ALLISON HAWTHORNE - 4 yo (2011)/ Suspect: Mother; Patricia Graham-Hawthorne (deceased-suicide) - Bernardsville (E of Great Swamp NWR) NJ

Authorities are trying to determine what caused a township woman to drown her 4-year-old daughter in a bathtub last week before killing herself in their Round Top Road home.

Somerset County Geoffrey D. Soriano said Thursday that Patricia Graham-Hawthorne, 45, visited websites that discussed methods of suicide at some point before she killed her daughter, Allison, on Feb. 24.  

Before drowning herself, Graham-Hawthorne cut her wrist and drank paint thinner, Soriano said. Both bodies ultimately were found by their husband and father, Robert Hawthorne, as he returned home to the affluent community.  

The new details emerged Thursday as the prosecutor's office released results of a Feb. 25 autopsy.   Dr. David Greenspan, medical director of the Carrier Clinic in the Belle Mead section of Montgomery, speaking generally, said mental health problems such as major depression are often to blame in such cases.  

"Murder-suicide is obviously one of the worst outcomes of these illnesses,'' Greenspan said. "I think our tendency is to look for real-life stresses to help explain these kinds of outcomes.  

"For people who commit suicide, sometimes it's very impulsive. But oftentimes it's not, and there's preparation involved,'' Greenspan said.

"One of the most difficult challenges with preventing suicides is that the people who do it usually don't announce it.''   It was not clear Thursday if Graham-Hawthorne had left a suicide note.  

The criminal investigation began after Robert Hawthorne arrived home from work around 6:35 p.m. Feb. 24 to find his wife and daughter unresponsive in an upstairs bathtub, Soriano said.

After responding to the man's 911 call, police found both individuals dead.  

An autopsy by the Regional Medical Examiner's Office found that the girl was the victim of a homicide by drowning, Soriano said. Authorities determined that Graham-Hawthorne committed suicide after the examination found water in her lungs and an apparent toxic substance in her stomach cavity.  

Police found that Graham-Hawthorne, prior to the deaths, had accessed several Internet sites that detailed methods for committing suicide, the prosecutor said. The autopsy also found slash wounds on the mother's wrist.  

Graham-Hawthorne was a 1984 graduate of Westfield High School, while Allison was due to start kindergarten in the fall, according to an obituary posted on the website of Dooley Colonial Funeral Home in Westfield. Both were buried Wednesday at Fairview Cemetery in the town.  

"Patty was a homemaker and wonderful mother,'' the obituary read.

"Allison was the love of Patty's life and a very active little girl, attending swimming, language and most recently karate classes.''

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20110303/NJNEWS/110303009/Bernardsville-mom-searched-Web-about-suicide-before-drowning-child-killing-self?odyssey=mod|mostcom