She decided to kill her kids along with herself because her boyfriend was cheating on her

[cali]

<snip>

The boy said that as the vehicle sank in the Hudson's murky waters, his mother began to have second thoughts, according to Police Lt. Pat Arnold.

He apparently said the same thing to Meave Ryan, the woman who first found him.

Ryan, who was driving by when she spotted the wet and shivering boy, said he told her that his mom was frantic and very upset because her boyfriend was cheating on her.

Armstrong said the mother climbed into the back seat of the minivan, embraced her four children and repeated several times, "If I am going to die, we're all going to die together."

<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/04/14/new.york.mother.river/

[ejpoeta]

1. i don't understand first of all someone taking others with them when they want to

end their lives. secondly, why a person would kill themselves and their kids because someone was cheating on them. uggh. i just don't get it. as a mom, i am well aware of how much my kids trust and depend on me. the idea of betraying that trust just..... makes me very sad.

[Myrina]

3. ... because so much of society teaches women that they're only worth ..

... something if they 'have a man'. And if that man decides he doesn't want her, it's her fault for not being (fill in the blank) enough.

Sad, really.

[ejpoeta]

4. that is true. i hadn't considered that. it is sad.

[cali]

6. oh please.

there is some personal responsibility involved. And yes, it's her fucking fault. She's a murderer. My sympathy is for the children. Not the selfish woman who killed them.

[KittyWampus]

27. Cali, I can't find the part of the story that talks about cheating. Did I miss it?

[Myrina]

29. I didn't say there WASN''T any responsibility involved.

Oh please yourself :eyes:

[Chris_Texas]

10. no

[EC]

14. Plus, the believe that there is

"only one TRUE love". When it's perfectly obvious that's not true, look how many people have multiple marriages...and I'm sure every one of them was to "the one".

[Skidmore]

25. Men do this sort of thing too.

[Myrina]

30. Yes, they do,

Fucked up society we live in, no?

[Lance_Boyle]

2. So... looks more like 'evil' than 'pitiable for her obvious mental disorder' to me.

I hope her grave is pissed on frequently.

[mountainlion55]

9. wow!

Piss makes good fertilizer. It won't make a bit of difference but the plants will like it.

[arcane1]

5. Reason #4,596 to be grateful that my parents weren't complete idiots n/t

[HipChick]

7. Actually...they interviewed her family, and seems as though she was mentally ill..

signs were there that went untreated..Mental illness often goes untreated in some communities due to stigma attached

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...86411#42586411

In this case, apparently she tried to reverse the car at the last min...but it was too late..

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. That really does sound as if she were suffering from mental illness

She was definitely paranoid. Which is a symptom of many mental illnesses.

[uppityperson]

21. Sounds like she was mentally ill, had something going on the last couple weeks.

"domestic problems" and mental illness. Damn.

[roxiejules]

8. So sad

I have a relative who is a school teacher - she has had a large increase in the number of students who are being abused by parents in the past month. There has also been an increase in suicides in the community.

[HipChick]

11. 24yrs and 4 kids..

Oldest kid was 10yrs? She was pregnant at 14? youngest kid was 11 months? Who know whether she had Postpartum depression..

[ecstatic]

12. good point about postpartum depression

It's my understand that it can strike at any time, up to a year after birth.

[uppityperson]

17. An all around tragic situation. Pregnant @14, 4 kids by 24, who knows what mental illness. Poor kids

poor family. Here's a thought, if people NOTICE a situation like this, say a neighbor, or someone at the store, help them out if you can. Not saying that would have helped here, but what a tragic situation.

[Odin2005]

15. Some people really are THAT shallow.

The kind of people that only define themselves in terms of their relationships.

[louis-t]

16. Barney Frank describes suicide as "a permanent solution...

to a temporary problem."

[JuniperLea]

19. Ozzy Osbourne said the same thing...

When one of his songs was blamed for a teen suicide.

[Lorien]

23. Yeah, tell that to all the terminally ill patients who do it, or severely depressed

people who fight with mental illness for decades with NO help and NO relief. Whatever your illness is in this Country you're on your own, and if you can't "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" or cure yourself with happy thoughts you're permanently fucked. Though the woman in the OP was clearly out of line, one should NEVER judge others who take that route when all others are down roads that are worse than death.

[RagAss]

18. The ultimate act of an ego. Pititful.

[PassingFair]

20. She was killing herself and thought that the children would be better off dead...

than left behind with no one to take care of them.

It's not unheard of.

It happens.

It's mental illness.

[Shandris]

24. Yep. It's the same with men, although they kill their wife too.

It's a category of behaviour called 'Family Annihilators'. They feel pressured (and their moral beliefs, in many cases) to be the provider for their children and since they will no longer be able to provide, then they take the children with them out of a (mentally ill and misplaced) sense of mercy.

It doesn't have anything to do with being 'shallow'.

[Spike89]

22. She was a kid with kids

Yeah, I know, she was 24 when she did this, but she's been a mom multiple times over during the last 10 years--not the best recipe for growing up/maturing. A 14-year old mother probably wasn't in the best place as a 13-year old either, so odds are this woman had a life many of us simply couldn't imagine.

There can be no excuses for horrid events like this, but it is actually easy to understand a couple reasons why a mother might think taking the kids with her is the only answer 1) she imagines they would suffer more from her death/abandonment than from death 2) she viewed them as extensions of herself rather than individuals in their own right.

[KittyWampus]

26. The story linked to doesn't mention a boyfriend. Did I miss it?

[HipChick]

28. Apparently there was some abuse from the boyfriend..she'd requested the locks changed twice..

Not sure what drove her to such a desperate act..some sounds as though there was a combination of mental illness,abuse etc..sounds like she was crying out for help for weeks

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/04/13/2011-04-13_newburgh_mom_lashanda_armstrong_kills_herself_three_children_in_van_death_plunge.html#ixzz1JROYRd00