There is an unfinished wooden dollhouse sitting in the attic of Janna Volz’s mother’s house that her father made for her 8th birthday. But this year, for her 26th birthday, she had planned to finally paint it with her father, now that he was sober. The man that police charged with murder, Carlton McPherson, had severe mental illness and bounced around the city’s shelter system, according to his family. For the city, the killing marked another calamity to be quickly absorbed into the city’s debate over safety on the subway. But for those who knew him, Mr. Volz’s death was a blow made all the more painful because of the difficulties he had already survived.

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Persons: Jason Volz, Carlton McPherson, Volz’s