you Grew up with TWO, loving parent Home, who communicated and coddle these Gen Z and 🆙 kids, even sought out help for them if they appeared to need it, can NOT produce children who grow to be adults and may get out here in get on fkn drug$🤌🏾👌🏾👏🏾🙄🥴🤦🏾♀️😂😭😂😂😭😂😭 you get mfs in families with Mental issues and NOBODY else in the family has any, whether their Loved or you consider it a “good household” or NOT, all types of shiii CAN and DOES happen and having the best family, most money or best support team sometimes MEANS NOTHING 😂😂Grow uppppp and think with some logic and expeditiously 🥴😭😭😭😭😭😭
It's not easy being a parent. I've always told my kids to do their best and if they needed help, to come to us or their teachers. Even in elementary school, I told them, in front of their teachers, that the teachers are here to help and to not be afraid to ask for it. It's ok to be less than perfect.
My youngest daughter found it hard to continue being away from home and became depressed during her senior year of college. She was afraid she would disappoint me if she took a break and moved to a university closer to home, but she didn't think about unaliving me. Instead, she acted like an adult, told me what was going on, we made a plan and everything worked out fine. She graduated after a short break and a move closer to home.
It is truly heartbreaking that the person you brought into this world, whom you dedicated your life to, could be the same person who would also ruthlessly end your life.
I think she panicked when she saw/heard her mom on the phone with university authorities and realised her secret was out. She irrationally hit her mother to stop the conversation, but ended up in a worse situation that if she had just left her mom on the call. She definitely knew what she was doing.
Wow~ I am totally not making excuses for this girl but something was definitely wrong either emotionally or mentally ill and attitudes like this one doesn't help the problems in our society at all~ yes, it was a horrific act but we have no idea what Sydney was going through~ hate breeds hate~ hate in the heart is actually the first step towards murder.
@@patrickmcdonagh539drs do say schizophrenia can present around the age of 20. There was a kid in Canada who killed his mom cuz he snapped from mental illness much like this girl. His dad was a lawyer and mom a nurse. He was also top student popular then Spiraled then on day killed his mom. No motive that mks any sense just like this case. His story is on UA-cam channel “real stories my schizophrenia killed my mother” very disturbing
It’s weird to say that a strong sense of failure would make you fail to reach out and then be homicidal when in actuality it would make you suicidal. BUT if you’re a narcissistic brat with anxiety who doesn’t want people to see who you really are and will do anything to hide it--THAT makes sense.
The father speaking in court truly broke my heart . You can tell he is & was a gentle soul & a great father husband & provider for his family . He did everything right , this just broke my heart listening to him answer the questions . I hope he is able to find some type of peace in life after all of this ❤
I think embarrassment and stress really took a toll on her. She couldn’t get over herself. She attached her grades to her self worth and could no longer hide her failure from her parents. This was not ok. She knew what she was doing and she had no idea how to handle it other than take her own mother’s life. It was senseless, and cruel. She could’ve asked for help.
@@debby8428I don't think that's what she is saying.. I think she's just pointing out that the immense stress could have be related to that to make her snap
There seems to be a major disconnect between the parents and the kids. It's like in Sydney's mind if she failed her mother would no longer love and support her so she killed her rather than deal with the rejection. I don't know it's a weird one but we really don't know what goes on behind closed doors. On the outside they seemed like a healthy functioning family but they obviously were not.
Yeah, let's find whatever excuse we can in order to take some of the blame off of the poor little girl with mental health issues (issues that doctors can't even agree on) and place it on the rest of the family! At the end of the day, the only think you CAN'T argue is that she murdered her own mother, staged a crime scene and now must do her time behind bars where she should be.
Who cares what her problem is? She murdered her mother!!!!! There is no excuse. There is no justification. There seems to be a big disconnect between you and reality...
This girl sailed through early school years really untested. The subject matter was pretty easy and she seemed to have had tons of support. She was neither mentally, nor academically prepared for university. She seems to have anxiety issues related to her being a perfectionist in everything she does. As long as things are easy, she’s fine. I’d say she is narcissistic and immature. Possibly has parents who may have been a little overprotective, but that’s not a fault. She definitely wasn’t suffering from psychosis or having a psychotic break. Her acting skills need work if that’s what she thought she could sell law enforcement. She just could not handle her life’s fairy tale story not going her way and I think her conviction was fair. I feel so sorry for her family .
I suppose that nowadays, losing your temper is diagnosed as psychotic mental breaks and such, and therefore (by some) concluded one should be further coddled rather than duly punished... This is the day we're in...sadly.
A friend did the same thing. She lied about going and graduating. She fled and joined the navy instead. This girl should have done the same thing. My cousin just needed structure in her life. She is doing better now.
Thank you so much for making this! I constantly saw her trial but wanted to know the full story but couldn’t find any of these types of videos, and now I have one with one of my favorite narrators! 😊
Insane? When did she have the presence of mind to impersonate her mother in communication with the University, to tell her father that her mother was talking to University satff while she lay dying? And above all, thinking in a matter of seconds about faking a scene involving an intruder when she knew the police were on their way? No way, with anxiety/borderline personality/whatever, she knew very well right from wrong.
Yeah, even if it were true that she has something like schizophrenia, the amount of effort (and lying) put into the murder/coverup is generally something that a judge or jury would say overrides the insanity defense. Even if you were technically insane at the time, based on the diagnostic definition, as long as you knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime, you're going to jail in 99.9% of those cases (and the lying is proof that she knew she was doing something wrong). But based on what friends/family have said about her, she's not insane regardless, so it's a moot point. [Edit: I made this comment before watching the rest of the video, where the state basically makes the same argument.] I actually failed out of a college after partying too much and I had basically stopped going to classes. I tried to do better the next semester, but it wasn't quite enough to get me out of academic probation, so I technically failed out. I was so ashamed (and afraid), that I kept it a secret from my parents up until literally the day I was supposed to head back to school - in fact, my mom was driving me the 2-hour ride up to the school when I finally couldn't keep up the ruse any longer, and just told her. She was definitely disappointed. But I later went to a community college and got better grades. Sydney was basically trying to pull off the same ruse, and when it got to the breaking point, she probably just felt so ashamed that she thought killing her parents was just inevitable (which is stupid, but I definitely understand the mindset - you're so ashamed that you'd rather *kill* them than have them be disappointed in you like that).
@@matthewdekker6064 Good for you but, like you, many have "failed" and have hidden it for a while, they have felt frustrated and ashamed... If you are really ashamed, ask for forgiveness, under no circumstances can I find in that an explanation for what she did.
Life is getting more expensive and difficult. The pressure to be successful is more than other because only people with masters can buy a house right now. I feel her stress. I dont forgive or forget her mistake. But i do feel like when i was in school i was nearing a psychotic break. I only did my homework at 2 am to 5 am because it was quiet and my parents didnt bother me (and it was the only time i had to my dads computer) and attended classes at 11 am to 3 pm. I lost track of sleep, i remember listening to some very obvious billy eilish music and thinking "i cant do this" But luckily I just rage quit my schooling, paid it off, and started working full time. Honestly, work is better than college. To me
Sydney does NOT have schizophrenia! I live with one and have for years, even through their psychosis. She is sane and knew exactly what she was doing! There’s no way she could have watched The Bachelor or anything else, and there’s no way that her friends could not have noticed. BPD, or bipolar maybe, but definitely sane.I’m not a Dr. just speaking of my own personal experience with a loved one.
I am speaking out of my clinical experience as a medical professional when I say that your "opinion" about your friend's schizophrenia does not necessarily have to coincide with this young girl. Even if she was not schizophrenic, if she hears voices she is schizophrenic. These are just medical terminologies. A clear diagnosis said so, and this isn't just my "opinion". I will use this as an acronym for my studies. Two people who both have schizophrenia might behave very differently, yet they were talking about psychosis, which is way worse to have than just "schizophrenia" when you are in it. Which also might explain why she killed her mother. The expert lulling that most people with psychosis are apathic is also total bullshit, while some may become manic indeed. Quite as manic as she was behaving during the video on the crime scene. Do mind that her behavior is only a reflection of her mental state. Also, if you kill someone you won't just become manic. If you killed someone you would most likely be proud or silent, or laughing hysterically. Please don't misinform people, and watch the videos we made for a hospital called Living With Schizophrenia... which most of the stories in this series although acted by me, are stories of people who killed themselves because they couldn't find help. That is how it feels, which came across in her behavior as well as her actions, trying to mitigate what I think is an "accident". That is my opinion. This girl needs help and not prison time.
When you see someone in active psychosis, you know there is no way they are faking. It is exhausting just to watch. Heartbreaking isn't even the word for it.
I had a nervous breakdown in front of a doctor and his receptionist. Apparently the other patients waiting cared more than the doctor who had messed up my meds and I had gone without them for 48 hours. I ended up breaking from reality and threatened to kill the doctor. They cared that little and were so under educated they threw me out of the surgery (UK) A waiting patient tried to stop me leaving but I turned around and walked straight into the middle of the next road waiting to die. Thankfully the next car driving was a mum with 2 teenage daughters in the car and a new baby so was driving slowly and recognised what was going on. She stopped and dialed 999. I thankfully go the help I needed. The GP actually said to my EMT mum "there is no difference between screaming during a mental health crisis and abuse!!" The ignorance out there is unreal.❤
Sobbing without tears, extreme feigned hysteria, catatonia appears when she is questioned, she "hid" her schizoid symptoms (pls people), hands are cut, blah, blah.
