Girl called dad 19 times day she died

[Reality Orlando]

Poor father...you know he's beating himself up over this. Wonder if it was intentional or an accident. Either way, obviously the child was distraught and knew something was wrong.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17025144?source=pop_section_news

 

[oh_gal]

Very sad.
If you're not inclined to seek treatment for your drinking for yourself, how about doing it for your kids? This little girl would still be alive.

 

[Marie]

Don't know if it's intentional or not? BS Of course it was intentional; you don't drink around kids, period. Intentional comes from knowing that bad things happen when parents drink around kids.

 

[belimom]

This is totally heartbreaking... That poor girl reached out to her dad to no avail. I wish she would have dialed 911...

ETA: Oh wow. I just read the complete story through a link in the above URL. There's so much to this story... That poor little girl. Mom didn't have custody, only seeing her daughter one night a week. The daughter was staying with her for a week b/c the dad was on a business trip. The mom was supposedly in a treatment program but according to a coworker who drank with her, she was not sticking to it (the job was a new one so I doubt the coworker knew of her alcohol issues). Sounds like the mom kept her home from school that day on purpose, got drunk, went to a breakfast drive-thru about 9:40 or so (3 hours after the girl started calling her dad -- probably b/c everything seemed so bizarre). They must have returned home, only for the mom not to make it out of the garage - and the girl trying to get help. Really awful...

Full story:

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_17021790

 

[Reality Orlando]

Don't know if it's intentional or not? BS Of course it was intentional; you don't drink around kids, period. Intentional comes from knowing that bad things happen when parents drink around kids.

I meant did the mother intentionally commit suicide or was she so drunk she passed out. I agree alcohol and kids don't mix.

 

[justthinkin]

It's heartbreaking, and I just hate it when kids have to pay the price for the stupid, so called adults around them.

 

[Quiche]

I meant did the mother intentionally commit suicide or was she so drunk she passed out. I agree alcohol and kids don't mix.

The mother was found in the back seat with a bottle of vodka, and her favorite movie in the player...it seems to me she was committing suicide. But why was the daughter unable to leave? Why didn't she call 911? Were the 19 calls she made to her father before the car was involved? Did her phone get taken away? I'm sure more details will follow.

RIP Nicole.

 

[belimom]

The mother was found in the back seat with a bottle of vodka, and her favorite movie in the player...it seems to me she was committing suicide. But why was the daughter unable to leave? Why didn't she call 911? Were the 19 calls she made to her father before the car was involved? Did her phone get taken away? I'm sure more details will follow.

RIP Nicole.

From the more-detailed article that I posted above, the phone calls started around 6:30am. However, there are receipts in the car and a video of the mom/daughter going through a McD's drive-thru at 9:43am. A few hours after the daughter started calling the dad. I wonder if she was calling the dad to say 'mom's drinking' or 'mom says I'm not going to school today'. All the calls may have been completed by the time they got back in the garage and were watching the movie.

There was also a note on the front door when the daughter's ride came by to take her to school. It was from the mom and said, ""Not home right now ... love you ... Patrice."

Does sound like suicide, doesn't it? Very sad...

 

[tlcya]

My heart breaks for this father. I hope he is able to move on without blaming himself for being asleep and out of the country while Nicole was trying to reach him.

 

[nervous_nellie]

IF much of the info about this "mother" is true, such as that it was known to local le that they always needed two officers to respond if/when they were called to her home then the little girl should NEVER have been left unsupervised with her much less for her father to have left the country. i hate to sound cold or callous towards the father but the reports of this woman sound like she became unhinged when she drank and that she did not have the ability to fight the urge to binge drink. MOO

 

[tlcya]

true, father excersized bad judgment in allowing daughter to stay with mom that week, but it sounds as if he had every reason to believe she was getting on track. From his perspective, the ex was making strides, the job, she had the literature and the AA workbook, etc. He may have been stupid to believe that she was getting it together and making a change, but I don't have the heart to kick him while he's down.

hindsight is always 20/20

 

[White Rain]

Friends shocked at Lafayette mother, daughter's apparent murder-suicide

The woman who was found dead alongside her 9-year-old daughter in the garage of their Lafayette home this week had a history of alcohol abuse and expressed a desire to kill herself, according to court documents obtained by the Camera on Friday. Patrice Clark was arrested twice on charges of misdemeanor child abuse -- in 2001 and 2002 -- after police found her intoxicated while caring for her then-infant daughter. During the first incident, police reported that she told officers, "I want to end my life. It is too hard." Clark was placed on suicide watch at the jail, according to a Boulder County Sheriff's Office arrest report. On Saturday, the 45-year-old University of Colorado graduate was set to begin a 20-day work-release sentence for a September DUI arrest in Erie. Her blood-alcohol level at the time of her arrest was 0.266 -- more than five times the .05 limit for driving while impaired.
more: http://www.justice4caylee.org/t9333-nicole-clark-9-yo-lafayette-e-of-boulder-co

