Christopher Frick is behind bars for murdering his former psychiatrist, Dr. Caroline Ekong, at her home in Hockessin, Delaware.
Ekong, 55, was raised in Nigeria, where she obtained her medical degree from the University College Hospital, University of Ibadan, according to 6 ABC Action News.
In 1988, she moved to the United States and continued her medical education and training in Delaware.
She then became a double-board certified child and adult psychiatrist and began working at the Rockford Center, a 118-bed private psychiatric facility in Stanton, where she supposedly began treating Frick.
After getting married and having children, it was reported that Ekong wanted to spend less time at work and more time with her family, but her plans would never come to fruition.
On Oct. 14, 2015, Ekong was found dead. Her daughter returned to their two-story home on Withers Way in the Sanford Ridge neighborhood around 4 a.m. and found Ekong’s naked body on the floor.
Ekong was laying in a pool of her blood. And an autopsy showed that she died from multiple stab wounds to the body.
Her daughter told Delaware Online that she has “images in her mind of the cuts on her mother’s fingers the funeral home tried to hide with flowers.”
“If small paper cuts can leave an unbearably intense sharp pain, then imagine how an illegal hunting knife would feel. Not just one cut, but several cuts. Several stabs.”
About 30 minutes after Ekong’s body was found, Frick made a 911 call and admitted to murdering his former psychiatrist.
In his confession, Frick claimed that in the early morning hours of Oct. 14, 2015, he parked his vehicle at a parking lot in the proximity of Ekong’s home prior to breaking in through the back door.
Once inside, he came face-to-face with Ekong in the foyer, where he said he confronted her. A struggle ensued before Frick stabbed her multiple times.
Frick fled the scene in his vehicle. He drove three miles to his parents’ home on Springbrook Lane before he decided to call 911.
At the time of the murder, Frick was a 21-year-old senior at the University of Delaware, studying mathematics.
NBC Philadelphia reported that three mental health professionals have stated that since the age of four or five, Frick has seen several psychiatrists for a slew of “mental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
Authorities said Frick became obsessed with Ekong after she had him committed to a psychiatric facility at the age of 18, and he believed that she refused to let him leave.
Frick wrote a letter to The News Journal about his experience in the psychiatric facility.
He wrote: “The staff framed me as suicidal, as well as everyone else I saw the night I was ‘evaluated.’”
In an online review of the facility, Frick wrote a lengthy post.
The last sentence reads: “The person who imprisoned me was Caroline Ekong, whose ego is so large that she would never be able to admit doing something wrong.”
According to Delaware Online, there were entries in his journal that indicated that he began plotting Ekong’s murder for at least a year.
To prepare for the attack, he purchased a hunting knife and practiced picking locks.
On Oct. 15, 2015, New Castle County Police arrested Frick. He was charged with murder, first-degree possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, and a slew of other charges.
He was booked into the Howard Young Correctional Institution, where he was held without bond for murder but was given a $143,000 cash bail for other offenses.
Shortly after Frick’s arrest, he was taken to the Delaware Psychiatric Center for treatment. Authorities said his mental health has since improved.
Despite his mental health issues, Superior Court Judge Ferris Wharton found him competent to enter a plea.
In 2016, Frick pleaded guilty to the charges but mentally ill, which means he will undergo psychiatric treatment while incarcerated.
At his sentencing, Frick apologized for killing Ekong. He said he wishes he could take it back, and he “wishes everyone affected the best.”
Frick’s mother stated that he is a good person but very mentally ill. She said, “We know Christopher is very sorry.”
The victim’s daughter described her mother as a “woman of integrity.”
She said, “She was a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a godmother, a stepmother, a colleague, and a great medical practitioner. Most importantly, to me and my brother, she was and is our mother.”
In December 2016, a judge sentenced Frick to life in prison with an additional 25 years.