His uncle says James Michael Peters was a paranoid schizophrenic who didn’t like to take his medicine, something very common among people with that diagnosis, according to the director of adult behavioral services at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

Potential side-effects aren’t pleasant – muscle stiffness, movement disorders, a slow feeling – and it’s hard to reason with someone whose judgment is off.

Paranoid schizophrenia is a “major mental illness” marked with chronic auditory hallucinations and delusions, Paul Rouleau said. “They hear voices outside their head and it has the same quality sound as I’m talking to you, but there’s no one there.”

Paul McGrath said he’d noticed his nephew become “more and more hostile” over the last few months. What part Peters’ condition played in his mother’s brutal death may never be entirely clear, but local providers say it has created an opening to talk about the treatment of mental illness and stigma that can scare some people from getting treatment.

“People seek help and they’re not frightened by chest pain. They’re not frightened by cancer so they (don’t) stay home and get worse. At a time like this we may be able to provide information to help,” said Chris Copeland, executive director at Tri-County Mental Health.

Tentative plans call for a community forum in the next month.

Neither Rouleau nor Copeland could comment on whether Peters had ever been a patient. Tri-County sees 7,000 to 10,000 people a year, kids, families and adults.

“We do that, year after year, with very little attention until incidents like this (which are) incredibly rare, very, very rare,” Copeland said.

Most people with mental illness are not violent; they’re more likely to be victims of crime, said Carol Carothers, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Maine chapter.

Her group maintains a helpline. If people notice a friend, loved one or neighbor acting a little off, or some change in their behavior, that’s the time to reach out, she said.

“Sometimes, by the time there’s a crisis it’s difficult to intervene,” Carothers said.

A November 2006 article in the journal “Schizophrenia Research” found at least 5 percent of homicides in the U.S. were committed by people with a serious mental illness, most of whom weren’t being treated. The most common victim: mothers.

Brian MacMaster, chief of investigations at the Maine Attorney General’s Office, said he likely won’t release the names of drugs Peters was prescribed or those found in his system, “given the personal nature of that information.”

“When he was on his medicines he was the nicest guy, very friendly and jovial,” said McGrath, Peters’ uncle. “But he stopped taking them. It was one of those things.”