Raymond Boothe barely recognizable to family

The Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office called Lisa Boothe Tuesday morning to let her know that on Wednesday, her husband would be sent to Larned State Hospital for a 60-day psychiatric evaluation. If she wanted to see Raymond Boothe, they told her, she needed to come right away.

Lisa Boothe drove from Missouri to Kansas with Carol Boothe, her mother-in-law.

Guards allowed only one visitor at a time. Carol Boothe went first.

Raymond Boothe “asked about the kids and how they were doing,” Carol Boothe said. “He said he loved me and that he was sorry for everything that had happened.”

Eventually, she said, they talked about Levi Boothe, the 11-year-old son Raymond Boothe is accused of killing.

“He said Levi had called him ‘Booger,'” Carol Boothe said, referring to a much-resented nickname Raymond Boothe had picked up in high school.

“And then he said Levi had told him that he was unhappy living in the group home and that he was mad at his mom and dad for leaving him in the home,” she said, referring to the Iowa group home where the boy had lived since 1995. “And then he looked right at me and said, ‘Mom, he really talked to me.'”

Levi Boothe’s caretakers in Iowa said the boy’s disabilities made it impossible for him to speak to anyone.

“‘I don’t know, maybe I imagined that, too,'” Carol Boothe said Raymond told her.

Raymond “seemed confused,” she said. “It was like he knew what had happened, but he didn’t understand what had happened, if that makes sense.”

Lisa Boothe said Raymond Boothe spent most of their visit babbling.

“He didn’t talk in complete sentences,” she said. “He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ ‘I love you,’ ‘I can’t believe you came to see me.'”

She, too, said Raymond seemed confused. It’s a confusion Lisa Boothe said she shares.

“I’ll never have my son back again, I know that. But I miss my husband he was a good husband, a hard worker and a wonderful father,” she said. “But I can’t deal with the man who killed my son. I just can’t.

“So now, in a way, I hope they don’t get him to come back mentally because if they do and he realizes what he’s done, it’ll kill him. He’ll commit suicide, he couldn’t live with himself. He loves his kids, totally.”

Dr. Peter Graham, director of adult treatment at Menninger Clinic in Topeka, said what he’s learned of Raymond Boothe through news accounts and from hearing the family’s description of the man’s behavior suggests clear signs of mental illness.

“There’s an obvious indication that he was manic and on his way to becoming psychotic,” Graham said. “It actually sounds like the psychotic aspects of untreated bipolar disorder.

“We see this all the time,” Graham said. “These are patients who do not want treatment. They don’t want to be on a mood stabilizer (medication).”