They're talking about how she never argues and never has issues with the parents, yet she appears to be a liar with no sense of what punishment is. It sounds like they let her do whatever the hell she wanted her whole life
She seemed to me like she only got "what she wanted" as long as she was :perfect", or at least if people saw her that way. Once in college (likely to do with mental health issues) things spiraled out of control. We see things differently.
Right? What got me was when he'd dad left his phone at work so she wouldn't know he was coming home. Like did he know she would freak out and act out in some way? I mean something is not right here. She had a history of craziness I'm sure. Dad is just covering for his daughter.
All I can think about is how supportive the parents were, not only of traditional successes, like school, but their children’s emotional well being… Parents have to stop thinking only about how their family appears to others, but how their kids are handling the stress of all the work that goes into it these appearances, and successes. Both of my children have learning, and other, disabilities. My son is 19, and autistic, and my daughter is 13, and has ADHD, and just started presenting with some signs of autism. So we’re going through a lot of testing. All of this has certainly changed what I used to think of as successful! I had to relearn parenting skills, and unlearn the blanket way I was parenting before, to cater to their needs. Everyday that there’s not an outburst is a success. Every day that my kiddos are happy, laughing, and feel secure, is a success. I don’t know the style of parenting that they implement, of course, but with some of the other cases where this has happened, there has to be some where there was no room for error, no room to be subject to the human condition, and that’s sad to think about. ❤ Nobody deserves to be murdered by their children for being strict. I am just wondering what led to this tragedy.
A girl I grew up was an athlete, straight A student and her parents were well off. She had a great future from the outside. Then she burned down the house in 9th grade.
I feel so bad for this family. I don’t understand why she could not go to her parents and explain to them her problems. Sometimes we put to much pressure on our children. A tragedy has happened and now she has lost both parents. I hope she gets the help she needs and still needs to serve her time. I hope she can explain someday to her dad what led her to this tragedy. You can forgive but never forget.
I think her mother was quite an intelligent person and very gifted and Sydney wasn't. I am not convinced that her school grades were on the level. she seemed to be deceptive and there could have been some cheating. She had to "compete" with her mother who was a shining star. she got away with it in grade school and high school but it is difficult to fool the college folk...
She’s sane. Everyone eventually cracks under pressure and that’s what happened here. The pressure of succeeding in school and “life” and society…. can sometimes be too much. She knows she fkd up and ruined everyone’s lives for nothing. She had merciful parents who would have loved her no matter what.
I agree and I can’t stand listening to her lawyer keep trying to say the prosecution is not respecting what her mother would want when they have no idea what she would want to happen because Sydney killed her
@@jakemiller4411 Sydney's attack on her mother was sudden, frenzied and ferocious. She beat her around the head with a heavy iron skillet, then stabbed her in the neck more than 30 times. That's RAGE. I would like to know more about the Powell family dynamics since Sydney's birth, to gain insights on where that anger came from. How desperately sad Brenda's last thoughts were that the baby girl she had carried for 9 months, nurtured, loved and protected - and worried about her whole life - was killing her.
The episode probably started from the pressure I have had three psychotic breaks and was scared of everything like her I couldn’t get out of bed she was probably scared what people would think another form of extreme paranoia I see all these comments say she was sane but you can’t understand psychosis or hallucinations unless you have experienced it I believe she was out of reality
@@jodiforeman3314 It never ceases to amaze me the people who have had mental health issues who now feel qualified by their "expertise" to actually diagnose others from a video.
@patrickmcdonagh539 yes it does. As my 5 year old son says, "I love you all the time, but sometimes I don't like you" lol I love my mom but right now I don't like her.
I feel so sorry for the dad. If only I could give him a hug during his interview... I hope he and his son are doing well now.
I think the father leaving his phone so Sydney would not know he was coming home is strange. I think she did not have the relationship with them that he claims 😢
@@gingerale1861
Plus that text from the mother to Sydney, asking "why do I feel like I'm being scammed?" when Sydney told her all was fine and her grades were good.
@@jettsomaparents know lmao, if there’s anything i learned as that they can totally tell when you’re lying. she could’ve been saying she had no classes for a while or saying everything is good every day when realistically, it isn’t.
@@gingerale1861he left the phone after he got a call from his wife, she explained that they were waiting for a call from the school with sydney and he was on his way but didn’t want sydney to know since it’s probably nerve wracking
@@gingerale1861honestly I feel like it’s not too strange because it’s a confrontation on a topic that shouldn’t be avoided. Him not wanting to give her the opportunity to prepare a story or leave the house makes sense
Her poor father. I can't imagine the grief and guilt he probably feels.
You can see the pain as he testifies :( there is no way he could have known what would happen
Jennifer pan that halderson bloke the menendez. Boys it’s a sad modern syndrome
And failure as a father.
@@johansannerdal2996failure as a daughter more like and failure as a mother
There's no shot work is more important than your child dropping out of uni, showing up at home unannounced out of nowhere and acting weird. He obviously could never have known, but this was a reckless move regardless
It’s chilling how the college staff heard it over the phone, then she answered their call back pretending to be the mum. I don’t believe she suffered psychosis…
That's some straight horror movie shit and she's the monster.
Also during the time they called back she propably killed her mum in this time... And after she " finished" picked up the phone. Thats truly gruesome...
Meth use for staying awake to cram. Everyone using meth is always diagnosed by some ( SPECIALIST PROFESSIONAL QUACK) to have bipolar, or some schizophrenia, or other false mental disorder. Not all, but so many are just lying on meth.
I agree
It shows "covering up her crime" someone in psychosis doesn't normally do....she was aware of what she did and aware that it was wrong....
Is it just me, or can anyone else see the recurring pattern in this story? The alarming frequency of teenagers failing at university and resorting to violence against their parents is hard to ignore. It's evident that there must be a solution to break this tragic cycle.
I'll be real, this is the first time I've heard of a woman doing it, but I don't know how many cases there are and how statistically significant it is
See this is the thing, I was a failing college student, yes it was embarrassing, yes it was hard, yes I did lie but I never resorted to violence. If anything my dad supported me and helped me figure out my next plan.
@@briskettacosJennifer Pan is another case of a woman doing it. She just got her boyfriend and his friends to attack her parents for her
I think the young nowadays are under much more pressure to perfom. There is so many ways to get traumatized/stressed out. Hint social media. Not excuses but there is always an explaination.
Brain damage or we cannot really know whats behind closed doors at home. Somethings made her nervous long before this horror idk
Indeed.
Can you imagine housing your granddaughter after she has viciously murdered your own daughter??? Now that's crazy.
honestly..
There is no way i would do that
It is not crazy. Are you jewish?
My thoughts exactly
Me too I wouldn’t
I had depression and felt lost and ended up getting a puppy, never thought about murdering my mom. People are crazy
what breed?? I love puppies ❤
Depression is very different from psychosis.
You don’t loose touch with reality when you’re just depressed.
You don’t have hallucinations or delusions.. the 2 aren’t even comparable.
Wow- you’re an amazing person. Should we all clap??
@@achach228 Because you do~have thoughts of harming others? You sound disturbed, should we be concerned?
Exactly. Depression is anger turned inward~depressed people harm themselves. And we can all trace blame back to the beginning of time but at the end of day there's personal responsibility and for someone with mental health issues that means taking meds eg. God is love +
I do believe she was sane and alert at the time of the murder. She tells her dad that everything’s fine and dandy, but as soon as he says the cops are on the way it’s a different story, now she’s freaking out. Now she’s curling herself up on the floor and tapping her head on the floor. BS. Rest in peace Brenda Powell 🩵🩵
@@Turdinthepunchbowl yes! Chandler Halderson. Get out of your parent's house if you're going to be a problem. I'd move my kid out and pay for the few months of rent, stock up the kitchen and bath and you're on your own. You'll appreciate your parents a little more.
Love how y’all acting like you were there
She was planning to kill her daddy too
@@Alexandra-ng1ih we heard the evidence at trial with testimony as to what happened. Do you love that too?
@@Alexandra-ng1ihMaybe I was. 😮
That bad acting gave her away. All that fake screaming and crying hurt my head. Can't imagine how the cops feel.
Agree it didn't feel genuine 😕
She did a lot better than others I’ve seen
Not defending her I think she is guilty and not actually insane but I felt her reaction was pretty realistic and intense panic
@@_heycupcake Wow, you're easily fooled then. That was a really poor attempt at acting.
@@_heycupcake - I agree. I feel like she knew what laid ahead for her, and that she ruined her life, and the lives of her family.
You could hear the dads heart shattering when he was testifying against he’s own child 💔😞 no father should go through this
I watched this on another channel and the second he sobbed, bowed his head and told the attorney that "we would have worked it out" I was teary
I found it hard to believe Dad told the truth When He was asked if Sydney and mom ever argue and he said no. Based on mom’s text to Sydney that said “I feel like you’re always scamming me”. For her to have that feeling, trust and believe there’s been some arguments! Just my opinion! No matter how close a mom and child are, u can’t tell me that no arguments have occurred during hormonal teenage years!
Not to mention that the initial police reports said there was an argument between the mother and daughter.
Dad struck me as the peacemaker in that household. I suspect he saw his role as pouring oil on troubled waters between his wife and daughter. As you say, it's hard to believe there wasn't at least the usual hormonal, mother-daughter tensions and petty arguments, from time to time.
Sydney's ability to lie and manipulate (acknowledged by her Mom in that 'scamming' text), is a huge red flag that she was a handful! I get the impression Brenda was quite a different personality to her husband, ie an assertive woman who knew her own mind, and wasn't afraid to speak it.
