Man throws his 2 kids, himself off balcony

[proud2BlibKansan]

By JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - A man killed his two young children Saturday by throwing them off the 15th floor of a landmark South Beach hotel and then jumped to his own death, police said.
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The children were 4 and 8 years old and the family was on vacation from Alton, Ill., said police spokesman Bobby Hernandez.

The mother of the children told police she and her husband had been having marital problems for the past six months, Hernandez said. Police did not immediately release the identities of the family members.

The woman heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent room in the Loews Hotel, and when she walked into the room she saw her husband going off the balcony, Hernandez said.

more . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060527/ap_on_re_us/children_killed_2

[benburch]

1. What has gotten INTO people?

I really think part of it is all the Republican death imagery people are exposed to on Television.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

Death is now very cheap, isn't it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. There was a time this would never have been covered by the media

out of respect for the surviving family.

[American Tragedy]

12. I'm curious, when did this change? And why?

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Good question

I think it has been a slow process over the last 10 - 15 years.

[ldf]

44. and now, the first reporter there

will shove a microphone in a family member's face and ask "how does it feel to lose a loved one?" or "what were you feeling as you saw the body hit the pavement?" hoping, of course, that they burst into uncontrollable tears.

reporters are whores, with few exception.

(maybe i am cynical because here in nyc the tabloids vie with each other to come up with the most eye catching headline. it gets downright disgusting. and they concentrate on the murder and mayhem or sports scandal, rather than spotlight how the country is going down the tubes.)

[VegasWolf]

13. Yes, and I wonder why so many people want to die. nt

[GrumpyGreg]

5. I don't think you can blame politics for this one.

A very sad situation and it always mystifies me when someone does something like this.

Those poor liitle kids.

[hlthe2b]

2. I sure hope this tragedy remains an isolated one...

Uggh. I guess no one will ever know what all happened to result in this...

[rainbow4321]

27. Unfortunately, it's not..

Houston officials think that the father in this article purposefully ran head on into a truck to kill himself and his kids..he was the subject of a sexual assault case involving his stepdaughter:

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3901049.html

Mary DeShayes waited in the Rockdale police station while in another room her 15-year-old daughter described for an officer how her stepfather had sexually abused her for the past four years.

Just after 1 a.m., DeShayes overheard the dispatcher take a call. Someone from Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital was looking for a "Mary" who manages a tavern.

That phone call, and the others that followed, brought a series of further shocks for DeShayes, a divorced mother of four girls: Two of her daughters had been killed a few hours earlier, in a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler in Liberty County. Also killed was the accused stepfather — her ex-husband, William Pete DeShayes III — and the couple driving the big rig.

Now investigators say the May 16 crash may not have been an accident at all, that as his stepdaughter prepared to go public with her accusations William DeShayes was "intentionally" swerving his pickup into the path of the 18-wheeler hauling hardware supplies down Texas 105.

[Blue Diadem]

35. You're right, here's another from NW Ohio..Dad kills two kids and himself

Marital problems with this one. She was asking for a divorce.


http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060514/NEWS03/305140012/-1/ARCHIVES30

Authorities: Dad killed children, then himself

SWANTON -- Authorities are continuing their investigation into a murder-suicide yesterday morning in Fulton County that left a father and his two children dead and their mother injured.

Authorities confirmed today Clarence "Jack" Saunders, 58, of Swancreek Township, shot his children -- Lauren, 10, and Jacob, 5 -- multiple times before shooting himself once in the head.

Patricia Saunders, the children's mother, was in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo today after surgery. She told Fulton County sheriff's deputies that her husband stabbed her. Her condition is not known.

Also injured in the incident was Deputy Rick Brock, who was shot twice in the shoulder by Mr. Saunders. He is recovering at an area hospital after surgery yesterday

[karlrschneider]

3. From Alton, IL...yikes I have relatives there

:eyes:

[lonestarnot]

4. karl I think I do too.

[Irreverend IX]

7. When I saw the thread title...

I knew it happened in Florida.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Why?

[_testify_]

10. Did you read the article?

The people were from Illinois. Or is it the hotel's fault for being located in Florida?

[Catchawave]

9. MSNBC just updated.....

several witnesses saw him throw the kids then jump himself.

How horrific :cry:

[babylonsister]

11. What a selfish PRICK! nt

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bling bling]

17. He is selfish.

He wasn't happy in his marriage and he wanted to die so he takes his two children down with him. That's selfish, extremely selfish.

