MA homeowner commits suicide before being foreclosed. What a sad story.

[beachmom]

#1 diary on Kos now:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/24/74932/3853/178/556115

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/24/the_anguish_of_foreclosure/

The anguish of foreclosure
Fearing sale of house, woman kills herself before the auction
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Michael Levenson
Globe Staff / July 24, 2008

TAUNTON - The housing crunch has caused anguish and anxiety for millions of Americans. For Carlene Balderrama, a 53-year-old wife and mother, the pressure was apparently too much.

Police say that Balderrama fatally shot herself Tuesday afternoon, 90 minutes before her foreclosed home was scheduled to be sold at auction. Chief Raymond O'Berg said that Balderrama faxed a letter to her mortgage company at 2:30 p.m., saying that "by the time they foreclosed on the house today she'd be dead."

The mortgage company notified police, who found her body at 3:30 p.m. The auction had been scheduled to start at 5 p.m., when bidders showed up at the house and found it surrounded by police cruisers.

But, unbeknownst to buyers and to Balderrama, the auction had been postponed by the time she grabbed her husband's high-powered rifle, O'Berg said.

Balderrama left a note for her family, saying they should "take the insurance money and pay for the house," O'Berg said. The chief said he did not know, however, if the family would be able to collect on the policy in the event of a suicide.

...

Joe Whitney, who works with Balderrama's husband, said that she handled the bills in the household and that the husband was unaware of the foreclosure.

"John didn't even know about it; that's the surprise," Whitney said outside the home, where he had come to comfort the family. "It's just one of those awful, awful, tragic events."

John Balderrama did, however, file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times from 2004 to 2006, but the courts dismissed the petitions. Debtors who declare bankruptcy under Chapter 13 generally can keep their homes while paying off their debts under a court-approved reorganization plan.

As Congress rushed yesterday to help 400,000 strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure and prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing, the suicide underscored the potentially devastating toll of the housing crunch.

Two points:

1. Kerry voted against the bankruptcy bill which caused this terrible situation to be even worse than it had to be:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0312-03.htm

2. It is a misnomer that a suicide means the family will not receive the life insurance. There is a time limit on that. If you buy life insurance and one month later commit suicide, then that is considered "fraud", and it probably won't be paid out. But if you bought a life insurance policy 2 years ago, it is not. I think given the situation here, the insurance will be paid. Especially given the high profile case this is.

Anyway, very sad story, not just politically and economically, but also on how keeping secrets from your loved ones is always a bad thing.

[Mass]

1. Very sad story.

[wisteria]

2. This is a sad, sad story. n/t