Old habits die hard. Sydney's father has been keeping the peace in that family for all of her life. Even now the family unit no longer exists, with his wife dead and his daughter locked away in prison, he won't stop. He will continue to sell the lie that Sydney and Brenda were best friends, and their home was a latter-day version of 'The Waltons'. Families are based on so much mutual delusion.
Probably a Daddys girl. He had taken Sydney's side so often that mum would deal with all her shit alone and dad was none the wiser.
I would be like initially shocked at her latest lie. But as the smoked cleared from my mind and realizing her history of lies, 'take the bull by the horns' and discuss possible resolutions.
Crazy the moms job was dealing with troubled teenagers yet her own daughter was the killer she couldn’t get through too
The thing that really stood out to me was the mom saying "why do I always feel like you're scamming me".
You don't say that without having felt it for a while.
Couldn't agree with you more. There were issues with that girl for some time and the parents don't want to admit it. These things don't just happen overnight. Let along the parents were tracking her on their phones. Red Flag!
good point
This was my thought as well. There were underlying hostilities between Mother and Daughter.
Right that stood out to me as well. Tells me that there's some kind of history there. Dad's probably covering for her with that clip of him saying how perfect her and moms relationship was..not a whole lot of mother daughter relationships r without, at least, some kind of problem in it .....
She did it for sure
Ive been seeing this so often recently. Everyone needs to tell their kids FAILURE IS OKAY. It doesnt mean youre a horrible person or that you dont have it together. My grandmother always told me when you make a mistake the only time its an issue is if you didnt learn from it. If you learned from it then youre okay. Theres many many people who dont know what they want to do with their lives, im almost 30 and still have no idea wtf im doing im just winging it lol.
Personally I have only learnt what I wanted to do when I was in my 30s, I failed college but started an artistic career that made me so happy, albeit not rich. I have learnt how to live simply, enjoying my job. Your grandma was a very wise woman.
Still, killing is a choice. You do not call your mother. Your argument does not have sense and it is not really related. This girl is a psychopath and a murder.
Well said.. And that's where a lot of these issues are. This younger generation thinks that if you fail at something, or to be average is some type of negative, or as if it's the end of the world. Social Media reminds them that average isn't acceptable and they can't handle it.
@@juliuswilliams6471not just social media, it’s really society as a whole, these kids today are just gonna crack under all this pressure bc they’re still human and no one has empathy for them, especially if they’ve had a silver spoon in they mouth
ok dont murder anyone
Awareness of right and wrong is EVIDENT by her lying and staging crime scene. Guilty.
@@hollygram6065Completely wrong. She had zero diagnosed mental conditions. She is looking for an excuse to cover up her murder. Death penalty for 1st degree murder. If she has a serious mental problem like you say, she should NEVER be around people again. Life without parole in solitary confinement seems reasonable.
She definitely is guilty
💯%
@@christopherdunn3094 guilty and many fall for this insane tactic . she got kicked out of school and couldnt face her mom . she tried covering it up, she was very sane
All the mental health specialist say she was in a psychosis and being someone who has had lots of psychotic breaks her behaviour is understandable to me
Maybe the medication helped and that’s why she didn’t seem sick during the trial
Andrea Yates was a good example of this
She needs to be in a psychiatric hospital
she might've had mental health problems but sounds like she lost it completely lost it when her mom confronted her about school. She knew what she was doing. Reminds me of chandler handerson.
This is exactly how I see it
Halderson, but yeah.
@@victoriabrown2534 yeah that guy lol
@@victoriabrown2534 yeah, the more I learn about him the more pathetic of a person I see him as. He put so much work into make it seem like he was working towards something when in reality he just wanted to sit in his room. Then he just couldn’t handle it when people started finding out. I just don’t get how he could have thought his lies would work forever
@@jakemiller4411I remember him. Many sociopaths are impulsive and don’t think about the long term repercussions or even how to sustain their lies. Same thing with the dude that was with two women, one with a daughter and bought a house telling them both it’s for them. Of course it was going to explode.
In a close relationship between parent and child, there would be no sentences like "why do i always feel you are scamming me?"
Nailed it.
Compulsive liar and parents let it get to that point unfortunately.
Yes, that comment stood out to me as well. In a trusting, loving relationship I can not imagine saying that. Sounds like there were other occasions that built doubt. I am completely confused why murder was the only answer this girl could come up with.
Yeah the "My grades are fine thank you very much" too. It's sarcastic and bitter. She wasn't close with her mum at that time.
That exactly what I was thinking....at least no the relationship they described and not the person they described !!
There is a difference between mental health issues and insanity. Very well said.
@@PentaRausyup! “Bye Felisha” is my answer to her on her way to jail
Very well said indeed. There is a difference between mental health issue and insanity. We can't always use mental health as an excuse when crimes happen.
Meth use causes mental disorders.
Sidney, needs a hug
Isn't the latter just a little more extreme version of the former?
Isn't insanity a form of mental health issues? arent mental health issues a mild form of insanity?
Sooooo… not only did she lie to her dad and said things are fine until she’s notified the cops are coming, lie and say there was an intruder and actually break the window to support the intruder story, but she also answered her school call and tried to pretend she was her mom. She was definitely sane.
A schizophrenic person is completely capable of doing that. There will generally be some strange statements involved but they’re still able to plot & scheme.
@@loudtim265even if she was suffering from schizophrenia at the time, all of that evidence points to her knowing what she was doing, and knowing it was wrong
@@loudtim265 lol give it a rest she was thrown out of school and couldnt face her mom for it , her cell phone history showed normal activity including social media . insane ppl do not stage a crime scene because they dont know right from wrong , and no need to coverup a murder
@@tankthearc9875Google is free. It sounds impossible, but a mentally i’ll schizophrenic person can do all those things. She definitely knew what she was doing.
@@loudtim265the closing argument of the prosecution was that mental health isn’t insanity. Schizophrenic people aren’t insane.
Notice how she seemed to cry without tears during her sentencing. She was sane when she killed her mother. Good thing the jury found her guilty.
The jury got it right, thankfully! I watched a lot of the video of the trial, and her poor father. I don't know how he's even able to love/hate his daughter and go through the trial. He lost the two loves of his life that day. Her mother's comment about feeling scammed by her all the time could have been the triggering event. It's no excuse whatsoever.
Sydney liked to scam but didn't want to get called out for it 👌
So very heartbreaking
What’s so sad is her job was dealing with troubled teenagers yet her own daughter was her killer
Why is it like no mentally ill person i have seen so far has killed himself or harmed himself?? If thy know not to harm themselves thn how can they be called as mentally ill or diagnosed with this or tht mental illness???
When her mom acknowledged to her via text that “why do I feel you are always trying to scam me” that’s when the house of cards started falling down.
That was an odd comment for someone reported as an expert in dealing with troubled kids and in a close caring relationship with her daughter, who by all accounts was a worrier when it came to impressing her parents and teachers. She was a model student and suddenly at college age she starts behaving very different? That's a classic sign that she was either abused at college or symptomatic of a mental breakdown. But her mother took it as scamming her because she couldn't perform and didn't want to disappoint everyone.
Her mother knew what was up and her evil child could not handle it.
@@pakde8002her moms feelings are valid. She felt scammed because Sydney kept lying. If Sydney was truly having a psychotic break she wouldn’t have known to try to stage the crime to look like a break in
@@ahavablaze3617 BINGO!!!
@@clairewillow6475could be a drug induced phycosis. But they never stated if she started doing drugs or not. Certain types of drugs can induce phitzophrenia and/or phycosis. I knew a person who tried to poison her whole family because she thought they were all out to get her. She was on methamphetamine and other drugs and had been (in secret) for years.
She had clarity of mind to lie to dad and tried it with mom. She had clarity of mind to take the Dean's call, pretended to be her mum, Brenda and when she realised the cops were at her house, tried to stage the crime scene and lied to the police. Now these paid for professionals are trying to say she had a psychotic episode and shes schizophrenic? Yeah she does NOW because she killed her mom. That trauma she created will haunt her for the rest of her life.
I’m not saying she met the legal definition of insanity. You don’t seem to understand that people in a state of psychosis can do these things- lie and cover up a crime scene. They’re not suddenly mentally disabled. They’re in a psychotic state where they have delusions and are acting in accordance with them.
It has to be a situation where they don’t know they’re doing something wrong at the time they killed someone, though.
For example, in this case the person might think her mom was an intruder, trying to kill her, or another situation where she didn’t know it was wrong. The person might clean a crime scene thinking they killed a leader of a group of people who are trying to kill them and hide the body so the rest don’t see it and come back to try to kill them. Something like that. Still can function.
I don’t see it in this case but it’s a thing that has happened before in a case of insanity.
What is the hardest part about actual cases of such is that 9/10 times the person could have been okay if they were diagnosed early enough, medicated, & taught how to manage it. The younger you catch it, the better you are in most cases. The age she was is when it usually first appears.
Mid to late teens and they suggest it started in high school.
I think she had schizophrenia but I don’t know if, or think that, she committed the murder in a state of mind that fits the legal criteria of insanity, still.
@apeyoutube7485 why does the first psychotic episode she has end in her murdering her mom. She didn't have other minor episodes before this? I'm not buying it. Even people with psychosis show some signs before they get murdery
Absolutely believe she was sane, I just can't believe she had a psychotic break when her mother was talking to the university staff. What I believe she had was, " I'm busted"
Exactly, it hit a boiling point she could not escape, so it consumed her mind. She lied for way too long and did not know how to handle the actual truth.
