Thank you. What happened to dad's job in California? I guess I'm just wondering how the trip to Canada was decided and why they chose to have the children join them only after 5 years (3 months in Canada). Did they know anyone here specifically in Toronto?
IDK but there are pieces of this puzzle missing. BTW, I still don't believe it was suicide and perhaps my reasons at trying to understand what happened to suddenly have a beautiful young lady go from being excited about her new life to the devastating decision to jump off a bridge?
A lot of your questions are answered in early threads here and in the W5 programme about Mariam. I will try to fill in some gaps.
VM's position in California was that of a visiting scholar at a college. To the best of my knowledge, he was not working for that period, but LT was - as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman. She was paid well and they sent money back to Georgia for the relatives caring for their children. They scrimped and saved every other penny.
They originally wanted to live in the States, but were having trouble obtaining green cards. They then applied as landed immigrants to Canada. When they thought they were accepted, both resigned their jobs and VM gave up his accommodations. But then there was a snag with immigration. Something about them now applying from the U.S. instead of Georgia this caused a 9 month delay and left them poorer and VM without a place to live. So for a few days only he was living in his car. He had tried living in a single room in a rooming house (or home?) and it was terrible. I was told that the car was actually better than where he had lived before.
It was during this time that VM was looking for another job that the incident happened. He was going to a job interview and arrived several hours early in the morning when it was still dark. He sat in his car and got ready including shaving. He had food in his car, including a jar of mayonnaise. (This is what was suspected to be semen.)
He was parked on a corner and not directly in front of the day care centre. This was not a formal day care; there was no sign out front. It was merely a black couple in a bad neighbourhood that took in a few kids a day. They spotted this white man parked for two hours in his car and became suspicious. The woman told VM to leave, but he refused, so they called the police. (VM had no idea that it was a so-called day care centre.) The jar of mayo was sent to the police lab and was found to be just that. He was then acquitted of the charges.
I believe that as soon as he was acquitted, he was then legally able to leave the U.S. and they came to Canada very quickly after that. The children were supposed to have joined them much sooner, but again there were glitches with the immigration process - this time back in Georgia, I think.
HTH
As for poor, lovely Mariam: IMO suicide is a tragic, but viable option. And I was one who insisted for years that it couldn't have been. But hindsight can be 20/20 and I'm starting to see signs that this might have been the case. A quiet, studious, introverted girl could easily hide depression - especially from family who weren't that close to her physically for 5 years. When I heard Lela describe Mariam's demeanor upon returning from the boat races as "excited, talking fast, happy", manic depression occurred to me. Could the previous evening have shown a
manic phase, while the next day she plummeted into a
depressed one? I'm hoping we'll get more conclusive results from LE, but not really expecting it. This should be a private family matter now, but who knows how far the media will delve if more info is discovered.
JMO
R.I.P. MARIKA
