Doctor will be charged after mother found dead
CliffB
Doctor will be charged after mother found dead
Recently back from work in India, woman found disheveled, disoriented
By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer
Enquirer photos by Glenn Hartong
The Balasubramanian house on Woodlands Way in Blue Ash is searched as a
crime scene after its owner, a 53-year-old widow, was found dead in a
car. The victim's daughter, a doctor who had been living at the home
since returning from India, was charged.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050728/NEWS01/507280359
A Blue Ash police cruiser blocks the driveway of the Balasubramanian
home Wednesday.
BLUE ASH - A pediatrician found half dressed and disoriented Wednesday
was charged with killing her mother. The mother had been reported
missing after another daughter found what appeared to be an e-mailed
suicide note.
Authorities didn't say how they think Malar Balasubramanian, 28, killed
her mother, Saroja, only that it happened in the family's Woodlands Way
home.
Until about three weeks ago, the younger woman had been in India, where
she practiced pediatric medicine, said a neighbor, Suman Sinha. She was
scheduled to move this week to St. Louis for a cardiology fellowship.
But the neighbor said the daughter hadn't seemed the same since her
return and her mother was worried about her.
Malar Balasubramanian was withdrawn and spent hours alone in the
basement reading and watching movies.
"Something must have happened there," Sinha said.
The 53-year-old Indian immigrant's body was found under a blanket in
the back seat of a black Oldsmobile Intrigue parked in a lot along
Glendale-Milford Road. Officers found it after being sent to
investigate a report of an injured person along the road.
That person turned out to be Malar Balasubramanian, who told police
there was another person in a car and the person needed help. She was
found wearing a T-shirt and underwear and with disheveled hair.
It was unclear how long the mother might have been dead. Investigators
think her body had been in the car at least a day. Police think the
daughter had driven the car to the lot with her mother's body inside,
said Blue Ash Sgt. Paul Hartinger.
The car's engine was cold Wednesday morning when police arrived.
Saroja Balasubramanian's co-workers at the Wornick Co., a military food
rations maker in Blue Ash, were concerned enough to stop by the house
after she missed work two days, according to the missing person's
report.
Her body was taken to the Hamilton County Coroner's Office for an
autopsy.
Malar Balasubramanian, who graduated in 2001 from medical school at
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, was taken to a hospital.
Hartinger said Malar Balasubramanian was being treated for possibly
overmedicating herself. He described her as "impaired' when she was
found along the road.
Police filed a murder warrant against her. She'll be charged with the
crime, they said, when she gets out of the hospital.
Investigators said they had not determined a motive.
The suspect did her residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh from
June 2001 to June 2004. Spokeswoman Melanie Finnigan said she could not
release any more information.
Word of the death spread quickly among doctors who studied with
Balasubramanian in Pittsburgh. Several declined comment Wednesday
night.
A police car sat outside the family's brick two-story home Wednesday
evening in the upscale Woodlands neighborhood. The doors to the
three-car garage were closed. The four-bedroom, 3½-bath home has an
appraised value of $481,000.
The killing stunned neighbors.
The Balasubramanians are "very, very intelligent people,'' said Ray
Ash, president of the homeowners association.
"She was a very lovely woman,'' he said of Saroja Balasubramanian, who
was widowed 18 months ago when her husband, Sen, drowned in Samoa. "She
was very, very proud of their children's academic performances.''
The couple immigrated here from India in 1976.
She had consulted a real estate agent about six months ago about
selling the house, Ash said, but she decided to wait until all three of
her children finished their educations.
A son, Karthik, a 2003 graduate of Sycamore High School, got a
scholarship to the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University.
In high school, he organized the "Race to Vaccinate'' fund-raising
drive that paid for measles vaccinations for African children. He also
was named 2002 Youth Volunteer of the Year by the Cincinnati chapter of
the American Red Cross.
Another daughter, Sumathi, 25, graduated from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's computer engineering program and earned a
master's degree from Duke.
"It's still a shock, even more of a shock knowing the circumstances,''
Ash said. "Whatever was going on in there was not visible to anyone who
knew them as neighbors."
The two women were found about 7 a.m.
Police had been at the Woodlands Way home about six hours earlier, when
Sumathi Balasubramanian called to report her mother missing.
She told Officer Jason Lobenthal she returned home about 10 p.m.
Tuesday and found most of her mother's clothes missing from her
dresser. The mother's car was still in the garage and the daughter said
the rest of the house was locked and seemed normal.
She also told the officer about an e-mail she found on her mother's
computer which appeared to have been sent by the woman to herself.
Sumathi Balasubramanian described the note as very disturbing and told
police it sounded like a suicide note.
The daughter tried to call her mother's cell phone, the missing
person's report said, but the calls kept going to voice mail.
