She Thought She Was Helping
A grandmother welcomed her grandson into her home after an LSD overdose. Prosecutors say he later planned and recorded her murder.
Sources: WKRC Local 12 and WLWT Cincinnati
This was a tough one to read...especially as a caretaker for my own mother and my children’s grandmother.
According to WKRC and WLWT, 19-year-old Wyatt Testerman was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to beating his 74-year-old grandmother, Cheri Oliver, to death.
Cheri wasn’t just another victim in a headline.
She was the grandmother who had welcomed Wyatt into her home after he was released from the hospital following an LSD overdose. According to family members, she was thrilled he was staying with her. He helped around the house, ran errands, and drove his grandparents to doctor’s appointments.
Then everything changed.
According to prosecutors, Testerman texted his mother that he intended to kill his grandmother before the attack. They say he positioned Cheri in front of a cell phone camera, propped the phone on a tumbler, moved the coffee table and rug out of the way, closed the blinds, and announced his intentions before carrying out the assault.
Prosecutors said the recording showed Testerman pausing to look at the blood on his knuckles, checking whether his grandmother was still alive, and then continuing the attack.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney described it as the most premeditated murder he had seen in his career.
Despite those horrific details, Testerman’s family described a completely different person.
His aunt told the court she could not reconcile the grandson she knew with the young man sitting before the judge.
“I don’t believe Wyatt is just evil,” she said. “I can only assume that he started back on the drugs, had a mental break, or something.”
Testerman’s attorney argued he was experiencing a drug-induced psychosis, and Testerman himself said he genuinely believed his grandmother posed a threat because of the way drugs had altered his mind.
As someone who’s been in recovery for many years, I’ve heard stories like this before and even witnessed drug-induced psychosis firsthand—but nothing anywhere close to this.
I once had a friend break into an elderly woman’s home because he genuinely believed he was saving her from an alien invasion he was hallucinating. He was fortunate that nobody got hurt and he celebrated 20 years sober this year.
This story though, this is on an entirely different level.
Cheri Oliver lost her life.
A family lost a beloved mother and grandmother.
And another young life will likely be spent behind prison walls.
Reading this story sent me down a rabbit hole about drug-induced psychosis because, although I knew it existed, I didn’t realize there were organizations dedicated to educating people about it.
Instead of linking to a general addiction charity, I chose to feature Made of Millions, which provides education and resources about mental health conditions, including drug-induced psychosis.
I’m of the belief that severe mental illness and substance-related psychiatric conditions don’t excuse people from the consequences of their actions. At the same time, there’s tremendous value in understanding these conditions, recognizing warning signs, encouraging treatment, and hopefully preventing another family from experiencing a tragedy like this one.
The first link explains drug-induced psychosis in plain language.
This second link is Made of Millions’ donation page if you’d like to support their work improving mental health education and reducing the stigma surrounding serious mental illness.