Residents who knew the suspect says that Angelica Kulp, who is being charged with murder in the first-degree for the death of Christine Kaplan, has been suffering from mental illness for a long time. Kulp has been living in East Lawrence for several years, and those who knew her new that she was struggling with severe mental illness and that she had been periodically receiving social services from the local mental health center.
Neighbors admitted in that her delusional state made her quite unpredictable, but that they did not think that she was capable of murder since she had been struggling, for many years, to become mentally stable. Lamont Washington, Kulp's housemate said that, "She has a heart, but with all the mental stuff going on in her head it was hard. She's not a bad person. Something must have triggered this last episode."
Brian Blevins, Director of operations for the Lawrence Community Shelter and Kulp's landlord, said that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that she had ongoing episodes of delusional thinking. In fact, she had been admitted multiple times at the Osawatomie State Hospital to receive psychiatric care. Blevins also attested to the fact that Kulp was not a drug or alcohol addict but that, although she did not use these substances on her own, she was vulnerable and open to suggestion. He said that these substances could have contributed to how she got off-track.
On the week leading up to the murder, law enforcers were looking to serve Kulp with a court order that would get her back to Osawatomie. When she finally turned up, witnesses said that she "started acting crazy" and seemed as if she was "going to attack" them. It is unclear whether Kulp knew the victim, but people who knew Christine Kaplan said that it was not uncommon for her to accommodate "people who were down on their luck."
