Psychiatrist Kills Too Fat for 15 Son, Self

13-year-old had just finished year at weight-loss boarding school
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2011 4:50 AM CDT
Psychiatrist Margaret Jensvold Kills 'Too Fat for 15' Son, Self
Police were called to Jensvold's home in an upper-class Washington suburb after co-workers were unable to contact her for several days.   (Shutterstock)

A prominent Maryland psychiatrist specializing in women's health shot her 13-year-old son dead before killing herself, police say. The son, Ben Barnhard, had recently completed a year at the boarding school for overweight kids featured in the Style Network show Too Fat for 15, which tracked his loss of more than 100 pounds, NBC reports.

Associates describe Margaret Jensvold as a hard-working psychiatrist and loving mother who doted on her son. "She put a great deal of effort into her son's educational and psychological well-being," a lawyer who represented Jensvold when she divorced Barnhard's father tells the Washington Examiner. "I never had any indication that Margaret had any sort of violent tendencies or even shortness of temper." (More reality TV stories.)

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