@@LeeoGoneWildwhich is soo pathetic when you think about that. She's the same age as me, but with the accountability of a 12 year old
I just can’t understand how someone who experiences a “psychotic break” can be considered sane in that moment of time? 🤷🏼♀️ In my view, a psychotic episode should be considered an episode of insanity.
My heart breaks for the Powell family 😢
If she was so sane then why would she do it while her poor mom was on the phone? And, knowing she was on the phone, then answer and pretend to be her? And then tell her dad that everything was fine? That does not seem sane to me. I don't really support the girl, either, I'm on the fence. I'd personally need to see more then this video to make a determination. But from this video alone I would not side with the jury.
I don’t know why I’m on the edge cause she did have a psychotic break maybe she was also aware but I know cause I’ve had a few one lasted for 6 months and I was not in reality
Her mom texted her, “Why do I always feel like you’re scamming me?” I don’t think she would have said that openly if she hadn’t been thinking that for a while. As much as I want to believe she was mentally insane at the time of her mother’s murder, the facts just don’t line up.
I'm pretty sure Mom knew what was going on but couldn't put her finger on it until she received confirmation.
I agree. It’s hard to watch because I do think Sydney feels bad but she just wasn’t insane when she did it
Her mother felt like she was being manipulated. Something her daughter is doing during this whole thing. If you ever know someone like this, they are the most terrible people. Seems like her dad and other family members didn't ever hold her accountable for anything. So when she is out in the real world and doesn't get away with it, she loses her mind.
She is just like Chandler Halderson.
Psychopaths roaming around among us 🥺.
As well as Antonio Junior. The kid who killed mum and dad. Took 4 trials to finally convict him.
This whole video was hard to watch 😢
As a former therapist, it appears that families spend less time in promoting character traits (honesty) and teaching problem solving than they do talking about grades and sports.
Agree
In theory, school and sports are supposed to develop those qualities.
@@HKim0072Actually no . School and sports are where they can have experiences but how they interpret those experiences and act and process it depends on their character traits which is taught and learned at home. You don't just think life will teach your kids the lessons they need. It is us parents who teach them how to see things and what is the right thing to do.
@@gracie30ish Lots of kids have shitty lives at home and find refuge in sports and school.
Always amusing how people make definitive conclusions off their own experiences and can't expand beyond it.
@@HKim0072 You missed my point and you missed the point of the person you commented on before me lol. What we're saying is character traits are taught by parents just like if you're an envious child and your parents didn't scold you or taught you that you shouldn't be envious. You are going to school and do sports and view those experiences through your envious mind. You talk about people with shitty lives at home you are talking about the situation and that wasn't what I and the person you commented on was talking about. And you are amused about my conclusion well maybe you should open your mind more and take a step back before you believe what you think is perfectly right. Or else you will always be amused while missing other people's point.
Her hyperventilating right at the beginning sounded so fake. It immediately reminded me of Chacey Poynter, the woman that cheated on her husband with loads of men, then planned with a boyfriend to kill him. Her hyperventilating in the ambulance was a memorable absurdity! As was this girl's!
May Brenda Rest in Peace xxx 🙏🏻
YES!!! That’s exactly who I thought of when I heard her fake hyperventilating and fake panic.
Oh yes and in the cop car ..God her acting was AWFUL !😂 my.......husband......got....got .....got....hurt.....and.....i.....i....😂😂😂I was like lady SHE DID IT IN THE FIRST 2MIN NOBODY HYPERVENTILATES LIKE THAT AND STUDERS 😅 SHE WAS A CLASSIC
@@amyletcher8165 😂 made me hyperventilate for real watching her! 🥴😅
@@EllePole The unforgettable Chacey Poynter, hyperventilating all the way to her new life behind bars!
@@AACE73 lol 😂
Kudos on encapsulating a huge amount of information and laying it out clearly...no small feat. Great job!
Her father confirmed in court that he left his phone at work so as not to alert Sydney that he was driving home via the @360 app, which suggests he suspected all was not well.
I actually agree why else would you leave your phone nobody leaves there phone unless it's something going on
@@tarachristensen3848 You didn't listen. He went home when the girl arrived, her mother was not HOME at that time. He was asking her daughter about what has happened, and called her mother to talk to her from work and the father went back to work.
@@tarachristensen3848 doesn't seem like that. You can accept your faults. Don't be like this girl. Just say, thank you for raising this. Don't have to be perfect. It's ok to miss the detail.
@@iammz81I’m not sure where you came from. My first comment wasn’t to you so I’m confused as to why you felt the need to reply. I’m also not interested in engaging in your childish keyboard warrior crap, so go find someone else to troll and have a good day! 😊
@@tarachristensen3848 so if you cannot answer then this is how you react? :D laughable. Bye
I feel so sad for broken dad that his world shattered front of his eyes losing his wife and daughter. RIP Brenda
Watch at the end when they’re reading her charges how she is “sniffling, putting Kleenex up to eyes”, but yet no tears…not one tear, streams down her face. Chilling.
My thoughts exactly 😂
I saw that too she had no tears in her eyes at all, not even blood shot..then the fake hyperventilating
She's as cold as ice. Living dead girl with those eyes of hers literally looks soulless.
Except the ones at 34:20. Theyre there. So she is crying about something.
Yes you right.i see no tears😮
Schizophrenia doesn't turn you into a murderer. She didn't want to face the fact that she was failing and couldn't tell her parents. You dont kill your mother because you flunked out of college. She's a monster. RIP Brenda❤
theirs countless cases of schizophrenic episodes turned to murder
@@Todzuum what do you mean by that?
@@serendavies7375 I’m saying theirs a lot of individuals who have murdered people because they are having a schizophrenic episode. It was to the commenters point of it not turning you into a murdering though true , their is still countless cases of the opposite being true as well.
@@Todzuum I get it now, thanks.
Perhaps one of the most extreme examples of just how far a person may be willing to go to keep their all-consuming facade going.
Unfortunately I don't think it's even top 5 of cases where someone takes the path of murder due to web of lies they created (and as someone pointed it out, were starting to see more and more of those type of motives). I think one of worst (not that all of them are not absolutely horrific) is John List, who murdered his whole family (wife, mother, three kids) to cover up his lies and failures. He cut himself out of every single picture and planned it all so we'll that no one even noticed the family was missing for a month. He went on his merry way, assumed a new identity and was caught almost 20 years later due to an age progression sculpture done by quite legendary guy in this type of thing Frank Bender, featured on America's most wanted. He had almost nothing to go on and yet his sculpture was almost identical to List when they found him. Eerie similar case come from France where Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès murdered his wife and four kids and again run away. I think he's still not been caught and his family believes they are all alive, despite their bodies being found under the house (it's quite a crazy part in already crazy story. He told them they are going to US into witness protection, because they will testify against some drug lord, absolutely ridiculous stuff he pulled out of his ass, but they believe him). Weirdly enough, another case like that and again it happened in France! Jean-Claude Romand murdered his wife, children, his parents, and attempted to murder his mistress to cover that for the past 18 years he lied about being a doctor. I know it's not a contest, but these dudes annihilated their whole families... Jesus. Another biggie and possibly most known od these type of cases in US is Chandler Halderson's case. When his lies came out he murdered and dismembered his parents, throwing them out like trash, piece by piece (one part even on the property of his girlfriend's parents). Or Grant Amato's case. He murdered both of his parents AND his brother. And for what? A cam girl. He had a cam girl addition, stole from them, so he can buy time with her and lied about who he is, his status etc. They cut him off from money and told the cam girl and other people in the community surrounding that specific girl that he lied, he was unemployed, lived with them and stole to buy her time. When he learnt that, he snapped and murdered them. It's scary how often shit like this actually happens. The first case I mentioned reminded me immediately of Joel Guy Jr. While he didn't murder his parents to cover his lies, his story is interested enough to mention. He murdered and dismembered both of his parents, because they wanted to retire and said they will stop supporting him (he was 28 or 29 at the time btw...) There's a body cam footage of officers just doing a wellness check and stumbling upon random pair of limbs not attached to anything. I think he also boiled his mother's head in a pot.
The thing is that the cat was already out of the nag. Her parents knew what was going on and she knew they knew so I dont understand her logic by committing the crime
@@Monika-bc3dqwhile those cases are definitely more vicious and thought out, this girl is still on par with the behavioral issues that these same men had. I think if she had the opportunity, she, too would have fled and never looked back.
In a way, she tried to, by claiming insanity so that she would be absolved of the crime
Shes evil, not insane. 🤮 RIP Brenda Powell 🙏 😢
I agree this whole case broke my heart 😢
I lost my mom to cancer when i was 16yo. She was everything i had and it had a massive effect on my whole life after. I am furious watching this right now!!! I dont understand how anyone cannot cherish their moms!!
I hate when psychiatrists make excuses for evil. I was a 3.9 gpa in high school and dropped out of college because I didn’t thrive and wasn’t doing well. Guess what I didn’t do.
become bill gates even with the 3.9 gpa?
Hahahaha you’re right. I didn’t become Bill gates
Yes I think there may have been much more going on behind closed doors than we know.
Thrive in college...
Thank you for saying this. I was thinking the same thing. Not thriving in school can be devastating for anyone and mentally triggering, even unbearable but that doesn’t equate to insanity.
Watching the dad fall apart is the saddest part of this for me. I bet this is an awful feeling.
It amazes me that these teenagers think they can act their way out of a murder charge. As soon as Sydney opened her mouth, it's obvious she's putting it on.
Her Family begged the state not to take it to Trial and give her community Service.He Whole Family was on her side those Defense Experts had them Fooled but the Jury Wasn't.
