Mother Saw Suicide As The Solution To Foreclosure
Posted by: Annika Harris
Filed in:
news
3:30PM, Thursday July 24th 2008
A 53-year-old mother and wife committed suicide in Taunton, Mass. soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying by the time they foreclosed on her house later that day, she would be dead. After the mortgage company received the fax around 2:30 p.m., they called police, who found Carlene Balderrama’s body at 3:30 p.m.
Take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house.
Police said she used her husband’s high-powered rifle to deliver the fatal wound. The auction on Balderrama’s brown-shingled raised ranch house was set to begin at 5 p.m., and police said interested buyers arrived at the home while Balderrama’s body was still inside. Police also said a suicide note was found next to Balderrama instructing her husband John and 24-year-old son to “take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house.” One of John’s co-workers said Balderrama handled all the bills and her husband was unaware of the foreclosure.
Each morning, I listen to the news and inevitably there is a story about the mortgage crisis, but very rarely do these stories feature the people directly affected it. This story definitely puts the crisis in perspective for me. And I have to say I’m disgusted. I think our country is in a sad state when a mother and wife feels it necessary to take her life in order to keep her family in their home. I know the mortgage crisis is on the minds and tongues of countless politicians, but something more needs to be done, fast. [Associated Press]
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Ecnaiva
wrote on July 24 2008 @ 05:42 pm: [report]
This is the husband’s fault. I read another news article that said the wife, who was in charge of the finances, HADN’T MADE A PAYMENT IN 42 MONTHS!!
You can’t blame the wife for what happened, because she’s obviously mentally ill and her husband never noticed it!
Also, this mortgage company was EXTREMELY lenient and kind to wait that long to start the foreclosure process.
Heck, after I was laid off from my job, my landlord filed an eviction case against me AFTER BEING ONLY 20 DAYS LATE ON THE RENT!!
The husband is a clueless moron because:
1. After filing multiple bankruptcies, he never checked up on his financial situation to see for himself what was going on.
2. He was obviously ignoring any “warning signs” his wife displayed while going through her downward spiral into depression.
In don’t care what anybody says. If you live with a person who’s depressed, their personalities ALWAYS change in noticeable ways.
This is so very sad.
Elle
wrote on July 24 2008 @ 07:46 pm: [report]
My question is, was he giving her money to pay the mortgage and if so, what was she doing with it?
Secondly, can you even collect life insurance if the person commits suicide?
This is a sad story, with a tragic ending, but it seems like it could have been prevented.
LovesIt
wrote on July 25 2008 @ 07:02 am: [report]
The problem isn’t the “mortgage crisis” we’re currently experiencing… it’s that Americans are digging themselves deeply (and ridiculously) into debt by living outside their means and not managing their money wisely. This family had already filed for bankruptcy three times and should not have been taking on or qualifying for home loans until they learned to live on what they make without accruing debt in the process.
Read this: http://consumerist.com/5027971/debt-slavery-why-are-americans-so-willing-to-dig-themselves-deep-into-debt
VicVicVictoria
wrote on July 25 2008 @ 08:30 am: [report]
I agree with LovesIt. For example, my parents are in quite a bit of financial trouble. Of course part of this is because my dad’s old age started to take a toll on his ability to work (i.e. he’s going crazy), and he was forced to retire. He was making $70,000 a year and is now working part time overnight sercurity guard positions for nearly minimum wage. It’s sad.
My point of argument though is instead of living beyond their means for years and years and charging up a storm and buying things for the house they couldn’t afford, they should have been paying off debt and saving some back up money. You never know what what life is going to throw at you and whether the economy is good or not, people should still be more financially responcible. With that being said I just spent the last 3 years paying off my credit card debt from college. It sucked not being able to use that money for fun, but now I can actually save money and I feel I have a greater sense of freedom by not being in debt.
As for the wife, it doesn’t surpirse me. You can argue she was mentally ill but I think laziness and not having financial responcibility (as well as responcibility towards your overall health be it physical of mental) is a sickness unique to our American culture.
LovesIt
wrote on July 25 2008 @ 10:23 am: [report]
@Victoria. As hard as what your parents are going through is, I’m glad you’ve been able to learn from it. Unfortunately we can’t count on things like social security or job pensions either—young people need to start planning their financial futures early!
Good article on what it takes to retire: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/PersonalFinance/story?id=5417046&page=1
Annika Harris
wrote on July 25 2008 @ 10:38 am: [report]
@Ecnaiva Thanks for the extra info.
@Elle I thought about the possibility that the family won’t be able to collect the insurance money after writing this. If that happens, then this will be an even more tragic story.
@LovesIt I agree Americans do need to learn to manage our finances better, but you can’t deny that there are unscrupulous lenders that preyed on people across the country who were just trying to achieve the American dream.
LovesIt
wrote on July 25 2008 @ 10:58 am: [report]
@Annika. Oh certainly… lenders play a huge part, especially because they aren’t very concerned with getting the money owed paid back—more than enough of their profits come from interest fees. Nevertheless, Americans, as part of learning to manage finances, need to learn to be wary of the “free” money offered by these unscrupulous lenders! Awful.