Scientology - A Question of Faith

Did A Mother's Faith Contribute To Her Murder?

(CBS) 
"In the late 1960s when Hubbard was running into difficulties with governments around the world, he established a small fleet of ships on the ocean and these were called - the Sea Organization, or Sea Org," explains Kent.

He says that today the Sea Org is back on shore, its membership a sort of priesthood within the church.

"When they join Sea Org, they sign a billion-year contract," Kent says.

Jeremy’s billion year contract didn’t last one year. Dunning says Jeremy "got rejected for a reason which I am unaware of."

The abrupt termination of Jeremy’s Sea Org contract may have been tied to what former Scientologist Rich Dunning saw for himself in 2001, as Jeremy’s behavior was growing increasingly bizarre.

"Just that look in his eye, that you knew that somethin' was not right with him," Dunning recalls.

48 Hours has obtained court-ordered psychiatric evaluations of Jeremy, which were written after the murder of his mother in 2003. They indicate that Jeremy was showing symptoms of schizophrenia as early as 2001. But the Perkins family has long maintained that Jeremy’s condition was somehow triggered by an accident which occurred in 2002 while working on his father’s truck.

"Well, that's nonsense, of course,” says Dr. Joseph, who treated Jeremy after his arrest. “People often think that if they bump their head, because your brain is in your head, then your brain is somehow affected, and that causes mental illness."

Jeremy’s parents took him for a CAT scan on two separate occasions; no abnormalities were ever found.

“Of the numerous doctors that examined Jeremy, none ever thought that there was any significance with regard to the bumping of the head,” says Jeremy’s defense attorney John Nuchereno, who says his client continued to decline over the summer of 2002.

"The illness took over, to an extent, where his father noticed it in his work, and he had to relieve Jeremy of his employment," Nuchereno explains.

Jeremy was even banned from taking Scientology courses.

“The church did know that he was a troubled individual, that’s why they put him PTS, which is 'Potential Trouble Source,' which is basically a label saying that you're sick and, you know, you need to get help before you become active again,” Dunning says.

Jeremy was now suffering from serious hallucinations and delusions. But Elli frustrated her own doctor when she resisted advice to take Jeremy to a psychiatrist. The family did fill a prescription for the sleeping pill Sonata, but days later, things had only gotten worse.

On the morning of Aug. 14, Officer Mark Martinelli caught Jeremy trespassing at the University of Buffalo. He had been out wandering all night.

Then things got rough. “He just started fighting, punching, kicking,” Martinelli recalls.

Jeremy was arrested. A court-ordered psychiatric exam confirmed Martinelli’s suspicions: Jeremy was schizophrenic. He was remanded to a local hospital, but he didn’t stay there long.