Western Virginia Had No Hospital Bed for Deeds' Son

Virginia State Police are still attempting to piece together exactly what happened at state Sen. Creigh Deeds' residence yesterday, but have confirmed that they "are looking at this as an attempted murder and suicide." The Times-Dispatch elaborates on its report on the mental health evaluation son Gus Deeds underwent on Monday, reporting that the exam occurred at Bath Community Hospital, and that the 24-year-old was indeed released due to the lack of an available bed—though the search for one covered a broad section of western Virginia. The director of the board that oversees the state's mental-health services explains to the Washington Post, "I can tell you right now, it was multiple hospitals that they called. That is a very rural area. The hospitals are few and far between." More updates:

• And then there's this, from the Post: Creigh Deeds last week posted to his Facebook page a New York Times article about shortcomings in how our country cares for young people with mental-health issues. The Post notes that, six years after the massacre at Virginia Tech, the state is still struggling to adequately fund its mental-health system.
• Police say the elder Deeds, who was yesterday afternoon upgraded to fair condition, was stabbed near a barn on the property, reports the Daily Progress. He walked about 225 feet down a steep gravel driveway to the road after being attacked, where he was spotted by a cousin driving by; it's unclear if the cousin had been contacted.
• Gus lived at that home along with Deeds' second wife, Siobhan; the two married last year, and she was not home during the incident. The Post notes that the couple had returned to Virginia on Friday from a week-long European vacation, per Siobhan's Facebook page. Deeds had four children from his first marriage; Gus was his only son.
• Politico notes that a firearm was found at the scene, but police aren't yet saying who it belonged to or what type it is.
• Meanwhile, friends and classmates are stunned, and recall Gus not as troubled, but as an "exuberant and talented musician" who worked hard to make people smile, reports the Times-Dispatch. But the music major had withdrawn from William & Mary about a month ago, and his academic adviser notes that he had left school on a prior occasion due to some kind of issue. Brian Hulse says it was his understanding that Deeds got some sort of religious support that gave him "structure or whatever he needed to come back to school."

(More Creigh Deeds stories.)