Sumathi Balasubramanian told police she then called her brother, who
said he'd spoken to his mother about a week ago. He told her he'd
spoken to Malar, however, about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when she called him
on their mother's cell phone.
Sumathi Balasubramanian told police her mother had been depressed since
the death of their father.
The father, an engineer, drowned in January 2004 during a family
vacation. Ash said the widow and three children came back from Samoa
with his body.
Sinha, the neighbor, said the mother had been depressed but was
beginning to perk up.
The two walked once a week for exercise.
"She was coming out and doing pretty good, actually,'' Sinha said.
The suspect had stopped talking to her mother after her return from
India, the neighbor said.
"(Saroja) wanted to talk to her,'' she said. "She wanted to bring her
out. But you can't force a 28-year-old to do anything."
Phoenix
fl...@gosympatico.ca says...
> Thursday, July 28, 2005
>
> Doctor will be charged after mother found dead
> Recently back from work in India, woman found disheveled, disoriented
>
>
> By Jane Prendergast
> Enquirer staff writer
>
>
> Enquirer photos by Glenn Hartong
>
> The Balasubramanian house on Woodlands Way in Blue Ash is searched as a
> crime scene after its owner, a 53-year-old widow, was found dead in a
> car. The victim's daughter, a doctor who had been living at the home
> since returning from India, was charged.
>
> 0359
>
>
> A Blue Ash police cruiser blocks the driveway of the Balasubramanian
> home Wednesday.
>
>
>
> BLUE ASH - A pediatrician found half dressed and disoriented Wednesday
> was charged with killing her mother. The mother had been reported
> missing after another daughter found what appeared to be an e-mailed
> suicide note.
>
> Authorities didn't say how they think Malar Balasubramanian, 28, killed
> her mother, Saroja, only that it happened in the family's Woodlands Way
> home.
>
> Until about three weeks ago, the younger woman had been in India, where
> she practiced pediatric medicine, said a neighbor, Suman Sinha. She was
> scheduled to move this week to St. Louis for a cardiology fellowship.
What a bizarre case. Something must have happened to the daughter in
India. There is no indication how long she had been there or why she
chose to go at all. What was the daughter medicated for?
Strange as hell.
bel
CliffB
I suppose sometimes people just snap out of the blue. In this case
perhaps her sojourn in her home country exposed her to certain
hardships and prfivations that shocked her, and somehow she blamed her
mom for keeping the facts from her? Although, since the brother was
involved in that international community service project it sounds like
the parents had raised the kids with some social conscience. Also, the
drowned father.....perhaps the implications of that hadn't worked
themselves out and the mother was somehow blamed for that too. Also,
after the intensity of her Indian experience, maybe returning to plain
white bread televised-reality first world U.S. also demented her a bit.
It is an interesting case, a bit off the beaten track of the usual
white trash murder and foul play we're accustomed to.
Bo Raxo
"CliffB" <fl...@gosympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:1122667420.4...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> I suppose sometimes people just snap out of the blue. In this case
> perhaps her sojourn in her home country exposed her to certain
> hardships and prfivations that shocked her, and somehow she blamed her
> mom for keeping the facts from her? Although, since the brother was
> involved in that international community service project it sounds like
> the parents had raised the kids with some social conscience. Also, the
> drowned father.....perhaps the implications of that hadn't worked
> themselves out and the mother was somehow blamed for that too. Also,
> after the intensity of her Indian experience, maybe returning to plain
> white bread televised-reality first world U.S. also demented her a bit.
> It is an interesting case, a bit off the beaten track of the usual
> white trash murder and foul play we're accustomed to.
>
Let's see: mom comes from a culture where parents are very controlling of
their offspring. Even pick their spouses for them, in many cases.
Daughter spends some time away from mom and out from under her thumb.
Daughter returns, after getting used to not being bossed around like a
child.
Mother returns to old bossy ways. Takes the daughter about three weeks to
snap and lose it completely.
What's so remarkable? Nothing to see here people, move along.
Bo Raxo
CliffB
That's one possibility, referencing a few assumptions based on
stereotypes. Not that stereotypes are necessarily untrue.
The daughter had spent what looks like several years away from mum
getting through Med school, so it's not like the trip to India is the
first time she's been out from under her thumb. And it sounds like
there could have been some traumatic event that occured in India,
following on the heels of the rather abrupt drowning of dad. In any
case, the murder of an elder kin from within the vestiges of a
traditional culture which would otherwise command veneration of same,
is not unremarkable. It's an act of heightened transgressive rebellion
which could imply an acute psychic displacement (of course, all
parricides do). Remarks can be made; maybe not by you......
catherine yronwode
I am so surprised at how this story is being "read" for cultural or
familial stereotypes when the daughter's age and her withdrawal to
the basement would also seem to indicate that both the typical late
onset of female schizophrenia and an iatrogenic psychotic break must
be ruled out before trying to determine a social motive. Nothing
says "florid schizophrenia" or "prozac psychosis" like the hint
about the daughter "possibly overmedicating herself" that was buried
partway through the story.
