When Mary Gomes called Washington County Mental Health Services the day before her son killed her, she was not looking for paperwork or promises. She was scared. According to a civil lawsuit filed in Washington County court, she told the nonprofit provider that her son, Matthew Gomes, was a danger to himself and needed help immediately.
What followed was a breakdown in crisis response that culminated in tragedy, according to court documents filed by attorney Celeste Laramie on behalf of Matthew Gomes’ sibling, who administers the parents’ estate. The lawsuit seeks wrongful death damages, placing institutional accountability directly at the doorstep of a community mental health provider that allegedly ignored explicit warnings.
Matthew Gomes, 31, has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of aggravated murder. Court records show he is held without bail and was housed at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield as of Friday, undergoing evaluation for a possible insanity defense ahead of a scheduled Jan. 21 hearing.
A Warning Ignored on Gallison Hill Road
The events leading up to the November 2024 killings involve police being called multiple times in January and February 2023 regarding friction within the Montpelier home on Gallison Hill Road.
Among those early warnings was an incident in January 2023 where Matthew Gomes asked to speak with police about “murders of his family.” The following month, he reportedly assaulted Mary Gomes, leading to a two-week hospitalization. Despite this history of behavior toward his parents and regular treatment as an emergency and routine patient with Washington County Mental Health Services, the lawsuit claims the institution failed to act when crisis conditions peaked again in 2024.
On the day before the murders, Mary Gomes reached out to the mental health provider reporting her fear and that Matthew Gomes may harm himself. Staff instructed her to call back once she located her son, promising a crisis response team would be dispatched. But when she found Matthew Gomes in Montpelier and brought him home, the provider changed course. Mary Gomes was told that neither staff nor a crisis intervention team would be sent.
Subsequent calls made by Mary Gomes reporting her son’s escalating behavior were allegedly never documented in the nonprofit’s system, nor did staff communicate with one another about the repeated warnings. On the morning of the killings, when Matthew Gomes dialed 911 multiple times and reported he had killed his parents after “going crazy,” a mental health screener attempted a phone call but Matthew Gomes hung up. No field team was sent to the house.
Lawsuit Introduces Consumer Fraud Claims Against Mental Health Agency
Beyond the wrongful death claims, the lawsuit introduces a distinct legal argument: consumer fraud. The filing contends that the Gomes family relied on public representations that the mental health agency would provide services that it ultimately did not provide when Matthew Gomes was in crisis.
“It’s an incredibly important service for the community. It’s an incredibly important job, but even those institutions need to be held accountable when they fail,” Laramie said in an interview.
Those with Washington County Mental Health Services did not return a request for comment regarding the allegations. As the legal proceedings move toward the January hearing, the case forces a community conversation about the limits of institutional safety nets, the burdens placed on families dealing with severe mental illness, and the threshold required to trigger emergency intervention before a crisis becomes irreversible.