Community service for first degree murder?? But I feel for her family so much, they had already lost Brenda and they didn’t want to lose both 😢
you being sarcastic right? like it’s no way they really asked for community service for a murder trial without realizing how stupid that sounds .. yes it’s very unfortunate that their family had already lost Brenda but Sydney for the rest of her life as well .. I could’ve understood the plea for community service if she committed a nonviolent crime like stealing clothes from the mall , possession of drugs , etc like typical teenager but she killed her mother .. like not only did she repeatedly hit her mother in the head with a skillet she doubled down & proceeded to stab her in the neck fuck that minimum of 15yrs when you do heinous crimes like this it should be no possibility of parole
@@jlswaqq36 - What are you reading? I don't see anyone here saying she should just get community service.
@@dmreddragon6 look at the initial comment.. he said her family was begging the court to only give her community service
Community service for murdering your mother? Now I've heard everything.
She knew what she was doing. She staged the scene afterwards. So much potential within her and she threw it away in a fit of rage.
Yep!
I’m so happy the jurors saw through the lies , thankfully they stood up for a mother who was brutally murdered by a conniving daughter , someone needed to care about this mother ❤️
the way she replied to her mom when her mom was reminding her about her grades and that if she doesn’t keep her grades up, she’ll lose her scholarship was all I needed to know about her character. She seems like she keeps up a face of this perfect, kind, driven young lady but she’s a completely different person underneath that. Most likely her and her mom got into an argument regarding school and her lying about it, because clearly keeping up this facade would disappoint any parent. Then her mom contacts the school , clearly now she’s irritated probably because her mom is treating her like a kid and stepping on her toes and she probably does not like people pointing out her wrongs. Then them calling her back and seeing her mom get on the phone with the school board pissed her off and she snapped. The dad saying they never argued or had any issues was just naive. The daughter was literally being snippy and passive aggressive and we only heard one text message. You can also tell the father wasn’t really a disciplinary figure and kind of left all the issues to the mom so she knew she could get over on them. Sad situation.
This!
I agree. Starting college and trying to live independently while juggling the responsibilities of class workloads is a huge stressor. Once things start dropping, they just start to spiral. I think she was incredibly stressed and just snapped when her mom went on the call with the student services.
She's a perfectionist, that one panicking about no seeing the number was very telling. Tis girl isn't right in her mind n the way minor inconvenient could make her lost herself all the way like that, is quite scary.
The dad is the kind of dad who thinks putting a roof over his family's head and providing for them is where his responsibilities end. If you asked that dad any details of his daughters life like her friends' names, her minor subjects and etc. He wouldn't know a thing. I'd be surprised if he remembered when her birthday was. The daughter is also hella manipulative
@@kimyeona7628 A perfectionist, a narcissist and master manipulator. I don't, for one second, buy her excuse that she couldn't see the numbers which was why she had to do the presentation at another day. She manipulates and makes excuses so her well-crafted facade of the perfect student stays intact.
Everyone goes through hell in college. Heck! My last semester I took 32 units in 1 semester because I was a transfer and wanted to graduate with my batch which also meant that I had to do my thesis all alone. All that while dealing with then undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
I'm father and grandfather, what a nightmare for the family, especially the father and husband. Seeing him in court is heartbreaking to me. He seems to be a soft person. He'll be a broken man.
💯 and you can tell he blames himself for not waiting for his wife to get home but it’s NOT his fault. He could have never imagined that would have happened
dad seemed to not want confirm she lied and tried to cover things up. likely didnt want to lose her too
@@shay4415 I would like to know more about the Powell family dynamics here, to get better insights into how this shocking, violent murder happened - and where the killer's rage came from.
It's interesting that the father deliberately left his cellphone at work, so his daughter Sydney would not know he was coming home to talk to her about flunking college. Seems the parents were in the habit of thinking strategically, and treading carefully around their daughter. Had she shown previous signs of mental illness, or perhaps a personality disorder like Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
Her father presented on the witness stand as a gentle character, who was potentially manipulated/dominated by his daughter. One has to wonder what kind of personality the victim, her mother, was? As a professional child behaviourist, I suspect Brenda was more assertive with their daughter, and played the 'bad cop' role in confrontations.
The phone call from Sydney's college to her Mom that day, appears to have been the trigger for her brutal, fatal attack. The $hit had finally hit the fan - the college was about to expose her as a failure, in a telephone show-down with her mother. Sydney could not allow that conversation to take place. Her escalating lies and deceptions had caught up with her, and she could not face it. I believe Sydney is a narcissist - and one thing a narcissist cannot handle, is SHAME.
Yes! You hit it dead on the nail 👌🏾
I’ve seen ppl acting completely normal, laughing, talking, smiling going about their day as usual, then all of sudden they have a psychotic episode out of now where. We’ve had to call 911 and they would be placed on a 72 hour hold. They would come back to the Inpatient rehab facility I worked at and feel completely embarrassed and super apologetic. They didn’t remember most of it and terrified it would happen again.
I wonder if she had some type of neurological condition, also. The first symptoms of my seizures involved not being able to recognize letters/numbers in my teens. And psychiatric symptoms often coexist with neurologic/metabolic conditions 🤷... It's definitely terrifying, I've told my Drs that even if I didn't have previous psychiatric problems I definitely would after all the years of undiagnosed seizures that people/Drs told me were "anxiety" 🙄. I feel sorry for her that she was asking people for help and nobody thought to recommend a neurologist or psychiatrist at least... I can't believe this happened so recently. it's like our society's mental/neurological-health awareness hasn't improved much in the last 30 years 😓
oh please. she had no signs of it until the day she butchered her mother. those people had a documented history. you said they had to "come back" to the facility. they also didn't make up stories during their episode. can you please stop defending a murdering piece of trash?
Nothing Bizarre about this case ! She murdered her mother in cold blood and she knew exactly what she was doing ! She wasn't insane or she wouldn't have been able to concict a story about an intruder ! Glad the jury got it right ! 🙏👍🏴
Consciousness of guilt. Hiding your crimes is direct indication that you understand right and wrong.
It's so sad to see her dad get emotional when talking about the fact that he left before Brenda got home.... you can tell he regrets it and maybe takes some of the blame. but he shouldn't because who would ever think something like this could happen after they left
She knew exactly what she was doing when attacking her mother. She would rather take her moms life than to admit that she failed out of school 😢. Her pride was her downfall
Agree with you
Pride comes before a fall. Always
I don’t see it as pride. It’s more like perfectionism. Also, it looks like her mom added to the pressure of her having to be a high performer.
She didn’t have to kill over failing but maybe the pressure from mom is too much so she can’t take it no more.
She's the female Chandler Halderson.
I had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of college in my senior year. You know what I did? Told my parents! Yes, they were disappointed. They were upset. They thought I was being irresponsible and they worried about my future. But I never thought about killing them. That's insane! Instead, they got me help and I eventually finished college and ended up having a really successful career. My mental illness is under control with the help of therapy and medications and has been for a long time.
Dropping out of school isn't the end of the world, especially now when you can get your degree online. That's how I was able to finish. Your parents may be pissed, they may even kick you out, but that's still a better scenario than killing them and ending up in prison for the rest of your life. And these killers like Sydney, Chandler, and even Grant Amato are REALLY stupid. They always try to blame the killing on someone else when it's so obvious that they did it. I swear they think detectives and juries are idiots who will ignore the mountain of evidence against them.
(BTW Someone having a psychotic break and murdering someone while they're "out of their mind," would not have the foresight to break a window to stage a break in and then tell everyone that there was an intruder. I personally know someone who killed his mother in a fit of psychosis. By the time the cops got there, he just said, "I killed her." He didn't try to invent some crazy story, he told them the truth: He was hallucinating and had no idea what he was doing.)
They're not stupid. They lose it. I'd say that's the definition of a psychotic break.
I’m so happy you made it!! If my daughter doesn’t want to go to college I’d never be disappointed. College is a joke these days.
I doubt it was just school.
@@southernmama7606 you clearly don’t understand what psychosis is. It isn’t losing your temper or freaking out in a situation. It is truly losing grasp on what reality is. You believe things that are clearly untrue to the average person and see and hear stuff that is not actually happening
Because you have mental illness and she was insane. You said it yourself in the first paragraph of your youtube thesis there:
'You know what I did? Told my parents! Yes, they were disappointed. They were upset. They thought I was being irresponsible and they worried about my future. But I never thought about killing them. That's insane!'
You aren't insane, and most people now have a little pathology I would say. It's the natural consequence of being the smartest monkeys. She literally has documented existence of previous auditory and visual hallucinations. It don't get much nuttier than that, lady.
If you have the presence of mind to try and cover things up, you aren't insane. Huge difference between insanity and mental health issues.
I think Sydney is a perfectionist that didn't know how to handle not being perfect in college. I can relate to this because I was a straight-A honor roll student that struggled with the newfound freedoms and distractions of college life. It sounds like her parents were very supportive, loving people that likely would have understood if she needed to take time off to refocus for her mental health. Instead Sydney backed herself into a corner by internalizing her situation until the moment was about to be revealed that she was not perfect, and she lashed out at the one person who cared about her most.
Agree completely!!!! So sad...her parents would have helped her through it! 😢
So why didn't she kill her dad? That's my only question. He knew about her failure first. So why not attack him before killing mom.
@LeeLee1985Official I think because her mom was there and about to talk to the school. I do think this girl was way stressed out & having mental issues but clearly was not insane as she had the forethought to not let her mom here & to stage a break-in. I think she felt desperate, ashamed, a failure, etc.
