A San Diego mother sought VA help for her Navy veteran husband’s spiraling mental health one day before he allegedly shot her, their teenage daughter and himself dead inside their $1 million home.
Amy Voight, 54, had just celebrated her birthday when she walked into a VA clinic on Sept. 15 at the urging of her parents, Mary and Jerry Austin, according to interviews the couple gave to FOX 5. Her husband David Voight, a highly decorated Navy warrant officer with roughly three decades of service, had been battling post-traumatic stress disorder that family members said had visibly worsened.
“You could visibly see there was something really wrong,” Mary Austin told the station. “He was fidgety. You could tell.”
David Voight’s military career included explosive ordnance disposal work alongside Navy SEALs and deployments to war zones including Iraq and Afghanistan. As his behavior deteriorated, Amy’s parents pushed her to get him professional help.
At the clinic, Amy asked directly whether staff could do anything to ease her husband’s mounting anxiety, depression and frustration, her father recounted.
“She says, ‘Can you do anything to him to help him calm down? He’s frustrated, anxiety, depression,'” Jerry Austin told FOX 5.
The Austins said counselors told Amy they were busy and that she would need to make an appointment instead.
The next day, Sept. 16, police found Amy, David and their 13-year-old daughter Mya dead inside the family’s San Carlos home in what authorities have called an apparent murder-suicide. San Diego police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Amy Voight built her own career around military service. Her parents described her as an accomplished digital forensics analyst for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and a devoted mother to Mya.
“She was extremely bright and just the most amazing person,” Mary Austin said.
The family’s account of Amy’s final hours seeking help has drawn a direct response from the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Press Secretary Quinn Slaven disputed the Austin family’s characterization of what happened at the clinic.
“What’s being alleged regarding VA services is not accurate,” Slaven said in a statement. “All VA healthcare facilities offer same-day mental healthcare to all Veterans who request it.”
The agency said privacy concerns prevented it from commenting specifically on David Voight’s case.
Jerry Austin, himself a Navy veteran who suffers from PTSD, said the tragedy exposed dangerous gaps in how veterans in crisis access care. He contrasted the San Diego clinic’s response with his own experience at a smaller facility.
“My clinic that I go to is in Lancaster, California. It’s a small clinic. It is fantastic,” he said. “They greet you at the door. They take care of you. They are concerned about it.”
The Austins now face both the ongoing police investigation and the beginning of their grief.
“It’s terrible, and our pain is just starting,” Jerry Austin said.