[babylonsister]

18. No projection here. How can you think that's anything BUT

selfish? To involve his children by hurling them off a balcony, denying them a life, just to hurt his wife is the height of selfishness imo.

[mopinko]

22. it's called mental illness

i look at it and see a tragedy. for all concerned. i wonder what was happening in that family that they were having marital troubles for months. navigating what happens to a family when a member of it is mentally ill is a harrowing experience that is hard to understand if you have never been there. but what he did is no more a selfish act than a traffic accident. it was not an act of his own will. it was an aberration of a brain gone haywire.
the lack of understanding about this stuff on a board of supposed liberal, progressive people really yanks my chain sometimes. if you have never been in this families shoes, thank your goddamn lucky stars. and don't judge.

[babylonsister]

26. Hey. I read 'marital problems' in the story, not mental problems. nt

[mopinko]

32. nothing can cause marital problem like mental illness

and suicide is usually a tip off, too.

[alcibiades_mystery]

39. What is the basis for your diagnosis?

The fact that this is n extremly bizarre action? Is that it? Do you have no other basis for your diagnosis of mental illness?

[mopinko]

40. the fact that it was a suicide?

murder suicide is a pretty good indicator of mental illness.

[NMMNG]

42. In about 90% of all suicides

There is one or more underlying psychiatric illness. There is no way to know for sure, but it is possible that this man had a mental illness that caused him to do what he did.

[mopinko]

43. i think probably is the correct word

when the odds are 90%, then it is way beyond possible, and into the highly probable.
i had a friend commit murder/suicide. killed his girl fiend, then himself. he was just about the sweetest, most selfless guy you would ever want to meet. he started to slip into depression, his long marriage fell apart, he kept reaching out, met a nice girl, but when that started to fall apart also, he just fell over the edge. everyone who knew him kicked themselves in the ass for not seeing it coming. it was plain as day.
but you know, people like to think that you just pick up the phone and get help for someone.people think it is like calling the plumber for a clogged toilet, but it is more like building a house. it is so much more complicated.

[xchrom]

31. you're so right mopinko.

[0007]

19. My take also!

[American Tragedy]

15. How is it possible to hate anyone so severely

to the point of even considering killing oneself AND their (ostensibly) mutual children, just for the sake of punishment?

Granted, I'm assuming here, but I can't come up with any other motive.

[MindPilot]

20. I don't think it's hate so much

as it is anger and frustration. Mix those together and direct them inward and you have seriously volatile concoction.

From what I see, overall, anger and frustration are running really high right now. Some cope better than others.

[0rganism]

21. I wish all these murder-suiciders would do the suicide part first

So you want to take your own life? OK. That's basically your prerogative, cos if you keep trying, eventually you'll succeed no matter how many people try to stop you. But just leave everyone else out of it, especially the kids.

Of course, he did this just to punish his wife. What a phenomenal dickweed.

[MindPilot]

23. How do you know it was to punish his wife? eom

[American Tragedy]

24. He left her alive.

He may well have hoped that she would find their bodies as well. It's been known to happen in other cases, if suicide notes are any indication.

[marshall]

25. To be fair

One might also wonder why the wife did not seek help for her husband, and why she left him alone with the kids when she knew he was having problems. That's always the first question that pops up when a woman kills her kids.

[mopinko]

34. you don't know she didn't try

and maybe you don't know that it is a lot more complicated than most people think. it is one of the hardest things i have ever done, i know that.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Opusnone]

29. Such a tragedy

A family destroyed in a matter of seconds.

[Toucano]

30. Tragic.

That poor family.

On a lighter note, did anyone notice the google ads for this thread? Miami hotels. I'm sorry to make a joke in a thread about such a tragic thing, but that's pretty funny to me.

"Yeah, I saw your ad in the thread about the murder suicide. How much for a room on the top floor? I'll only need it for a few minutes."

[Endangered Specie]

33. Micheal Jackson imposter?

[miss_american_pie]

36. Those poor kids

May they rest in peace.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

38. It's heartbreaking

to think of what their last moments must have been like. :cry:

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fakingit]

41. What's the world coming to?

This is rediculous. Republicanism does this to people.

Why does this have to be nationally covered?

I think people are slowly losing their minds, and this is one of the great examples.