Mental Illness Beset Suspect in Mother’s Death

Betty Lou Hahn, the Tustin woman charged with fatally bludgeoning her 83-year-old mother with a hammer, was being treated for depression and agoraphobia, a fear of public places, at the time of the attack, authorities said Thursday.

Hahn, 54, was arrested at her home in the 14400 block of Heights Drive on Wednesday evening after police said her husband called to report that his wife had killed her mother, Helen Gretz of La Mirada, who had been visiting the couple for the holidays. The husband, attorney Kenneth Hahn, was not home at the time of the attack, police said.

Hahn was being held in the Orange County Jail on Thursday, awaiting arraignment in connection with the slaying. She declined to be interviewed by The Times, and Tustin detectives working on the case said that she had made no statement to them. Guards at the jail said that Hahn was being seen by a psychiatrist.

Tustin Police Lt. Frank Semelsberger, who is supervising the investigation into the murder, said that Hahn and her mother, who arrived at the house on Dec. 15, apparently had argued in the past.

“They did not get along real well,” he said. “But it was only verbal arguments, nothing physical.”

He said that police had no information about events leading to the killing, which was caused by several blows to the head with a hammer.

Semelsberger said that police talked with Kenneth Hahn and learned that his wife had been diagnosed as suffering from agoraphobia, low self-esteem and depression. He said that drugs, including Xanax, commonly used to treat anxiety attacks, had been prescribed for the condition.

Anxiety Attacks

Michael Wolf, a psychiatrist at UCI Medical Center in Orange who is not involved in the case, said that agoraphobia is usually preceded by anxiety attacks, an experience that may cause heart palpitations, dizziness and feelings of impending doom.

“The person may experience their attack in a shopping mall, or driving, or wherever,” he said, “and then they develop a persistent fear of having another attack, and then they tend to avoid the place where they had the (previous) attack.”

Wolf added that violence is usually not associated with agoraphobia.

“Mostly, it is the fear of being in a situation where they might be embarrassed, or where there may not be help,” he said. “They get embarrassed by their attacks.”

Semelsberger said he did not know if Hahn was on medication at the time of the murder.

He said that Gretz, who had stayed with her daughter several times in the past, reportedly had been in good health.

Neighbors Express Shock

Neighbors in the quiet, middle-class Tustin neighborhood of single-family homes--many decorated with lights and wreaths for the holidays--said they were saddened and shocked by news of the slaying.

“They were more than just neighbors,” one woman said as tears welled up in her eyes. “They were very close friends.”