1000%
@GetCraftyLemons yeah, glad we can empathise and see the turmoil within, instead of going straight for her jugular 😢
For a video that was done so well, with all of the police and courtroom footage, I don't know how you dropped the ball at the end with "she is yet to be sentenced."
She was sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, back on September 28th.
Thank you.
Parole😮😮😮😢
Possibility of parole?! Unbelievable!
Did it ever cross your mind he finished the video before she was sentenced
@@ellybean5868 Did it ever cross your mind that they could have updated the last tidbit of the video with the pertinent information if that were in fact the case, son? Not too hard to make an edit.
It's very clear she has mental health issues but I don't think she was insane when she committed the act. I think she was so desperate to hide her failure due to all the pressure she was under that she killed her mom. I don't think she planned to do it but when mom got a call back from the University, she went into panic mode and killed. No doubt in my mind she tried to cover it up.
I agree because you have to be in your right mind to lie and stage a break-in immediately after.
I think you hit the nail on the head
Fucking low conscious humans walking around half fucking asleep not even aware of reality
What do you mean "it's very clear she has mental issues" there was NO evidence she ever had mental issues until she killed her mother. She then SELF REPORTED that she heard voices. Also, her own mental experts called this her first psychotic episode, just when she killed her mother. Plus the state's expert found she was pretending to have mental issues which is very easy these days, and the state's expert pointed out that in ALL of the thousands of pages she reviewed of emails, texts, online searches, and other indicia of communications the girl made not ONE of them showed a girl with any psychotic features at all. ONLY AFTER SHE KILLED HER MOTHER did she suddenly have mental breaks.
Yes, I agree. And I still believe she is schizophrenic, and was in psychosis. You can still have a break with reality and know right from wrong, as evidenced by her attempting to cover up the murder.
Do you think she would have attacked her father if there was no welfare check call by the school going ahead?
Absolutely!
Yes no doubt, her dad already knew, she killed the one person that didnt know
She was getting ready to eat both of them
For sure! Because how would she explain her mom's sudden and convenient disappearance to him? Chandler Halderson took out his dad first, then waited for his mom to come home.
I don't think so. I think she would have still lied about the intruder bullshit. She was a daddy's girl.
The poor dad he lost 2 of the most important people to him in a split second. You can feel his pain and confusion
Sydney has never once cried for her mother. Only for herself facing time in prison. 🤮
there's literally like 15 separate clips in this video alone of Sydney crying at multiple points where her mother and their relationship are mentioned, why are true crime fans such disgusting braindead savages, jesus fucking christ.
You certainly can't know that. None of us can.
She's the female Chandler Halderson. Her mom texting "why do I always feel like you are scamming me?" tells me she was completely sane, a liar and a manipulator but totally sane.
She was spiolt.
That is the saddest text between mother and daughter I think I’ve ever seen.
I got put on academic probation due to my grades dropping, and I was utterly embarrassed. When I actually got kicked out of school, I told my parents even though I was humiliated. They worked with me to file an appeal, and it was accepted and I went back to school. They helped sign me up for tutoring. I graduated on the deans list. Sometimes owning up to these things and asking for help can turn things completely around. I wish she had just honestly spoken to her mom about it…I know they would have helped her.
She was sane, I agree with the jury, poor Brenda RIP 😢
She is someone who never learned to face her problems or ask for help. Look at how calm and understanding her dad was. All she had to do was sit down and talk it over and things would have been worked out one way or another.
Dad likely let her get away with things that mom would’ve held her accountable for.
I found it strange that he said there were no issues between the mom and the daughter. Either he was blind to the situation, or he lied.
I know right?! So bizarre. I fecked up at uni and I kept going. I didn't get kicked out but I was so miserable being there. I kept going home. I kept being sick. My mum took me to the doctor. In the end it was my doctor who said 'you don't need to go to uni if it's not right for you ' I immediately went home told my parents I wanted to leave and felt a huge burden lifted from my shoulders 🤗
@@carmenl163yeah I found it strange too, especially when the mom replied with I always feel like you're scamming me
My daughter was diagnosed at 20 with Schizophrenia…Thank god she had good care and is a productive and caring adult😢
We need to start having integrity for our children. Enabling bad behavior can sometimes be deadly
🙄
...so can ignoring their pleas for help. Integrity needs to start there.
😅
@@LittleBlueOwl318 integrity means being honest about who you are, in every aspect. As a mother, I think it’s wrong to have high expectations for your child but not helping them achieve those expectations. While I believe Sydney is in the wrong here, I also know that allowing her daughter to be so controlling is what let Sydney to believe she could kill her mother without consequences. She never had them before, but also was scared of how her mother would react. As a mother, you should remain consistent and stable for the child, so they know how to regulate themselves based on our reactions, as parents. Of course, people are their own. But children are a lot like their parents.
Sounds like victim blaming.
I was in a similar situation at her age. I went to an all-girls private high school and was dealing with anxiety, depression, “body image” issues starting in my junior year. (Not sure what terms would get me banned from YT). I went away to college which turned into the freedom to continue those behaviors to the point that I stopped going to lectures because my stomach would growl in a silent room of 500 students. My focus became perfecting the strict routine of succeeding at getting away with what was destroying me. I avoided my parents visiting because the change was drastic all the while feeling the impending doom of my grades dropping by the day. I knew it was going to be the end of college, freedom, any financial help, trust, etc. And it was. My parents were going to be pissed to a scary degree. Bottom line: It was going to be absolute hell when my dad found out. Hellish hell. And it was. I came clean about all of it. It sucked for a very long time, but I put myself in that position. I beat myself up for it…because it was MY fault. Not my parents’. My point is that I struggled with mental health issues, addiction, etc. for 15 years and life blows sometimes, but in my case, I created that. This is just a whiny little brat unwilling to own her own crap. She just took out her biggest and only fan club. 💔
Oh dear. Thanks for the 'I'm amazing; she's weak' story. Usually people who have been through that type of hardship are humble and empathetic
@@faff6097 😂.
I was shocked to hear that she was out of custody and living with her grandmother before the trial, and she was having enough difficulty with her mental health that they had to adjust her medication..... If her grandmother had confronted her for some problem, she may have snapped and killed her also. They can't have it both ways....either she's mentally ill enough that she killed a loved one (then she should have stayed in mental institution until her trial), OR she's cold-blooded enough to kill a loved one and then has the presence of mind to create a fabricated story (then she should have been kept in jail until her trial).
Mental health is NOT insanity. I'm so tired of society using mental health, stress, and/or trauma as an excuse to evade, ignore, and /or get out of consequences to harming others.
Ummm...women NEVER own up to nor take responsibility for anything they do. Ever. There's ALWAYS some excuse to exploit, or a man to pass the blame.
Sexist much @@PinkoKane
@@PinkoKanecalm down, incel.
It is insanity though. Mental health is a descriptive term, and a level of very low mental health is quite literally the definition of insanity…. 3 different people with doctorate degrees who dedicated their entire lives to the study of psychology testified that she was insane. We need to stop throwing these people in a prison cell only for them to deteriorate further and make the overall problem much worse for society… These types of cases need different types of sentences, where people like this can be sentenced to a facility similar to a prison but is dedicated to psychiatric rehabilitation. We need to stop throwing people in prison and pretending it somehow works, because our statistics clearly disprove it. We have the largest prison population in the entire world despite not being one of the largest countries by population and we also have the highest rate of recidivism in the world. When are we actually going to do something about this?
@@PinkoKaneWhen did anyone say anything about gender? Both men and women are capable of and have not taken responsibility for their terrible actions. You sound like an incel. Evil does not discriminate. It is present in both genders.
She had excellent grades, had neurotypical tendencies and her interests reflect that. She probably built up a ton of pressure on herself, and concocted an image of effortless prestige to ensure her parents were proud of her, but things change. Emotions fluctuate, and Sydney probably had a severe bout of depression and a sense that her life was spiraling out of control, so instead of letting it be known to the world, she implodes.
This is a super tragic story, but it's not even remotely uncommon. She had a wonderful relationship with her mom, but both parents were on the verge on learning the truth, and instead of letting the mask slip, Sydney probably thought in a moment of utter mania that rather than deal with the criticism and the requisite guilt that comes from it, she'd silence the critic....Which of course is ironic, given that she now has to live with the knowledge that her entire life story would be known to the public -- lies and all.
Yup , it's been cases when the child kill their whole family.
The mum was putting on the pressure saying you know your scholarship will end if your grades drop.
@@rabbitsrule9437pressure = murder?
Wow you said this eloquently
@@randomnesswithnazy usually it would be more suicide
as someone who is both schizophrenic and struggling with college, cases like this make me so upset and angry. I understand her struggle, and i understand how horrifying it is to tell your parents the truth after lying but never have i felt the audacity or the privilege to kill my parents or anyone else because even through my psychosis, i understand that my actions are still my own. god this sucks.
edit- especially when their families were so loving and actively would have helped them if they needed help. how can you be so privileged and still do something so heinous. disgusting. and faking schizophrenia??? bitch it’s a lifelong thing, and it can be triggered but it’s not rapid onset ommgggg….
An correct me if I'm wrong, you can't really conceal schizophrenia. From what I know its pretty apparent when someone is suffering from a severe mental illness.
I have borderline personality disorder and I'm pissed they blamed it on this. I would never do anything like she did. I do have a problem with interpersonal relationships but I take it all out on myself.
Thank you so much for sharing, and sorry for your struggles. I hope you're able to obtain what you need.
