PLANO, Texas – Long before Dena Schlosser took a blade to her baby’s arms, her parents had begun to worry.
In the years after she moved to Texas with her husband and children, their gentle, dependent daughter had become increasingly isolated. And, according to her stepfather, she was dangerously consumed by a self-described prophet and his church.
Dena’s stepfather, Mick Macaulay, said that although he blames mental illness for Schlosser severing the arms of 10-month-old daughter Margaret and leaving her to die, he believes the teachings of Doyle Davidson also played a role.
Schlosser was charged with capital murder after police found the 35-year-old mother on Nov. 22 covered in blood in her living room, still holding a knife.
Schlosser, her husband, John, and their firstborn daughter moved to Texas about five years ago. John soon lost his job and began working for himself as a consultant. A midwife delivered Margaret because they had no health insurance.
The financial stress, a new baby and a mother who has Parkinson’s disease affected Schlosser. Child Protective Services investigated her for neglect in January after she left the newborn alone and her 5-year-old daughter was seen chasing her mother down the street on a bicycle.
Schlosser received psychiatric treatment for postpartum depression and the agency determined she was stable in August.
By then, though, Schlosser’s association with Davidson’s church had intensified, Macaulay said.
He said Davidson used violent imagery and told women they possessed a rebellious “Jezebel” spirit, and that they should submit to their husbands, he said.
“I’m not saying that anybody suggested ‘Go cut your baby’s arms off,’” said Macaulay, a mental health counselor who lives with Schlosser’s mother, Connie, in Canada. “This diminishing of women, this diminishing of women’s powers, women’s importance, referring to women as jezebels, I think, further undermines an already fragile ego state that Dena’s experiencing.”
That’s absurd, the 72-year-old minister said.
“I’m an apostle and I’m a prophet,” Davidson said. “I only teach what’s in the Bible, and that’s what makes them mad.”
Davidson, a former veterinarian, said God told him to start Water of Life Ministries in suburban Dallas in the early 1980s. His sermons are based on literal interpretations of the Bible.
He refers to Methodist, Catholic and Baptist denominations as cults and believes the Ten Commandments apply only to the disobedient, not the righteous.
Macaulay said Schlosser, who spoke to her mother almost daily by phone, talked incessantly about Davidson, urging them to listen to sermons on his Web site. Macaulay said they listened to about 60 hours of sermons, which only fed their concern.
Macaulay said Schlosser started using prayer instead of antibiotics when her children were sick and was convinced Davidson could cure her mother of Parkinson’s. When Connie Macaulay visited two years ago, Schlosser had Davidson “lay hands on” her mother to drive out evil spirits and disease.
“Dena was so confident that Connie was cured that they threw out her medicine,” Macaulay said.
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