 

[White Rain]

In an Aug. 9, 2001, arrest report, a Boulder County Sheriff's deputy wrote that he arrived at Clark's Canon Park home to find her feeding a 6-week-old baby, identified as Nicole Clark. The deputy wrote that Patrice Clark "appeared extremely intoxicated" and that her "speech was slurred and her movements were slow and deliberate." She admitted to the officer that she had broken a number of items in the house, according to the report. The deputy also reported that a neighbor told him he had heard yelling coming from the house and had looked inside to see a kitchen table tipped over on its side. Clark told the deputy that she hated her husband and "everything is easy except for my husband." She said her baby is "easy," according to the report. A social services worker told police that Clark told her to take her daughter away and that "she didn't care." "She stated, 'I dare you to take her,'" according to the report. Clark also told authorities that she wanted to kill herself because she was distraught over her mother's recent death and felt like she couldn't measure up to her parents. She was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor child abuse and placed on suicide watch.
http://www.justice4caylee.org/t9333-nicole-clark-9-yo-lafayette-e-of-boulder-co

 

[White Rain]

Less than a year later, Clark was arrested again on the same charge after Lafayette police found her staggering around her Jeep while Nicole screamed in a car seat outside the YMCA at 95th Street and Arapahoe Road. http://www.dailycamera.com/lafayette-news/ci_16692815?source=pkg

 

[nosysw]

This is just too sad...I applaud you, tlcox, for not "kicking him when he's down" but I'm not feeling so charitable at the moment. There have been alot of years in between the earlier charges against the mom and now...I'm sure she's had many "sober" times in between many relapses...I surely don't think I would trust a person like that with my child without alot longer period of sobriety. I agree hindsight is 20/20 but to me, this almost borders on negligence...I think there's alot more to this sad story.

 

[White Rain]

This is just too sad...I applaud you, tlcox, for not "kicking him when he's down" but I'm not feeling so charitable at the moment. There have been alot of years in between the earlier charges against the mom and now...I'm sure she's had many "sober" times in between many relapses...I surely don't think I would trust a person like that with my child without alot longer period of sobriety. I agree hindsight is 20/20 but to me, this almost borders on negligence...I think there's alot more to this sad story.

Tlcox probably has been in a situation of some sort or knows someone who has (maybe not the same exact but something like it.)
Because I have had an alcohol & drug prob. myself in the past and I can tell you IF YOU WANT TO HIDE A PROBLEM YOU CAN....You surely can't hide it forever but when a situation calls for it, when you need to make yourself look good, you can do it. You find ways to do it.
I feel so very sorry for this poor dad...he was probably blind-sided.

 

[White Rain]

true, father excersized bad judgment in allowing daughter to stay with mom that week, but it sounds as if he had every reason to believe she was getting on track. From his perspective, the ex was making strides, the job, she had the literature and the AA workbook, etc. He may have been stupid to believe that she was getting it together and making a change, but I don't have the heart to kick him while he's down.

hindsight is always 20/20

Addicts and Alcoholics have MANY ways of fooling people....I feel sorry for dad...I am sure if he had ANY clue he never would have let the little girl stay there....so damn sad.....

 

[impatientredhead]

Such a tragic story.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but it is so sad that she didn't know to call 911, or that she didn't have back up person to contact locally while dad was gone.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Addicts and Alcoholics have MANY ways of fooling people....I feel sorry for dad...I am sure if he had ANY clue he never would have let the little girl stay there....so damn sad.....

I'm not blaming the dad either, but he HAD to have a clue. He left her because of her drinking and they had been separated for a while. She recently got her license revoked for more drinking and driving and he was putting money in her account as well as paying her mortgage.
Husband said he wouldn't pay for this and she had to get a job, so she did.

This seems to me to be planned. Mother had a problem with alcohol for well over 9 years. I grew up with alcoholic family members and know that many alcoholics never stop drinking completely. I do have to say, though, none of my family ever left me in a running car with the garage door closed
that poor little girl.

It could be possible that the mother planned this:
- the house was "neat and tidy"
- note on the door
- buying vodka the night before
- mom's "favorite movie" in the dvd in the car
- tv's turned up loud inside the house (so as to deter anyone from hearing anything, perhaps?)

The woman must've had a very sad, sad life. She was ill. Alcoholism is a disease. It's just very sad that the daughter had to die, too. It's one thing to want to not live anymore, but to take someone with you who deserved to live is just wrong.

 

[Marie]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marie
Don't know if it's intentional or not? BS Of course it was intentional; you don't drink around kids, period. Intentional comes from knowing that bad things happen when parents drink around kids.

I meant did the mother intentionally commit suicide or was she so drunk she passed out. I agree alcohol and kids don't mix.

Sorry Reality I wasn't speaking to you or anyone specific. The newspaper article questioned whether this was intentional or not, and that's what I was referring to.