People with unresolved parental issues in the comments blaming the parents for "putting too much pressure on Sydney"
She used TWO weapons to kill her mother which means she either brought both to the bedroom or she went back and forth from the kitchen to get the knife/cast-iron skillet. THEN she staged the scene after finding out the police were on the way and lied to them about a break-in.
She's a murderer. Her parents were too hard on her? She had a brother, he didn't kill anyone. Give me a BREAK.
I agree, if she truly had a mental problem, it would have been spur of the moment and she wouldn’t have tried to stage the scene. She knew what she did wrong, and will have to pay for consequences of her actions.
I wish more people would closely think about that part -- actually being able to walk away, retrieve another weapon, and return to finish killing her mother. The about of deliberation that takes is astounding.
THANK YOU!!
Yea I don’t buy any of the therapists trying to excuse her actions. She was just a terrible person, who obviously hated her mother.
This almost could have been the description of my daughter. Perfectionist throughout high school, scared to death of failure, anxiety and panic attacks, self harm….etc. We did hospitalize her where we heard and saw the same exact story over and over again. Hospital unit was overflowing with girls from Middle-Upper class families who exhibited the same symptoms. Major difference was while we were/are very close, we fought like cats and dogs and more importantly we sought professional help in her junior year of high school. We recognized there were issues we were not able to deal with. Therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and a LOT of love, acceptance and judgement-free zones have pushed us over the hump. She is now a 21 yo living her best life. Yes, we still have some issues but she knows that as a team we will work together to overcome whatever it is. So important for parents to learn how to parent this Gen Z generation…..they are different.
Bless you for not ignoring her struggles. There's also some evidence of younger generations stressing over climate change and governments not doing enough to combat it. It's got to feel hopeless not knowing if the planet will sustain you long enough to even have a future 😢.
Kids don't just develop fear of failure out of nowhere. It is ALWAYS the parents that plant the idea of needing to EARN their love with social achievements. No kid ever gave a f about grades or achievements without parental pressure. The fact that you admit there was fighting in the family, shows that the environment was toxic. Kids living with loving, accepting parents do not develop anxiety. PERIOD.
@@thecommonchumps3937whew, your comment is….interesting. It is not always the parents actually. Childhood anxiety can be caused by the home environment but can also be caused by bullying, peer rejection, trauma such as death of a close family member or friend. There are numerous causes of anxiety in kids and there are plenty of kids who seek peer validation more than parental validation. Depending on the school, that level of competition can occur peer to peer. I say that from first hand experience. Your response screams negative personal experiences within your home growing up. All parents go back and forth with their teenage children. That is par for the course unless you believe in not actually parenting.
@apriljk6557 Its because of you people are lying about the climate. Constant doomsday scenarios and fear campaigns have taken their toll on young people....I hope you are proud of yourselves for harming young people more than the climate has.
@@thecommonchumps3937you sound Ludicrous bc that’s like saying that a S£RIAL K!LL£R can’t be bred from a “loving” TWO PARENT household Or like implying if you Grew up with TWO, loving parent Home, who communicated and coddle these Gen Z and 🆙 kids, even sought out help for them if they appeared to need it, can NOT produce children who grow to be adults and may get out here in get on fkn drug$🤌🏾👌🏾👏🏾🙄🥴🤦🏾♀️😂😭😂😂😭😂😭 you get mfs in families with Mental issues and NOBODY else in the family has any, whether their Loved or you consider it a “good household” or NOT, all types of shiii CAN and DOES happen and having the best family, most money or best support team sometimes MEANS NOTHING 😂😂Grow uppppp and think with some logic and expeditiously 🥴😭😭😭😭😭😭
It's not easy being a parent. I've always told my kids to do their best and if they needed help, to come to us or their teachers. Even in elementary school, I told them, in front of their teachers, that the teachers are here to help and to not be afraid to ask for it. It's ok to be less than perfect.
I feel for the dad. He's been through a lot
My youngest daughter found it hard to continue being away from home and became depressed during her senior year of college. She was afraid she would disappoint me if she took a break and moved to a university closer to home, but she didn't think about unaliving me. Instead, she acted like an adult, told me what was going on, we made a plan and everything worked out fine. She graduated after a short break and a move closer to home.
Love that. So happy for you and your daughter. 🙂💪🏻💕
You’re a great mother ❤
Why do people say " unalive " ?
@@evieshore3270 because sometimes comments will be automatically deleted if they have the other word.
Cause a genius in YT decided that some words need be censored - like the word "k1ll"@@evieshore3270
It is truly heartbreaking that the person you brought into this world, whom you dedicated your life to, could be the same person who would also ruthlessly end your life.
Was waiting for someone to upload a video so I know the whole thing. Thank you
Was sentenced on September 28th 2023 for murder. Life in prison. Eligible for parole in 15 years.
I think she panicked when she saw/heard her mom on the phone with university authorities and realised her secret was out. She irrationally hit her mother to stop the conversation, but ended up in a worse situation that if she had just left her mom on the call. She definitely knew what she was doing.
@@InjectBleachwasn't she convicted for it. The court determined that much
That girl needed a slap on the face. She was sane and did everything on purpose. How can someone kill their own mother?!
How could somebody raise somebody so mentally ill
Something tells e she was never spanked as a child and is probably comes from the "time-out" generation.
Wow~ I am totally not making excuses for this girl but something was definitely wrong either emotionally or mentally ill and attitudes like this one doesn't help the problems in our society at all~ yes, it was a horrific act but we have no idea what Sydney was going through~ hate breeds hate~ hate in the heart is actually the first step towards murder.
@@patrickmcdonagh539 and that is a ignorant question
@@patrickmcdonagh539drs do say schizophrenia can present around the age of 20. There was a kid in Canada who killed his mom cuz he snapped from mental illness much like this girl. His dad was a lawyer and mom a nurse. He was also top student popular then Spiraled then on day killed his mom. No motive that mks any sense just like this case. His story is on UA-cam channel “real stories my schizophrenia killed my mother” very disturbing
It’s weird to say that a strong sense of failure would make you fail to reach out and then be homicidal when in actuality it would make you suicidal. BUT if you’re a narcissistic brat with anxiety who doesn’t want people to see who you really are and will do anything to hide it--THAT makes sense.
Not exactly. You know nothing of the family dynamic.
The father speaking in court truly broke my heart . You can tell he is & was a gentle soul & a great father husband & provider for his family . He did everything right , this just broke my heart listening to him answer the questions . I hope he is able to find some type of peace in life after all of this ❤
I think embarrassment and stress really took a toll on her. She couldn’t get over herself. She attached her grades to her self worth and could no longer hide her failure from her parents. This was not ok. She knew what she was doing and she had no idea how to handle it other than take her own mother’s life. It was senseless, and cruel. She could’ve asked for help.
Its either because the parents have too much expectation for her to succeed, or because she just can't show her failure to her parents.
@@sootuckchoong7077 Are you saying it is 100% her parents fault?
@@sootuckchoong7077that doesn’t gel. Her father said they’ll all work it out. He wasn’t combative or demanding.
@@debby8428I don't think that's what she is saying.. I think she's just pointing out that the immense stress could have be related to that to make her snap
@sootuckchoong7077 maybe she's the one putting pressure on herself though.
There seems to be a major disconnect between the parents and the kids. It's like in Sydney's mind if she failed her mother would no longer love and support her so she killed her rather than deal with the rejection. I don't know it's a weird one but we really don't know what goes on behind closed doors. On the outside they seemed like a healthy functioning family but they obviously were not.
Yeah, let's find whatever excuse we can in order to take some of the blame off of the poor little girl with mental health issues (issues that doctors can't even agree on) and place it on the rest of the family! At the end of the day, the only think you CAN'T argue is that she murdered her own mother, staged a crime scene and now must do her time behind bars where she should be.
Who cares what her problem is? She murdered her mother!!!!! There is no excuse. There is no justification. There seems to be a big disconnect between you and reality...
@@JSchaffer214👏👏👏👏
Her parents seemed so understanding the fact that this was her option is crazy.
This girl sailed through early school years really untested. The subject matter was pretty easy and she seemed to have had tons of support. She was neither mentally, nor academically prepared for university. She seems to have anxiety issues related to her being a perfectionist in everything she does. As long as things are easy, she’s fine. I’d say she is narcissistic and immature. Possibly has parents who may have been a little overprotective, but that’s not a fault. She definitely wasn’t suffering from psychosis or having a psychotic break. Her acting skills need work if that’s what she thought she could sell law enforcement. She just could not handle her life’s fairy tale story not going her way and I think her conviction was fair. I feel so sorry for her family .
I suppose that nowadays, losing your temper is diagnosed as psychotic mental breaks and such, and therefore (by some) concluded one should be further coddled rather than duly punished... This is the day we're in...sadly.
Great insights. Thx
Guilty as charged.
Thank you Dr.
I would have been on her side up until she blamed her actions on an intruder. That shows that she was competent.
A friend did the same thing. She lied about going and graduating. She fled and joined the navy instead. This girl should have done the same thing. My cousin just needed structure in her life. She is doing better now.
Thank you so much for making this! I constantly saw her trial but wanted to know the full story but couldn’t find any of these types of videos, and now I have one with one of my favorite narrators! 😊
Insane? When did she have the presence of mind to impersonate her mother in communication with the University, to tell her father that her mother was talking to University satff while she lay dying? And above all, thinking in a matter of seconds about faking a scene involving an intruder when she knew the police were on their way? No way, with anxiety/borderline personality/whatever, she knew very well right from wrong.
