I read about that on the news the other day and thought how sad it was. I have a 13 year old boy and he can drive me crazy sometimes but I could never dream of hurting him. It is one of those things that we will never understand.
I can only assume the mother had some kind of mental break. I also have teenagers and can't imagine harming them no matter how much they "talk back". I live in the same area as you and I agree the local news has been hard to watch lately. If you find yourself thinking about it too much, distract yourself by taking care of your birds or coming here. There are a lot of people here that will be more than happy to talk you through the tough times.