Cordially,
cat yronwode
flick
news:42EB3B93...@luckymojo.com...
>
> I am so surprised at how this story is being "read" for cultural or
> familial stereotypes when the daughter's age and her withdrawal to
> the basement would also seem to indicate that both the typical late
> onset of female schizophrenia and an iatrogenic psychotic break must
> be ruled out before trying to determine a social motive. Nothing
> says "florid schizophrenia" or "prozac psychosis" like the hint
> about the daughter "possibly overmedicating herself" that was buried
> partway through the story.
I think you've called this one right. Schizophrenia sure does fit what we
know so far.
flick 100785
Phoenix
> CliffB wrote:
> >
> >
> > That's one possibility, referencing a few assumptions based on
> > stereotypes. Not that stereotypes are necessarily untrue.
> >
> > The daughter had spent what looks like several years away from mum
> > getting through Med school, so it's not like the trip to India is the
> > first time she's been out from under her thumb. And it sounds like
> > there could have been some traumatic event that occured in India,
> > following on the heels of the rather abrupt drowning of dad. In any
> > case, the murder of an elder kin from within the vestiges of a
> > traditional culture which would otherwise command veneration of same,
> > is not unremarkable. It's an act of heightened transgressive rebellion
> > which could imply an acute psychic displacement (of course, all
> > parricides do). Remarks can be made; maybe not by you......
>
> I am so surprised at how this story is being "read" for cultural or
> familial stereotypes when the daughter's age and her withdrawal to
> the basement would also seem to indicate that both the typical late
> onset of female schizophrenia and an iatrogenic psychotic break must
> be ruled out before trying to determine a social motive. Nothing
> says "florid schizophrenia" or "prozac psychosis" like the hint
> about the daughter "possibly overmedicating herself" that was buried
> partway through the story.
>
> Cordially,
>
> cat yronwode
I noticed that, too, which is why I'm wondering what drugs she was on
and when were they prescribed. Did she go to India with some mental
condition? Or is this a recent development? Was she trying, as a
doctor, to medicate herself?
As for the social aspect to this murder, it wouldn't be unlike a
schizophrenic to imagine an overbearing, culturally strict, parent is
evil or a physical monster. Even if someone is crazy, they are still
acting inside their own system - which makes things interesting, no?
Otherwise, none of us would be here and all crimes would be generic.
If her symptoms started to appear in India, then I'd be real interested
in knowing how they manifested themselves and whether she hid in a
basement there, too.
bel
>
CliffB
So what caused the break?
>
> I noticed that, too, which is why I'm wondering what drugs she was on
> and when were they prescribed. Did she go to India with some mental
> condition? Or is this a recent development? Was she trying, as a
> doctor, to medicate herself?
>
> As for the social aspect to this murder, it wouldn't be unlike a
> schizophrenic to imagine an overbearing, culturally strict, parent is
> evil or a physical monster. Even if someone is crazy, they are still
> acting inside their own system - which makes things interesting, no?
> Otherwise, none of us would be here and all crimes would be generic.
>
> If her symptoms started to appear in India, then I'd be real interested
> in knowing how they manifested themselves and whether she hid in a
> basement there, too.
>
> bel
>
>
So was Raxo's abusive mother thesis it after all? Or was that more a
part of her delusionality? Just your garden variety parricide? Here's
more details:
----
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050730/NEWS01/507300377
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Doctor describes homicide
Suspect said in e-mail that mom was abusive
By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer
Malar Balasubramanian
zoom
BLUE ASH - A pediatrician accused of strangling her mother told police
she first tried to kill her with a milkshake laced with a prescription
tranquilizer and then tried to suffocate her, because, she said, she
wanted to protect her younger siblings from their abusive mother.
Malar Balasubramanian said in an e-mail to her sister and brother that
she'd decided to kill herself, but that she didn't want to leave them
alone with their mother, Saroja, 53.
"I'm sorry for what I did to Amma (a term for mother)," she wrote,
according to a search warrant police filed Friday.
"I am. But I'm glad she's not here to hurt us anymore."
Malar Balasubramanian, 28, was indicted Friday on a charge of
aggravated murder, meaning she is accused of purposely killing her
mother and doing so with "calculation and design."
If convicted, she faces 20 years to life in prison, said Anne Flanagan,
an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor.
"There's no proof" of the abuse allegation, she said. "Saroja was a
working woman whose co-workers cared enough to come check on her."
Employees at the Wornick Co., a military food rations manufacturer in
Blue Ash, stopped by the family's Woodlands Way house on Tuesday
because the victim hadn't been to work in two days.
