MI: Mom kills two of her three kids, then herself
Mark Fenster
months) but did not harm her 8-year-old son.
Fenster
*********************************************************
Police say suicide notes don't solve the mystery
October 23, 2002
BY MARYANNE GEORGE
AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
[Detroit] FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
HARTLAND TOWNSHIP -- At 2 p.m. Monday, Michelle Vorase phoned her best
friend for advice on finding a divorce attorney.
By 4:30 p.m., the 24-year-old mother lay dead on her bed from what
police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her two young daughters
were floating, lifeless, in eight inches of water in the bathtub.
Her 8-year-old son found his mother's body when he came home from
school.
Livingston County police said Tuesday that Vorase left two suicide
notes, but they could only speculate on what drove the mother to kill
her daughters -- Olivia, 4 months, and Anna, 22 months -- before
taking her own life.
"How does it go from talking to your best friend at 2 p.m. about a
divorce to a double-homicide" and suicide a few hours later? asked
Livingston County Undersheriff Robert Bezotte.
Autopsy results showed the two girls drowned. Bruises on the face of
the toddler, Anna, were "consistent with being held underwater and the
struggle that an older child would do," Bezotte said. Bezotte said
police were investigating whether Vorase was plagued by a severe form
of postpartum depression. Her best friend, who earlier told police
that nothing out of the ordinary was bothering Vorase, later divulged
details that suggested Vorase may have been depressed.
The friend, whose name was not released, told police that Vorase was
"not one to release her emotions," Bezotte said.
Police said family members, struggling to deal with the losses, said
they couldn't explain it any way except that Vorase must have been
gripped by the rare psychosis that drew nationwide attention and
revulsion when Texas mother Andrea Yates drowned her five children in
2001.
"There's no other explanation. There was no indication until yesterday
that there were problems," Bezotte said.
Family members told police that Vorase was not being treated for
depression. Her husband, Scott Vorase, 26, said she displayed no
warning signs and hadn't threatened divorce, Bezotte said. The couple
quarreled Sunday night, "a little louder than normal," said Bezotte,
but nothing extreme.
Authorities would not disclose the contents of the suicide notes,
which were found in the kitchen and have been sent to the Michigan
State Police for analysis.
The Vorases, Redford Union High School sweethearts, had been together
since Michelle was 15. They were married four years ago.
Bezotte said the family wasn't struggling financially and Scott Vorase
was about to receive a cash settlement from a lawsuit he filed after
he was gored by a bull at the Fowlerville fairgrounds.
The murder-suicide rocked the Hartland Meadows Mobile Home Park, a
community of manufactured homes southeast of M-59 and U.S.-23.
Bezotte said Vorase spoke with her husband by phone a few times Monday
while he was at his job as an electrician. After their son, also named
Scott, found his mother's body, he told a neighbor, who called an
off-duty paramedic who lives nearby. Ambulances took the girls to St.
Joseph Hospital Livingston in Howell, where they were pronounced dead.
Bezotte said Michelle Vorase shot herself in the head with a
.357-caliber revolver registered to her husband.
Tuesday morning, a small procession of neighbors walked to the
family's home. Two women, a man pushing a stroller and two little boys
came with three stuffed animals and a sign: "In loving memory of our
best friends, Michelle, Anna and Olivia."
Throughout the afternoon, mourners passed steadily by the home.
Melissa Timo, a subdivision resident and mother of three children,
often saw Michelle Vorase with her kids at the school bus stop in the
morning. "She was a typical mom taking care of her kids."
But Timo said things were different about a week ago.
"She seemed like she was not all there. The youngest baby was in her
stroller and she started to cry. She just gave her a pacifier. She
held back and was quiet. She seemed overwhelmed."
Matthew Locke, who lives next door to the Vorases, said he has known
the couple since they moved in three years ago.
"There were no visible signs of trouble. They seemed happy. My wife,
Melanie, had just spoken with her a few weeks ago and she said she was
happy she had another girl so close in age, so they could play
together."
Pete Caroselli, superintendent of Hartland Consolidated Schools, said
grief counselors were dispatched to Creekside Elementary, where the
Scott is a third-grader.
"What we want is to assure the students that it's a safe environment,
that you experience all kinds of feelings and it's good to talk about
your feelings," said Caroselli.
Counselors were encouraging classmates to write notes to Scott "to
help show him support," Caroselli said.
