Dad Who Drowned Child Commits Suicide
Maggie
Father Suspected of Drowning Toddler Dies After Swerving in Front of Truck
Published: Sep 15, 2003
MAITLAND, Fla. (AP) - A man suspected of drowning his toddler daughter and
attempting to drown his 4-year-old son killed himself Monday by swerving into
the path of a tractor trailer, authorities said. His two other children were
injured in the crash.
Police believe the drowning and crash that killed Bryan Christopher Randall are
the result of a dispute with his estranged wife.
"I would say this is a domestic situation gone very bad," Maitland Deputy
Police Chief Gary Calhoun said.
The accident happened about eight miles north of the small lake where Randall's
2-year-old daughter Yanna and 4-year-old son Regal were found Sunday morning by
a fisherman. The boy was in critical condition Monday, and an autopsy was to be
done on his sister.
Investigators said the crash occurred after Randall, in his sport utility
vehicle parked on the eastbound shoulder of Interstate 4, made a hard left turn
into the path of an oncoming truck hauling cars.
Randall was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Lake Mary
Police Chief Richard Beary said. Eight-year-old Bryan also was in critical
condition and 6-year-old Julian was in stable condition following the crash,
hospital spokesman Joe Brown said.
"We are investigating this as a murder-suicide," Beary said.
Police said Randall picked up all four children Friday night and was supposed
to return them Sunday night to his estranged wife, Lisa, but never did.
When the children were not returned, their mother contacted police Monday
morning. She was taken to Florida Hospital Orlando, where she identified the
two found in the lake.
The Randalls were married for 10 years but began divorce proceedings in May,
Calhoun said.
The small lake where Yanna and Regal were discovered is in an office park about
six miles north of Orlando.
Maggie
"When you're arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing." --
author unknown
stargazer
"Maggie" <maggi...@aol.comSPAMBLOC> wrote in message
news:20030915160814...@mb-m23.aol.com...
> From the AP:
>
> Father Suspected of Drowning Toddler Dies After Swerving in Front of Truck
> Published: Sep 15, 2003
>
> MAITLAND, Fla. (AP) - A man suspected of drowning his toddler daughter and
> attempting to drown his 4-year-old son killed himself Monday by swerving
into
> the path of a tractor trailer, authorities said. His two other children
were
> injured in the crash.
The asshole not only committed suicide, but he also tried to take his two
remaining children along with him.
sg
Mark Fenster
A picture of the accident scene and the family in happier times can be
found at:
Father's despair leads to death and mayhem
By Mark Schlueb | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 16, 2003
Sep 15, 2003
Even after Bryan Christopher Randall snapped, he knew what people
would ask.
" 'Why?' must be the question on your minds," he began his suicide
note.
That's the very question family and authorities struggled to answer
Monday. Why would a man dump his 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old
son in a pond to die? And as police scrambled to learn the identities
of those tiny children, why would that same man load his two older
sons into the back seat of his SUV and turn into the path of a
tractor-trailer?
There is no satisfaction in the answers: a failed marriage, a lost
job, time with his children dictated by court order.
There are only the horrific consequences: the private disintegration
of one man's mind and the public destruction of his family in just two
days -- beginning with the mysterious drowning of one child and the
near-death of another on Sunday, and culminating in the gruesome
Monday morning crash on Interstate 4 that seriously injured two more
sons.
"Why? Because she chooses to keep me out of their lives despite their
crying for their father. (Not even a phone call!)," 37-year-old
Randall wrote on a legal pad. "I had to take them with me. Again, I
apologize. Please cremate us & combine our ashes."
'Nice, normal people'
Not so long ago, Bryan and Lisa Randall of Altamonte Springs seemed as
though they had an idyllic family. Neighbors described them as
"absolutely nice, normal people." An administrator at the child-care
center that watched their four children described Lisa as a "concerned
mom" who always wanted to know more about the kids' activities.
Now, Bryan Randall and his youngest child, a daughter, are dead. And
late Monday, the couple's three boys lay in hospital beds with serious
injuries.
Randall, a former star point guard for the Dartmouth College
basketball team, met his future bride while both worked for AT&T.
In 2001, the Randalls moved to a quiet street in Altamonte Springs so
Bryan could take a job with WorldCom, according to his father, the
Rev. Bill Randall of Jacksonville.
Neighbors in the Forest Edge subdivision described them as quiet.
Bryan occasionally could be seen working on the well-kept two-story
house. The boys played outside with their baby sister.
Lisa usually had a smile on her face.
"She always seemed in a good mood," neighbor Gardner Hussey said.
But things began to go bad when WorldCom collapsed and Bryan lost his
job as a sales representative.
"He never did recover from that," said the elder Randall, the pastor
of St. Simon's Baptist Church in Orange Park and a 1998 congressional
candidate. "The financial troubles, I think, put the strain on the
marriage."
Lisa went to work for Spherion, a company that operates a call center
for the American Automobile Association.
Bryan Randall eventually went to work as a customer-service manager
for Albors & Associates in Winter Park. He resigned a couple of weeks
ago after working there for two months. , the couple never found their
footing after the WorldCom scandal, the Rev. Randall said. First came
marriage counseling, then a separation.
On Aug. 15, Lisa asked a judge in Sanford for a court order to protect
her from her husband, according to Seminole County records.
She accused him of forcing her to perform sex acts. If she didn't
agree, Lisa Randall wrote, he threatened to send out a newsletter --
with pictures -- to family members and friends, detailing her sexual
history.
