Slain Sebastopol parents struggled to get help for troubled son accused of their murder

A Sebastopol husband and wife killed Monday in a stabbing attack authorities said was carried out by their adult son had struggled and suffered in their attempts to get the son help with his chronic mental health problems, those close to the parents said Tuesday.

David Wilson and Adrianne Chapin had welcomed their son Nathan Wilson, 34, back into their home about a year ago, hopeful they could assist him, according to friends of the family. The younger Wilson, who was arrested on suspicion of murder Monday after a massive manhunt, had long wrestled with delusions, anger and other mental health conditions, family friends said.

Chapin “was hopeful by taking him in ... helping him get the support he needed, that they could help him get back on track,” said her friend and spiritual teacher Jo Pettit of Santa Rosa.

Nathan Wilson’s struggles were known, but the news that he was arrested in the stabbing deaths of his mother and father shocked even those who had listened to the parents over the years describe their efforts to help him.

“Everyone believes it was a psychotic breakdown, but we’ll probably never know,” said family friend Joel Hidahl of Forestville. “There is a great group of friends, so with combined strength we will help the family get through this.”

Sonoma County sheriff’s investigators declined to give any suspected motive in the killings. Sgt. Cecile Focha, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that investigators would not comment on questions about Wilson’s mental health.

He was booked into Sonoma County Jail late Monday after being transferred from Mendocino County, where he was apprehended about seven hours after the bodies of his parents were found in their Sexton Road home in the rural Twin Hills community southwest of Sebastopol. His uncle told authorities he saw Nathan Wilson at the property covered in blood, sheriff’s officials said.

Prosecutors were expected to charge Wilson with two counts of murder Wednesday afternoon in Sonoma County Superior Court. Autopsies on the victims also were scheduled to take place Wednesday, Focha said.

David Wilson, 66, and Chapin, 60, were both artistic and outdoor enthusiasts, according to their friends.

David Wilson was an independent contractor who built custom homes. He worked with an East Bay design-build firm in the 1980s and later formed his own company, Wilson Way Builders, according to state contractor licensing records.

A gifted guitarist from Southern California, he recorded albums decades ago and still played with friends, said Hidahl.

“He was buddies with Buffalo Springfield’s crew when they were getting started,” Hidahl said. “He was part of a pretty incredible music scene.”

Chapin’s passion for nature was also spiritual. She studied Wicca, a nature-focused pagan religion. She participated in Sonoma County spiritual groups such as the Sisters of the New Moon and Diana’s Grove, Pettit said.

Chapin also danced. She was a regular presence at Sunday Soul Motion dance classes at Sebastopol’s Wischemann Hall. In a 2012 video, she’s shown leading perhaps hundreds of women in a One Billion Rising flash mob held in Sebastopol, an annual event to show solidarity for ending violence against women.

“It was so important to her, to see the end of violence to women worldwide,” said Scout Tomyris, 65, of Santa Rosa, a fellow Diana’s Grove member. “That she died herself in an act of violence is extremely ironic and all the more shocking to all of us because of what a peaceful and loving person she was.”

Photos of Chapin and her husband appear to show a close, loving couple. In a Facebook post from 2009, Chapin shared a photo of her husband with an accompanying caption that read: “He’s getting more handsome all the time. I still don’t know his secret.”

Chapin studied fine arts at Cal State University Hayward, according to her Facebook page. Her friends said her oil paintings were abstract, colorful and memorable.

Cole Ainsworth, 30, of Santa Rosa said that the couple took him in many times during his trouble childhood in Forestville. The Wilsons at that point lived on Canyon Road in Forestville, and Ainsworth said that they threw a birthday party for him each year and gave him Christmas gifts - things he said he would not have otherwise experienced in his own difficult childhood.

“I am dying inside right now,” Ainsworth said. They were two of the nicest people ever. They were like parents to me.”

Ainsworth said that when they bought the property on Sexton Road, he and Nathan Wilson helped David Wilson rebuild the existing house on the property.

He said Nathan Wilson had “anger issues his whole life” and behaved as if he had been spoiled. But Ainsworth said he never saw him as a physical threat to his own parents.

“Maybe to somebody else, but no, no, no ... they were the perfect parents,” he said.

Pettit, Chapin’s spiritual teacher, said that she had joined Chapin for a long walk about three weeks ago at Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol and they had talked about Nathan. Chapin said he was undergoing treatment, had been prescribed medication and was getting professional help.

“At that time she felt that Nathan was doing a bit better,” Pettit said. “But he had been struggling with delusional thinking and acting out. I know he could be verbally abusive, but she never expressed to me any fear of physical violence.”

Pettit said she was sensitive to the fact that Chapin was a private person, and having her family’s struggles discussed publicly would go against her instincts, however Pettit said she felt that in light of the deaths she felt it was important for the community to address the obstacles facing families trying to help their loved ones.

Chapin told her about the challenges her family faced getting help for her son, who as an adult has the right to decline treatment, Pettit said.

“I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that she would want us to shower Nathan with love and compassion and she wouldn’t want him to be harmed,” she said. “A healthy, happy life is all she wanted for him.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.