It's the second case in the metro area in the last 12 months in which
a mother has killed her children. In November, Dearborn police say
Donna Altoonian shot her twin boys to death in bed and then shot
herself in the chest. She recovered and is awaiting trial on murder
charges.
Joy Gibbs, manager of the Hartland Meadows community center, recalled
seeing Michelle Vorase with her newborn strapped in bunting to her
chest.
"It makes you feel so sad that she didn't feel she could pick up the
phone and call someone or bring the baby up here and say, 'Help me.' "
Contact MARYANNE GEORGE at 734-665-5600.
corquus
son...coming home to find every female in your family dead at your
Mother's hands reads as a horiific scar for life, in my book.
Somewhere I hope there's going to be help for that boy, I don't see
normal trust relationships with women in his future anytime soon, without
it. There no "good" age to come home to that kind of thing, but
developmentally, I hope there's a grandmother, aunt or other stable
family member that will able to re-assure him he had nothing to do with
this.
Ye Gads.
-- Corq
Fenster_2...@hotmail.com (Mark Fenster) wrote in
news:b5e42449.0210...@posting.google.com:
> Mother allegedly killed her two very young daughters (22 and 4
> months) but did not harm her 8-year-old son.
>
> Fenster
>
> *********************************************************
>
> Police say suicide notes don't solve the mystery
>
> October 23, 2002
>
> BY MARYANNE GEORGE
> AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
> [Detroit] FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
>
> HARTLAND TOWNSHIP -- At 2 p.m. Monday, Michelle Vorase phoned her best
> friend for advice on finding a divorce attorney.
>
> By 4:30 p.m., the 24-year-old mother lay dead on her bed from what
> police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Her two young daughters
> were floating, lifeless, in eight inches of water in the bathtub.
>
> Her 8-year-old son found his mother's body when he came home from
> school.
<snip>
Mark Fenster
> Not picking nits here...but only "technically" did she not harm her
> son...coming home to find every female in your family dead at your
> Mother's hands reads as a horiific scar for life, in my book.
>
> Somewhere I hope there's going to be help for that boy, I don't see
> normal trust relationships with women in his future anytime soon, without
> it. There no "good" age to come home to that kind of thing, but
> developmentally, I hope there's a grandmother, aunt or other stable
> family member that will able to re-assure him he had nothing to do with
> this.
>
> Ye Gads.
>
> -- Corq
>
Corquus,
I agree. In hindsight, it would have been better for me to write:
mother allegedly killed her two very young daughters (22 and 4
months) but did not physically harm her 8-year-old son.
Fenster
corquus
>
> I agree. In hindsight, it would have been better for me to write:
> mother allegedly killed her two very young daughters (22 and 4
> months) but did not physically harm her 8-year-old son.
>
> Fenster
>
I didn't mean that comment to condescend to or correct ya, Fenster, I'm
truly sorry - I guess I was sort of addressing the way even the press
writes up these stories, and I realize the curious nature of the way the
word "harm" usually only pertains to the physical casualties in an event
like this.
I was just hoping for one line in the story that mentioned that a
counselor might be made available for the boy and/or his other affected
family memners, but I'm just wishful in that area, it's extraneous for a
simple news article to mention that and I know it.
That and I've been affected both personally and occupationally by more
than one suicide in my little realm and it was partly a knee-jerk on my
part; depressed contemplators of suicide so rarely consider the impact on
survivors, never mind the scenario of a murder-suicide. The profound
thoughtlessness is usually due to the person's own pain and confusion,
but I guess I get irked when the press cites the survivors as some sort
of "lucky"; worse yet when it was a kid that had to find bodies.
Purely emotional reaction on my part - I apologize.
-- Corq
DedNdogYrs
The one that most got to me was the mother of a girl shot and paralyzed in the
Colombine shootings. She went to a gun store and I think shot herself right
there in the store. I always wondered how she could leave her paralyzed
daughter like that. Was she "unable to go on" because her daughter wasn't
attractive to boys anymore? Or couldn't walk down the isle in a wedding gown?
Dogs & children first.
heydu...@gmail.com
I'm happy to report that Scott, his son (also Scott), are doing fine today. They had a lot of hard times but are stable and healthy. My brother remarried and has three beautiful daughters with his second wife.
It's nice to see that when I looked up this story online (why I'm re-reading it, I don't know), there are people out there who are just nice decent people and expressing concern.