I have a tragic mix of College and Legal Insurrection to share today.

I regularly cover the challenges students and recent graduates have in handling their education loan debts.  Sadly, student debt seems to be the root cause of two murders and a suicide.

In an Above the Law post, Elie Mystal notes that John Conrad Wagner, 32, was employed as a contract attorney in Philadelphia after graduating from Villanova University’s law school. From the Philadelphia Daily News:

After graduation, he stayed in the Philadelphia area, but had trouble finding work. He took a job with a local temp agency for lawyers that would send him to pore over piles of documents for firms representing pharmaceutical companies.

“It was just a hundred attorneys going through boxes,” recalled lawyer Simi Mayall, who worked with Wagner during 2007-08. “It was really boring.”

It should be noted Wagner’s father recently met with an accidental death.

JOHN Conrad Wagner didn’t talk about his father’s death.

The 32-year-old lawyer and Center City resident had heard his father’s cries as he plunged from a cliff while they hiked alone in 2011 in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.

But when his mother, Carolyn, would ask about that devastating day, he refused to talk about it, her best friend, Patsy Batsch, said.

“It did bother her. I think she did have questions,” said Batsch. “She said when the time is right she was going to try and talk to him about it.”

Wagner’s mother was was found fatally shot in her bed at her Florida home at the end of last year. The investigation quickly centered on the son, who then committed suicide:

In January, as authorities were homing in on him, John Conrad Wagner killed himself in his apartment on Pine Street near 18th, near Rittenhouse Square. He did not leave a note.

“We’ll never know his motive,” said Marion County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Sandlin. “What is our opinion? Financial. He had a lot of student loans that were outstanding.”

Reports indicate that the shooting of Carolyn Wagner triggered interest from Mount Rainier National Park Chief Ranger Chuck Young, who said that though the case is closed on the father’s death, he’s been in touch with Florida officials “just to see what they’ve found.”

The law school graduate’s motivations may never be entirely known.  A look into the Wagner’s finances show the mother did not have a life-insurance policy and that she wasn’t wealthy. The most that the son would have received from her death would have been her assets and her bank accounts.

With student debt surpassing credit card debt and the economy struggling to recover, many young Americans are finding it difficult to get started on a meaningful career that leaves them financially independent. Desperation leads to tragic choices, and Wagner’s Florida neighbor Amin Kahn shared his thoughts on the event:

“Law school isn’t worth killing your mother over,” said Khan. “Whatever the motive was, nobody will ever know, because only he knows what made him do it.”