Yeah, even if it were true that she has something like schizophrenia, the amount of effort (and lying) put into the murder/coverup is generally something that a judge or jury would say overrides the insanity defense. Even if you were technically insane at the time, based on the diagnostic definition, as long as you knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime, you're going to jail in 99.9% of those cases (and the lying is proof that she knew she was doing something wrong). But based on what friends/family have said about her, she's not insane regardless, so it's a moot point. [Edit: I made this comment before watching the rest of the video, where the state basically makes the same argument.]
I actually failed out of a college after partying too much and I had basically stopped going to classes. I tried to do better the next semester, but it wasn't quite enough to get me out of academic probation, so I technically failed out. I was so ashamed (and afraid), that I kept it a secret from my parents up until literally the day I was supposed to head back to school - in fact, my mom was driving me the 2-hour ride up to the school when I finally couldn't keep up the ruse any longer, and just told her. She was definitely disappointed. But I later went to a community college and got better grades. Sydney was basically trying to pull off the same ruse, and when it got to the breaking point, she probably just felt so ashamed that she thought killing her parents was just inevitable (which is stupid, but I definitely understand the mindset - you're so ashamed that you'd rather *kill* them than have them be disappointed in you like that).
@@matthewdekker6064 Good for you but, like you, many have "failed" and have hidden it for a while, they have felt frustrated and ashamed... If you are really ashamed, ask for forgiveness, under no circumstances can I find in that an explanation for what she did.
@@Klara-Hvar I 100% agree, I'm not saying that what she did was justified. That's why I didn't kill my own mom.
@@matthewdekker6064 I understand you.
@matthewdekker6064 thanks for sharing your story. Glad it worked out for you! And I definitely agree with everything you said 👍❤
Life is getting more expensive and difficult. The pressure to be successful is more than other because only people with masters can buy a house right now.
I feel her stress.
I dont forgive or forget her mistake.
But i do feel like when i was in school i was nearing a psychotic break. I only did my homework at 2 am to 5 am because it was quiet and my parents didnt bother me (and it was the only time i had to my dads computer) and attended classes at 11 am to 3 pm.
I lost track of sleep, i remember listening to some very obvious billy eilish music and thinking "i cant do this"
But luckily
I just rage quit my schooling, paid it off, and started working full time.
Honestly, work is better than college.
To me
Sydney does NOT have schizophrenia! I live with one and have for years, even through their psychosis. She is sane and knew exactly what she was doing! There’s no way she could have watched The Bachelor or anything else, and there’s no way that her friends could not have noticed. BPD, or bipolar maybe, but definitely sane.I’m not a Dr. just speaking of my own personal experience with a loved one.
You are correct.
your absolutely right
Drugs
@@dallymagnoThat's what I believe too!
I am speaking out of my clinical experience as a medical professional when I say that your "opinion" about your friend's schizophrenia does not necessarily have to coincide with this young girl.
Even if she was not schizophrenic, if she hears voices she is schizophrenic.
These are just medical terminologies. A clear diagnosis said so, and this isn't just my "opinion".
I will use this as an acronym for my studies.
Two people who both have schizophrenia might behave very differently, yet they were talking about psychosis, which is way worse to have than just "schizophrenia" when you are in it.
Which also might explain why she killed her mother. The expert lulling that most people with psychosis are apathic is also total bullshit, while some may become manic indeed.
Quite as manic as she was behaving during the video on the crime scene.
Do mind that her behavior is only a reflection of her mental state.
Also, if you kill someone you won't just become manic. If you killed someone you would most likely be proud or silent, or laughing hysterically.
Please don't misinform people, and watch the videos we made for a hospital called Living With Schizophrenia... which most of the stories in this series although acted by me, are stories of people who killed themselves because they couldn't find help.
That is how it feels, which came across in her behavior as well as her actions, trying to mitigate what I think is an "accident". That is my opinion.
This girl needs help and not prison time.
When you see someone in active psychosis, you know there is no way they are faking. It is exhausting just to watch. Heartbreaking isn't even the word for it.
I completely understand what you feel, because I went through this with my brother when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a psychosis event.
@@cimarisa 🥺💞💞💞
She was never in actual psychosis.
I had a nervous breakdown in front of a doctor and his receptionist. Apparently the other patients waiting cared more than the doctor who had messed up my meds and I had gone without them for 48 hours. I ended up breaking from reality and threatened to kill the doctor. They cared that little and were so under educated they threw me out of the surgery (UK) A waiting patient tried to stop me leaving but I turned around and walked straight into the middle of the next road waiting to die. Thankfully the next car driving was a mum with 2 teenage daughters in the car and a new baby so was driving slowly and recognised what was going on. She stopped and dialed 999. I thankfully go the help I needed. The GP actually said to my EMT mum "there is no difference between screaming during a mental health crisis and abuse!!" The ignorance out there is unreal.❤
She should have gotten an additional charge for Felony Bad Acting.
Sobbing without tears, extreme feigned hysteria, catatonia appears when she is questioned, she "hid" her schizoid symptoms (pls people), hands are cut, blah, blah.
You can't tell me there wasn't some sort of previous issues if the dad left his phone at home so she didn't know he was coming 😕
Parent instincts kicked in, Dad smell a rat.🤷🏾♀️
apparently she would leave when she saw he was coming on the app so he did that to make sure she would stay home
Exactly. That is so weird. If they were so close as they claim, why weren't they communicating with each other instead of stalking her?
That poor, poor man
How could she?!!!
They're talking about how she never argues and never has issues with the parents, yet she appears to be a liar with no sense of what punishment is. It sounds like they let her do whatever the hell she wanted her whole life
She seemed to me like she only got "what she wanted" as long as she was :perfect", or at least if people saw her that way. Once in college (likely to do with mental health issues) things spiraled out of control.
We see things differently.
Right? What got me was when he'd dad left his phone at work so she wouldn't know he was coming home. Like did he know she would freak out and act out in some way? I mean something is not right here. She had a history of craziness I'm sure. Dad is just covering for his daughter.
All I can think about is how supportive the parents were, not only of traditional successes, like school, but their children’s emotional well being… Parents have to stop thinking only about how their family appears to others, but how their kids are handling the stress of all the work that goes into it these appearances, and successes. Both of my children have learning, and other, disabilities. My son is 19, and autistic, and my daughter is 13, and has ADHD, and just started presenting with some signs of autism. So we’re going through a lot of testing. All of this has certainly changed what I used to think of as successful! I had to relearn parenting skills, and unlearn the blanket way I was parenting before, to cater to their needs. Everyday that there’s not an outburst is a success. Every day that my kiddos are happy, laughing, and feel secure, is a success. I don’t know the style of parenting that they implement, of course, but with some of the other cases where this has happened, there has to be some where there was no room for error, no room to be subject to the human condition, and that’s sad to think about. ❤ Nobody deserves to be murdered by their children for being strict. I am just wondering what led to this tragedy.
A girl I grew up was an athlete, straight A student and her parents were well off. She had a great future from the outside. Then she burned down the house in 9th grade.
I feel so bad for this family. I don’t understand why she could not go to her parents and explain to them her problems. Sometimes we put to much pressure on our children. A tragedy has happened and now she has lost both parents. I hope she gets the help she needs and still needs to serve her time. I hope she can explain someday to her dad what led her to this tragedy. You can forgive but never forget.
I think her mother was quite an intelligent person and very gifted and Sydney wasn't. I am not convinced that her school grades were on the level. she seemed to be deceptive and there could have been some cheating. She had to "compete" with her mother who was a shining star. she got away with it in grade school and high school but it is difficult to fool the college folk...
Yes she very likely could have cheated in high school and therefore struggled in college
She’s sane.
Everyone eventually cracks under pressure and that’s what happened here.
The pressure of succeeding in school and “life” and society…. can sometimes be too much.
She knows she fkd up and ruined everyone’s lives for nothing.
She had merciful parents who would have loved her no matter what.
I agree and I can’t stand listening to her lawyer keep trying to say the prosecution is not respecting what her mother would want when they have no idea what she would want to happen because Sydney killed her
@@jakemiller4411 Sydney's attack on her mother was sudden, frenzied and ferocious. She beat her around the head with a heavy iron skillet, then stabbed her in the neck more than 30 times. That's RAGE. I would like to know more about the Powell family dynamics since Sydney's birth, to gain insights on where that anger came from.
How desperately sad Brenda's last thoughts were that the baby girl she had carried for 9 months, nurtured, loved and protected - and worried about her whole life - was killing her.
No, everyone does not crack under pressure. To murder your mother because you flunked out of university? that's some first world problems there.
The episode probably started from the pressure
I have had three psychotic breaks and was scared of everything like her I couldn’t get out of bed she was probably scared what people would think another form of extreme paranoia
I see all these comments say she was sane but you can’t understand psychosis or hallucinations unless you have experienced it
I believe she was out of reality
@@jodiforeman3314 It never ceases to amaze me the people who have had mental health issues who now feel qualified by their "expertise" to actually diagnose others from a video.
Absolutely sane at the time of the murder! Also, while she’s dabbing her face and eyes, I see no tears.
However, in the courtroom the tears seemed genuine.
@@gazzyb85no tears
Wow. I literally can't stand my mother. I would never dream of doing anything but the best for my mom's welfare.
That makes no sense though
Same. Would never kill her. Jesus.
@patrickmcdonagh539 yes it does. As my 5 year old son says, "I love you all the time, but sometimes I don't like you" lol I love my mom but right now I don't like her.
@@brett6619 that's not what the original comment said
Not insane, fake crying and no tears. She knew what she was doing.
Yes she did
Yes I agree with this
Facts