Woman stabs child and herself over custody fears

[The Straight Story]

Woman stabs child and herself over custody fears

An American woman whose poor English made her mistakenly believe her children would be taken away from her stabbed her eight-year-old son with a steak knife and then tried to kill herself, police have said.

Elida Marroquin was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, child endangerment and weapons offences following the incident at the family's home in New Jersey. Both she and the child were expected to recover from their wounds.

Authorities were still working to confirm what country Marroquin is from and other personal details about her.


Authorities said the 37-year-old married mother of three, who does not read English well, mistakenly feared she would lose custody of her children after receiving several letters from their school in recent weeks.

"It seems to us that this may have been something that has been building up the last couple of weeks," Bergenfield Police Detective John Casper told The Record of Bergen County. "She was under the impression that at some point her children were going to be taken from her," despite numerous reassurances from her husband that she had nothing to be concerned about.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6482834/Woman-stabs-child-and-herself-over-custody-fears.html

[Teaser]

1. oh thank....whatever...god...

I read the headline and I just said "don't click the link, the kid is dead, don't click the link"

but I did and he's alive. Unfortunately, any trust or love he had for his mother is now gone...



We seriously need to correct the brain defect in human parents that tells us: it's better for my kid to die than to live with someone else. Why the fuck do people's brains make them do this shit?

[elleng]

2. Brains?

try heart. And she tried to kill herself, so they'd be 'together.' I too avoided reading the post.

edit: thank GOODNESS.

[Teaser]

6. as far as I'm concerned, the heart is just a pump

a really good one, but a pump nonetheless.

Maybe we just need to make people less sure of an afterlife so they don't pull shit like this.

[Berry Cool]

5. That, and "It's better for my wife and children to die than live without me supporting them

all by myself."

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Another facet to consider.

This mother had the belief that DYFS (Division of Youth and Family Services) had the incentive and the potential to take away her children. She had to have heard stories in her community that validated that fear. And here in NJ, DYFS does a stringent job of removing children, leaving some parents without the financial means to hire an attorney to challenge the removal. At our law firm, DYFS took away four children and a newborn from parents who merely had a messy house. That's it. The kids were being taken care of adequately and were not mistreated in any way. If anything, their mother was an "uber" mother.

Back to the OP. The mother was crazed to have stabbed her child, no debate there. NOW DYFS has a reason to remove her children, perhaps permanently.

[Teaser]

7. "perhaps permanently"

I should hope it's permanent.

[WolverineDG]

8. that's because they now get tons of money to remove kids,

terminate parental rights, & adopt them out. People don't believe me when I tell them there is a bounty on their kids' heads, especially those who are easy to adopt out.

All because of a well-intentioned law designed to keep kids from lingering in foster care.

dg

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Our firm's experience with DYFS is they terminate the rights of WHITE parents more readily

than other demographics. More like selling healthy white children for adoption.

[WolverineDG]

10. Yup, white children, especially babies, are their biggest sellers

Always room in the inventory for white kids. Black/Hispanic kids? Those with "issues?" Not so much.


dg

[MajorChode]

14. It depends on how you define "messy house"

I've seen some houses that had no business with children in them. When the kids are eating from dirty dishes and there's animal excrement everywhere, then the children do need to be removed until the parents clean up the mess. If it's just a matter of unfolded clothes and clutter, you have a different situation.

My observations have been that far more kids needed to be removed and weren't, than kids who were and shouldn't have been. Now perhaps this is accurate, and perhaps it isn't, but I would rather have a system that errs on the side of caution than the other way around.

[aikoaiko]

4. Sounds llke the kids should be taken away from her -- spervised visits onlyl.

[Javaman]

13. My thought as well. nt

[TexasObserver]

11. She did the one thing that will assure the kids are removed.

I do understand her concerns, but killing one's kids is never the answer a good parent chooses.

[JonQ]

12. Well that's a sure way to keep custody there

you've convinced everyone that you really care about the kid and are of sound mind to raise a child.

[latebloomer]

15. She's obviously not "of sound mind"

The woman sounds extremely disturbed.