Ugh!
Mine Ener, Wynnewood, Pa.
WHAT SHE DID: Villanova professor slit 6-month-old
daughter's throat Aug. 4.
EXPLANATION: Told cops she was overwhelmed by child's Down
syndrome; hanged
herself in jail.
I know this woman was on depression meds. She was a beloved
history
professor.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/115386p-104124c.
html
Sonita Barkley:
HUSBAND SAYS WIFE DIAGNOSED WITH DEPRESSION BEFORE TRAGEDY ;
RELATIVES MOURN
LOSS OF PREGNANT WOMAN, SONS
TIM McGLONE AND MATTHEW ROY THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
998 words
4 October 2002
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA
FINAL
A1
English
(Copyright 2002)
A distraught Randell D. Barkley said a physician diagnosed
postpartum
depression in his pregnant wife days before she and their
three children
were found drowned in what police labeled a murder- suicide.
Sonita L. Barkley drowned her three sons - ages 4, 3 and 7
months - on
Sunday evening, then placed their bodies side by side on a
bed in her Wards
Corner apartment, police said. Early Monday, they said, she
was spotted atop
the Campostella Bridge by her parked car.
The 24-year-old woman apparently leapt to her death in the
Elizabeth River.
Her body was found Tuesday afternoon. Her car led police to
the apartment
and to the dead children: Jehdiah, 4; Abijah, 3, and
Shereef, 7 months.
The deaths have stunned family and others who knew her. They
described her
as a doting, caring mom, whose children wore smiles and
liked dogs.
Randell Barkley, 32, said his wife was about nine weeks
pregnant. The baby
was due on April 25, their anniversary and the birthday of
one of the boys,
he said. Police said the couple had separated about two
months ago.
"My wife was stressed from being pregnant, back to
back to back. The doctor
said she was going through postpartum," Barkley said
after making initial
arrangements Thursday at Metropolitan Funeral Service on
Granby Street. No
arrangements were finalized.
Upset by news reports that portrayed their family life as
volatile, Barkley
said their relationship was loving and never violent.
That was despite court records that show his wife had him
arrested in March
2001 for assault. He was later convicted. Further, she spent
five days in
April 2001 in the YWCA Women in Crisis Shelter in Norfolk,
according to the
YWCA. She brought the two children she had at the time to
the shelter.
Her husband had to take domestic-violence prevention
classes, the court
records show.
"Everybody goes through ups and downs, but we were
never a violent couple,"
Barkley said at the funeral home.
"We were a very happy family," he said.
"It's all lies.
"I love my wife. I love my children. There's no way
possible I can be an
abusive man."
He last saw his wife and children on Sunday, but he said it
was too painful
to relive the day. Asked to describe how his wife was doing,
he choked up.
"One day I'm there with them and the next day I have
to identify them
looking . . .," he said, his voice trailing off.
He said he has no insurance or money for funeral
arrangements.
Barkley said he is still trying to understand why his wife
took the drastic
actions that police described. "It's so much bigger
than life."
Sonita Barkley leaves behind a large extended family
grappling with so much
death.
"I just don't see her giving up on life like that and
doing away with the
babies in the bathtub," her uncle, Ernest N. Dunbar of
Virginia Beach, said
Thursday. "There's got to be something behind
it."
Dunbar said his church-going niece was a caring mother who
doted on her
sons. He didn't believe all of the circumstances about what
had happened
were yet known.
"It's just unlike her," he said. "She
kept them clean. They were always with
her. I just don't see any reason behind it."
When Dunbar last saw Barkley, at a family wedding in late
June, she and her
children appeared happy, as usual, he said. He recalled them
posing for
family photos.
"She was loving," he said. "I love her and
I miss her already. I can't
imagine she wanted this."
Many of her family members live in the area.
"She had people to talk to," Dunbar said.
Family members are taking the news "really
hard," he said, and are greeting
it with "a lot of disbelief."
Norfolk Police Capt. Mike Young said Wednesday the evidence
points to one
conclusion - murder-suicide.
"We've developed no evidence that led us down any
other path than this," he
said. "There's no physical evidence in the apartment
that leads us to
believe that anybody else was involved but the
mother."
He declined to detail the physical evidence. No suicide note
had been found,
he said.
Thursday, police said the investigation continued and that
the case was
still open. But the department released no further
information.
A DePaul University law professor who co-authored the book
"Mothers Who Kill
Their Children" said that Sonita Barkley's case might
fit a pattern shared
by other women who kill their children and commit suicide.
The women often have a mental illness, such as depression or
postpartum
depression, Michelle Oberman said in a telephone interview.
And they often
spend a lot of time alone with young children. "It's
very hard work," she
said.
They also feel a need to be perfect moms. That leads to
feelings of shame
about being overwhelmed. They have trouble reaching out to
others for help,
she said.
"These aren't moms who are torturing their
children," Oberman said. "These
are good moms who want to be perfect."
They become convinced they can't go on, she said.
"Out of their distorted and very troubled
reality," she said, "they become
convinced the only thing to do is to take their children
with them."
Meanwhile, survivors such as Ernest Dunbar are left to seek
answers that may
never come.
"I don't get it," he said. "I don't know
that I'll ever get it."
Reach Matthew Roy at mroy(AT)pilotonline.com or 446-2540.
Caption: Color photo Sonita Barkley is thought to have
killed herself after
drowning her small sons. Photo MIKE HEFFNER Carmen Montalvo
and her
7-month-old son Noel visit the memorial to Sonita L. Barkley
and her
children Thursday near their apartment.
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