Inside mystery deaths of three teens and why grieving parents are pointing the finger at hypnotist headteacher

WHEN 16-year-old Marcus Freeman died after his car veered off the road, it appeared to be a tragic accident. The death of the star quarterback shocked the community in North Port, Sarasota County, Florida, and grieving friends and family took to the football field to mourn his loss. Dr George Kenney was the principal at North Port High School where the three teenagers died Credit: Blumhouse/Anchor Entertainment courtesy of AMC Marcus Freeman, one of three student who died after being hypnotised by the principal. Credit: Facebook In a news clip from March 15 2011, the day of the incident, the principal of his school, Dr George Kenney, was visibly shaken and said: “He was an outstanding athlete, a good student, just a great kid.” But when his girlfriend, Carley O’Boyle, who was a passenger in the car left hospital days later, the story took a sinister turn. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! She recalled that Marcus got a “strange look on his face” moments before the crash. They were driving along singing to Katy Perry’s Firework when she looked over to see his eyes rolled back in his head and his arms locked on the steering wheel. Wesley McKinley committed suicide after being hypnotised Credit: Facebook Brittany Palumbo was the third student to die after having hypnosis sessions Credit: Facebook Moments later, they drifted off the road, into a ditch and crashed into a tree. Rumours began to swirl that Marcus may have hypnotised himself before the crash. Just weeks later, on April 8, another pupil at his Florida high school, 16-year-old Wesley McKinley, died by suicide. Then came a third death. On May 4, Brittany Palumbo, 17, who had been struggling with the pressure of getting into university, also died by suicide. Most read in The Sun With three teenagers from the same school dead within a matter of weeks their devastated families and the authorities began asking questions and an extraordinary connection emerged. Now Look Into My Eyes has landed on ITVX, a “disturbing” true crime documentary that delves into the mysterious deaths. Attention, and the police investigation, quickly turned to Dr Kenney after it emerged that he had been using hypnosis on students. He reportedly “put them under” to help teenagers with everything from athletic performance to anxiety ahead of exams and is believed to have hypnotised around 70 students, staff and others over a five-year period. Dr George Kenney hypnotised around 70 students and teachers at his school Credit: Blumhouse/Anchor Entertainment courtesy of AMC Principal George Kenney, standing in front of students who are seemingly hypnotised. Credit: Blumhouse/Anchor Entertainment courtesy of AMC But he was not licensed to practise therapeutic hypnosis. In 2009, he attended a five-day training course at the Omni Hypnosis Training Center, according to Look Into My Eyes. “It was excellent training,” he says in the documentary. “I felt I was effective and knowledgeable about what I was doing.” Despite not having a licence to practice therapeutic hypnosis, Kenney began using the method on his students. Marcus had sought help from Kenney for sporting reasons, hoping hypnosis could help him manage pain ahead of football games. His close friend, Deric Thomas, recalls in Look Into My Eyes that after being hypnotised by Kenney, Marcus would experience “trances” during which he could not feel his body. Meanwhile, Kenney says he hypnotised Marcus to help him “see things more slowly on the field”. Marcus had also been taught self-hypnosis by Kenney, and his family later alleged in a wrongful death lawsuit that he had used the technique while behind the wheel before the crash. Dr. George Kenney denies that his sessions had any impact on the teens deaths Credit: Blumhouse/Anchor Entertainment courtesy of AMC Brittany Palumbo’s parents believe that Dr Kenney is in part responsible Credit: Blumhouse/Anchor Entertainment courtesy of AMC Less than one month after Marcus’ death, Wesley McKinley died by suicide on April 8, 2011. The day before, the 16-year-old, who was preparing for a college music audition, had been hypnotised by Kenney. Despite initially telling Wesley’s parents that he barely knew the teenager, Kenney had actually been giving him regular hypnosis sessions to help manage stress and become more social. Wesley’s mum, Peggie, alleged that her son was “almost zombie-like and very out of character for him” after his session. She recalled him coming home from school and making plans with friends before he died by suicide. However, Kenney denied any involvement in his death and alleged that McKinley had been dealing with cyberbullying and “drama behind the scenes”. The principal later said that if he had known Wesley was depressed, he would never have hypnotised him. The parents of the third teenager to lose her life, Brittany Palumbo, also blamed Dr Kenney’s hypnosis practices for contributing to her death. The 17-year-old was struggling with test anxiety and started meeting with Kenney in 2010 in the hope of improving her SAT scores. On May 4, 2011, she died by suicide. Her mum, Patricia, says in the documentary that she believes Kenney gave her daughter a “tool that allowed her to do what she did”. Kenney denied teaching her anything that would have contributed to her death. Despite the allegations from the parents and a police investigation, Dr Kenney was never charged in relation to any of the deaths. However, in 2012 he was charged with two misdemeanour counts of practising therapeutic hypnosis without a licence. Dr Kenney pleaded no contest and avoided prison. He resigned as principal in June 2012 and was sentenced to two consecutive six-month terms of probation and 50 hours of community service. “In Florida, if you’re convicted of a felony, as an educator, you can lose your retirement [benefits],” Kenney says in Look Into My Eyes. “So I worked with my attorney and pleaded no contest.” The parents later sued the Sarasota County School Board for wrongful death, claiming the board should have prevented Kenney from hypnotising their children. In 2015, the school board agreed to settle the cases, with each family receiving $200,000. Breaking his silence in the documentary, Dr Kenney denies having contributed to his students’ deaths. “This is a love story,” he says. “This is about what every teacher feels for their kids.” Speaking about Marcus’ death, he says: “Marcus was the all-American kid, he made everyone around him better. So the outpouring of emotion was like nothing I had ever seen before. “At the time I did have concerns that there was going to be another death in the school, after the kids saw this, which turned out to be very prophetic.” In the documentary, he also says he “doesn’t understand what was going on with Wesley”. “He had a bright future, that one still haunts me.” He adds: “After Brittany’s death I thought we were on the brink of more suicides. When the papers came out saying that I had been working with these kids, people lost sight of what was going on around us.” All four parts of Look Into My Eyes are streaming on ITVX now. Comment now