In her petition for the injunction, Lisa Randall wrote that her
husband threatened to kill himself in a phone conversation around July
26. He said, " 'I should get a gun and blow my brains out! Don't you
think I've gotten a gun by now?' That makes me fear for my life," she
wrote.
A temporary protective order was granted, but Lisa didn't accuse her
husband of harming or threatening their children. She spelled out a
tentative visitation schedule: He would get them every other weekend
and a night in the middle of each week.
Troubles intensify
But the courts couldn't take away the anger.
Two weeks ago, Bryan alleged that his estranged wife had failed to
drop off the kids for his regular Thursday night visitation. He tried
to have her prosecuted, but the State Attorney's Office considered it
a matter for the civil court, according to Chris White, the state
attorney's chief of operations in Sanford.
On Aug. 26, the day a judge made the temporary injunction permanent,
police escorted Bryan to the house to pick up his belongings, and he
left behind an insulting note, White said. It said Lisa was a horrible
mother and that she was making a big mistake, but authorities didn't
consider it life-threatening.
Lisa Randall asked the State Attorney's Office to prosecute her
husband, saying the note violated the judge's no-contact order. No
charges were shown to be pending Monday.
Neighbor Jenee Masterson said Lisa met Bryan at an area Burger King on
Friday night so he could take the children for their weekend visit.
She went back there on Sunday night to pick them up, but they never
showed up, Masterson said.
By then, police already were trying to figure out what had happened to
two of the Randall children, although they didn't know their
identities at the time.
Sunday morning, Jason G. Toll was fishing at a pond near Maitland's
Lake Destiny when he found 4-year-old Regal Randall, who was barely
clinging to life. The body of his 2-year-old sister, Yana, was found a
short time later.
Sunday evening, investigators released a hospital photo of Regal and
appealed to the public for help identifying him. Lisa Randall
apparently didn't see the extensive media coverage until Monday
morning; she went to Maitland police shortly after 7 a.m. and told
them she thought the children were hers.
As police interviewed her and prepared to issue an Amber Alert to be
on the lookout for Bryan Randall and the couple's two older sons, a
report came in that stunned authorities.
Bryan Randall had pulled his Dodge Durango into the eastbound
Interstate 4 emergency lane about a mile east of Lake Mary Boulevard,
within sight of the headquarters of AAA, where his estranged wife
worked. With a suicide note next to him, Bryan then swerved sharply
into the path of a semitrailer hauling a full load of cars.
The Randalls' two oldest children -- Bryan Jr., 8, and Julian, 6 --
were in the SUV with their father.
The truck, whose driver was unharmed, slammed broadside into the SUV
and cleaved it nearly in two.
Bryan was taken by ambulance to the trauma center at Orlando Regional
Medical Center, where he died. Bryan Jr. was in critical condition and
Julian was stable at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers learned soon after they arrived that
the SUV matched the description of the vehicle being sought in the
Maitland incident. When authorities realized that were was more to it
than just a serious accident, the mood around the crash scene quickly
changed. Crime-scene tape soon encircled the scene, and the crash
investigation turned into a criminal investigation.
Police could do nothing to find meaning in the twisted events of
Sunday and Monday: "It's a domestic situation that's gone bad,"
Maitland Police Deputy Chief Gary Calhoun said.
Questions still linger.
How exactly did Yana and Regal end up in the pond? Calhoun said Regal
had no injuries or wounds, but Yana's body had a mark and injury that
investigators would not reveal.
What did Bryan and his other two sons do after the incident at the
lake? Where did they spend Sunday night?
How long had Bryan planned this? His father said Bryan visited him two
weeks ago and brought him photographs of the children to keep.
"This is a puzzle that we're still trying to piece together," said
Special Agent Wayne Ivey, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement
supervisor.
Family members, too, have trouble reconciling the man they knew with
the man who did such horrible things.
"I love my son. I would say he was a good man. But what he did, there
is no excuse, and I offer none. We did not see this coming," the Rev.
Randall said. "I have to bury my son. I have to bury my granddaughter.
I have to pray the others hang on and we don't have to bury another
grandchild."
Jim Kwitchoff was a childhood best friend who was co-captain with
Bryan on his high school's state championship basketball team.
"That wasn't like him," said Kwitchoff, an assistant basketball coach
at the University of Buffalo. "His voice mail even says, 'I will call
you back within 24 hours.' And the closing says, 'Remember, anything's
possible.' The message was symbolic of Bryan. You could feel the
optimism in his message."
Police are still trying to reconstruct the family's final hours. They
hope to learn more from Regal. The 4-year-old, found with only his
nose and lips breaking the surface of the water, was upgraded from
critical to serious condition Monday afternoon.
"I thought he was decent guy, you know," Lisa's brother, who asked
that his name not be used, said of Bryan Randall. "One day he's fine
and the next day, you don't know."
Anthony Colarossi, Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, Sandra Pedicini, Rene
Stutzman, Melissa Harris, Rich McKay, Letitia Stein, Deborah Hirsch,
Amy C. Rippel, Rene Stutzman and Gary Taylor of the Sentinel staff
contributed to this report. Mark Schlueb can be reached at
msch...@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417.
stargazer
"Mark Fenster" <Fenster_2...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5e42449.03091...@posting.google.com...
Thanks Mark, what a tragic story, but somehow I think there must have been
undercurrents even before the World Com event. The threatening his wife
with exposing her sexual past has me wondering.
sg