A week after they were sued by relatives who lost their only daughter, the parents of accused Thanksgiving killer Paul Merhige are being sued by their widowed former son-in-law.
Patrick Knight, who was nearly killed in the 2009 holiday massacre in Jupiter, claims that his former in-laws Michael and Carole Merhige of Miami knew their son was dangerous and failed to protect him and his slain pregnant wife.
37-year-old Paul Merhige sat calmly through the three-hour Thanksgiving dinner at the home of cousins Muriel and Jim Sitton, relatives told police. His sisters had sung and six-year-old Makayla Sitton had recited Psalm 100 and gone to sleep when police say the one-time Gulliver Prep standout walked to his car and grabbed a handgun.
Merhige then shot his 76-year-old aunt Raymonde Joseph, Knight, and twin sisters Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight before heading in to the bedroom where Makayla slept and shooting her multiple times, police say.
Patrick Knight spent three months in a medically-induced coma before waking to find his wife and unborn child were dead.
The lawsuit claims the Merhiges knew their son's behavior was becoming increasingly dangerous and that he had stopped taking psychotropic medication, reports the Palm Beach Post.
"Since approximately 1994, Paul Merhige had frequently and chronically committed extremely violent and aggressive acts and expressed threats of violence, both in general, and specifically, toward members of his immediate and extended family," the lawsuit by attorney H. Joshua Diamond reads, according to the Post.
The suit states that the Merhiges didn't tell anyone Paul was coming to Thanksgiving dinner until just before he arrived.
"Everyone is going up (including Paul!!)," wrote Carole Merhige before the killings in an e-mail to a relative obtained by NBC affiliate WPTV. "It will be interesting to say the least!"
Merhige fled the scene, touching off an intense, 38-day nationwide manhunt until a profile of him on an episode of "America's Most Wanted" led to his capture on Jan. 2 in a Keys motel room. Prosecutors have announced they'll seek the death penalty for Merhige, and a trial is expected to begin this fall.
