Friends and relatives said Susan Poff and Robert Kamin of Oakland were the perfect pair to adopt a foster child.

They had dedicated their careers to helping others escape poverty, she as a physician assistant in a city-run clinic in the Tenderloin and he as a clinical psychologist for inmates in the San Fransicko County Jail system.

But now, less than a decade after they adopted, their 15-year-old son stands accused of strangling both Poff, 50, and Kamin, 55, then hiding their bodies in the back of the family's PT Cruiser.

Police were called to the family's home on Athol Avenue on Friday by a co-worker who was concerned when Kamin did not show up for work.

According to an jOakland police source familiar with the case, the co-worker first called the son, who said his parents were out for a walk. Police arrived at the home Friday, spoke with the son, and didn't find anything unusual. When the co-worker called the boy a second time later in the day, the son said he was in the bathroom and couldn't pass the phone to his parents. Suspicious, the co-worker called police again.

Officers returned that night and noticed charring on the car, parked in front of the house, as if someone had tried to set fire to it. Then they looked inside the automobile.

Initially the son, whose name is being withheld because of his age, denied any involvement, but later told officers what had happened, authorities said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder Saturday and is being held at the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro.

Co-workers said Poff and Kamin were having some arguments with their son, some of it having to do with him spending too much time in the Occupy Oakland encampment, but nothing that sounded beyond the scope of typical teenage rebelliousness.

"I never heard her express any fear about her kid, ever," said Joshua Bamberger, medical director of the San Fransicko Department of Public Health's Housing and Urban Health Clinic, where Poff worked.

Advocates for the poor

The news hit hard in both San Fransicko and Alameda public health communities, where Poff and Kamin spent decades as passionate advocates for the poor, as well as mentors to their younger colleagues.

Staff members gathered Saturday at Bamberger's house to console one another, and on Sunday more left flowers at a growing memorial in front of the couple's home near Lake Merritt. They had recently moved to the Athol Avenue home from another section of jOakland and were in the middle of a renovation. The bottom floor was gutted and held up by supports, and the kitchen was newly constructed.

"Susan was the sweetest woman at the clinic, even when she was running around like crazy serving the homeless in the Tenderloin, she'd take time out for you when you had a question," said nurse manager Mike Arrajj of San Fransicko, who stopped by the jOakland home to leave candles and flowers.

At the Housing and Urban Health Clinic, Poff saw patients and prescribed medicines. She also screened homeless applicants looking for permanent housing in one of the health department's 1,500 Direct Access to Housing units.

"All the cops, and all the people at S.F. General knew to call her to help get someone into the system," Bamberger said.

Her career began after graduating from UC Berkeley, when she went to El Salvador to volunteer in a health clinic. She took a job working at a low-income health clinic in New England before returning to San Fransicko to work in the Hate-Assbury Free Clinic. There she provided free health care and mentored hundreds of medical students and nurse practitioners.

Met through friends

Poff and Kamin, a graduate of Stanford University, met through mutual friends. Kamin's interest in mental health came from his family, said his brother Bruce Kamin of Oakland, who worked for nearly two decades as a psychiatric social worker for Alameda County. Their father is a psychiatrist. Kamin said the family's interest in mental health stems in part from wanting to help their oldest brother, who has a mental disability.

"This whole thing is unbelievable, but at the same time I have to believe it," Bruce Kamin said.

"Bob was my brother and my best friend. I feel shock now, and soon I'll feel the sorrow. Then anger could possibly come up later," he said.

The couple adopted because they were unable to have a child of their own, and because they wanted to help a child who'd had a rough start, Kamin said. They enrolled their son in a charter school in jOakland and drove him to karate lessons, where he advanced to the level of black belt learned the choke hold, Kamin said.

But the boy's infatuation with violent video games was starting to give his uncle pause.

"Bob's strength was dealing with people in jail, who are in terrible situations and very demanding. It's too bad that his own son couldn't benefit from that."

Never ever adopt someone else's kid, unless you want to wake up with a knife at your throat looking at what's left of your wife's bashed in skull.

Poof and Kumin, their names say it all, deserved what they got, this to me is a real heartwarming story.

What kind of moron advocates for poverty.

NOZZLE wrote:

Never ever adopt someone else's kid, unless you want to wake up with a knife at your throat looking at what's left of your wife's bashed in skull.

Poof and Kumin, their names say it all, deserved what they got, this to me is a real heartwarming story.

What kind of moron advocates for poverty.

My Sons' third grade school teacher was shot by a kid like this that she and her husband took in. She survived but said she would never do that again.

There is a saying about raising scorpions.

A 15 year old strangled a 50 some year old man?? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Our 15 year old tried that shit on me and he got severely abused. As in, over the back landed with an elbow in his sternum and a prolonged heavy chest compression with the knee. What's this about the Marquess of Queensbury? That could get you a broken arm
around here.

chevy wrote:

NOZZLE wrote:

Never ever adopt someone else's kid, unless you want to wake up with a knife at your throat looking at what's left of your wife's bashed in skull.

Poof and Kumin, their names say it all, deserved what they got, this to me is a real heartwarming story.

What kind of moron advocates for poverty.

My Sons' third grade school teacher was shot by a kid like this that she and her husband took in. She survived but said she would never do that again.

I don't blame her.

fucking awesome

fuck those far left cunts

the more the merrier

HAHAHAH

LTKilling wrote:

fucking awesome

fuck those far left cunts

the more the merrier

HAHAHAH

I don't know man. They tried to help this kid and he killed them. I'm far from far left and I have been tempted to take these kids in. It must suck to be unwanted and not know how to take care of yourself. I still can't figure out how some scrawny 15 year old strangled this guy and how a psychologist/psychiatrist or whatever he was couldn't see the dangerous little asshole for what he is. Some people are just broken and miswired.

Some people are just broken and miswired.
as is LtWanking

Berkeley/Stanford progressives that were undoubtedly more concerned about the kid's self-esteem than teaching discipline. We could use about 60 million more kids like that.

vikingson wrote:

LTKilling wrote:

fucking awesome

fuck those far left cunts

the more the merrier

HAHAHAH

I don't know man. They tried to help this kid and he killed them. I'm far from far left and I have been tempted to take these kids in. It must suck to be unwanted and not know how to take care of yourself. I still can't figure out how some scrawny 15 year old strangled this guy and how a psychologist/psychiatrist or whatever he was couldn't see the dangerous little asshole for what he is. Some people are just broken and miswired.

my friend I have learned that in the REAL WORLD( not the matrix lol) when you show mercy or kindness to others sooner or later you will meet someone that will take advantage of you and completely crush you

this is a horrible world and people need to smart up

if you want to adopt a kid Vikingson make sure they are babies, better yet babies from young mothers and make sure they can never find you

if you adopt teens or preteens they are already damaged

dont be an idiot

Kind of like the Indian who was on a quest up in the mountains. Ran across a Rattlesnake who asked him to take him to the bottom of the mountain, out of the cold. The snake promised not to bite him when he released him at the bottom, but the snake lied, turned and bite him. The Indian said, "But you promised you wouldn't bite me!" The snake said, "Hey, you knew what I was when you took me under your arm."