A psychiatrist and her teenage son were found dead in their Kensington home in what Montgomery County police are calling a murder-suicide. The bodies of 54-year-old Margaret Jensvold and 13-year-old Benjamin Barnhard were discovered at their home on the unit block of Simms Court at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police were called to the home after Jensvold’s co-worker contacted authorities, saying she had not been able to reach the woman for several days.
Neighbor Lauren Anthone was shocked by the news.
“I feel sad that they slipped through cracks and none of us saw it coming,” Anthone told The Washington Examiner. “No one reached out for help and obviously someone was under a great deal of mental distress.”
Officers found Jensvold’s and Barnhard’s bodies in their bedrooms, police said. It wasn’t immediately known how long their bodies had been there.
Both had suffered trauma, said Officer Howard Hersh, a Montgomery County police spokesman. He would not say how Jensvold and Barnhard died, whether any weapon was found at the home or who initiated the killings.
He said he didn’t know whether anyone else was living at the home.
The boy’s father, James Barnhard, told WRC-TV that Ben recently graduated from Wellspring Academy, the school for overweight kids in rural North Carolina that had been featured on the show “Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back” on Style Network. The father said that Jensvold was a lovely mother.
Jensvold had co-edited the book “Psychopharmacology and Women: Sex, Gender, and Hormones” and contributed to the book “Psychopharmacology from a Feminist Perspective.”
She had previously practiced at the Premenstrual Syndrome Clinic on St. Elmo Road in Bethesda, according to records.
Jensvold once sued the National Institutes of Health for sex discrimination. She and another doctor claimed that they were forced to work in a male dominated, sexist atmosphere, and that they had been denied mentoring opportunities considered essential to advancing in their careers. But in 1996, U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow tossed out the claims, saying they were in part “exaggerated” and “fabricated.”
An online review by an anonymous client wrote, “She seemed to be a very caring person and took notes during sessions, however in a crisis situation she was very difficult to get in touch with….It seemed as if she only worked part time. She was kind but ineffective.”
Staff Writer Freeman Klopott contributed to this report.