Malar Balasubramanian took Xanax, a form of benzodiazepine, Flanagan
said.
Balasubramanian remained in Bethesda North Hospital on Friday.
She was being treated for what police described as "overmedicating"
herself. They did not say what she took.
"She appears to know the wrongfulness of her actions," Flanagan said.
"There is no indication of a severe mental disease or defect," she
said.
"She was to move to St. Louis to work at the children's hospital and
they didn't see anything wrong," Flanagan added.
Authorities had not released Saroja Balasubramanian's official cause of
death Friday. A pathologist at the Hamilton County Coroner's office
performed an autopsy Wednesday. He said the body was partially
decomposed and results of toxicology tests were pending.
Her body was released from the coroner's office Thursday and a funeral
has been held.
Malar Balasubramanian graduated from the Case Western Reserve
University's medical school in Cleveland in 2001 and finished her
residency at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh in June 2004. She
traveled to India to practice medicine, returning home to Blue Ash two
or three weeks ago before she was to move to St. Louis for a cardiology
fellowship.
But in the e-mail the doctor sent her younger sister and brother, she
wrote she "realized that I won't succeed the way I wanted to in life
and decided to end it." Court records did not indicate when she sent
that e-mail to her siblings.
The warrant said the daughter told police that she crushed about 35
Xanax tablets in a mixing bowl on Sunday and put them into a milkshake
Monday that her mother drank.
She also said she tried to suffocate the mother in a guest bedroom.
When those two things didn't work, Malar Balasubramanian told police
she pulled her mother onto the floor and strangled her. To get her
mother's body into the car, she said she built a ramp with bags of
mulch in the garage and pulled the mother into the back seat.
The warrant also said the daughter wrote a six-page letter detailing
why she killed her mother. The contents of that letter were not
released.
The mother's body was found Wednesday morning in the black 1998
Oldsmobile Intrigue, which was parked in a lot along Glendale-Milford
Road. She was found after passersby called 911 to report seeing a
half-clothed woman lying alongside McKinley Road.
That woman was Malar Balasubramanian, who told police somebody else was
nearby in a car and needed help.
"I choked her," she told police.
Malar Balasubramanian was wearing a T-shirt and underwear. She'd taken
off her pants, Flanagan said, because they'd gotten wet in a sprinkler.
It was unclear from the court documents what the daughter did between
Monday and being discovered about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
The suspect stayed in the house for some time after the killing,
perhaps a day, Flanagan said, organizing things for her siblings.
"She left notes with instructions," Flanagan said, "and she apologized
to them."
-----
Woman told police she strangled mom
Post staff report
The woman charged with murdering her mother in Blue Ash told police she
poisoned her mother, and then strangled her.
That's according to a newly released search warrant in the case against
Malar Balasubramanian.
According to the search warrant, Sumathi Balasubramanian reported her
mother missing early Wednesday morning.
They lived together at 11045 Woodlands Way in Blue Ash, along with her
sister, Malar, who was planning to move to St. Louis. Malar
Balasubramanian is now charged with murder.
Sumathi Balasubramanian told police she came home Tuesday night after a
three-week absence and couldn't find her mother. All her mother's
clothes were missing.
She gave police a copy of an e-mail addressed to her and her brother
Kart, signed by their sister, Malar.
"Once I realized that I won't succeed the way I wanted to in life and
decided to end it, I realized that I couldn't leave you two alone with
(mother)," it read.
"I'm sorry for what I did to (mother), I am," it also read. "But I'm
glad she's not here to hurt us anymore."
Sumathi told police that her father died last year, leaving her mother
depressed.
Police found Malar on McKinley Road Wednesday evening near the Ohio Air
National Guard base.
According to the search warrant, when Officer Jason Lobenthal asked her
where her mother was, Malar replied, "I choked her," and said she was
"in the car."
Police found her mother, Saroja, in the back of a black Oldsmobile
sedan parked in a lot at 4460 Lake Forest Drive, Blue Ash.
She was lying under a blanket and her head was on a pillow that had
blood on it, police said.
According to the search warrant, Malar later told police that on Sunday
evening, she crushed about 35 Xanax tablets in a mixing bowl. On
Monday, she put them in a milkshake her mother drank.
Xanax is commonly used to treat anxiety disorders.
When the drugs didn't kill her, Malar tried to suffocate her mother in
the guest bedroom, then strangled her with her hands.
She told police she put the body into the Oldsmobile by using bags of
mulch to build a ramp in the garage. Then she drove it to where police
found it.
She told police she wanted to kill herself, but didn't want to leave
her mother behind to harm her brother and sister.
She also told police she left a six-page letter in the car that
explains why she killed her mother.
Malar was later hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries. She
remained in the Hamilton County Justice Center Friday night, pending
her arraignment this morning.
She was indicted Friday on one count of aggravated murder.
>
> >