SAMANTHA KUBERSKI - 6 yo (2009) - McMinnville OR

Police say a 6-year-old McMinnville, Ore., girl has died after she was somehow strangled at her home.
The girl was found unconscious and not breathing. Investigators say she had a child's belt and blanket around her neck.
Police identified the child as Samantha Kuberski.
After she was found Wednesday evening, she was taken to the Willamette Valley
Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. The state medical
examiner was conducting an autopsy.
Police say the child's mother was at home with Samantha and three other
children at the time and the father arrived just as medics were taking
the girl to the hospital.
Detectives have interviewed both parents and the death remains under investigation.

A 6-year-old McMinnville girl was pronounced dead Wednesday at
Willamette Valley Medical Center, after being discovered unconscious
and unresponsive at her residence with a blanket and child's corduroy
belt wrapped around her neck.
McMinnville police identified the girl as Samantha Nicole Kuberski,
a first-grader at Grandhaven Elementary School. She lived with three
siblings and her parents, Graham and Kellie, at XXXXXXXXXX. She died five days before her seventh birthday.
Police and medical personnel responded about 5 p.m. Samantha was
rushed to the hospital by McMinnville Fire Department ambulance, but
could not be resuscitated.
The girl's mother and siblings - two sisters and a brother - were
home at the time, according to detective Sam Elliott. Her father
arrived as she was being loaded into the ambulance, Elliott said.
An officer transported the parents to the hospital and interviewed them there.
McMinnville police are being assisted in their investigation by
protective services personnel from the state Department of Human
Services and Juliette's House, a child abuse assessment center.
"It's an interesting set of circumstances," Police Chief Ron Noble
said, regarding the involvement of DHS and Juliette's House. "We want
to make sure we do a thorough job. There were other children in the
home, and age-appropriate interviews must be done."
Elliott said it had not yet been determined how Samantha became
entangled in the belt and blanket, but an autopsy was performed Friday
at the state Medical Examiner's Office in Clackamas. Noble called it an
"absolutely terrible" event, regardless of how it occurred.
All three of the McMinnville Police Department's detectives -
Elliott, Toby Carver and Sherry McCuistion - are working the case.
Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to call Elliott
at 503-434-7307.
School Superintendent Maryalice Russell said the staff at Grandhaven
was notified late Wednesday of Samantha's death. Two of her sisters
also attended the school, she said.
Teachers met to talk about the death, and the school's response, before and after class Thursday.
"The staff struggled, because they care very much about the kids," Russell said. "Everyone pulled together."
Three additional school counselors and a representative from Yamhill
County Mental Health staffed a support room at Grandhaven in case
students wanted to talk.
Some students had heard about the death, possibly because they had
seen emergency personnel in their neighborhood, Russell said. She said
students who had known Samantha wrote notes to the family during class,
and others went to the safe room to talk.
Principal Margie Johnson sent a letter home with Grandhaven
students, explaining that a death had occurred and that students had
discussed the incident at school. The letter included advice on helping
children deal with grief.
This is the third time in a month that McMinnville schools have
brought in extra counselors due to the death of a student. A Sue Buel
Elementary fifth-grader died in a motor vehicle crash in November, and
a Patton Middle School student recently died of a long-term illness.
Services for Samantha will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the
Nazarene Church on the Hill, 700 N.W. Hill Road. A viewing will be held
from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the chapel of Macy & Son Funeral
Directors.

A district attorney has denied access to records from a police investigation
into the death of a 6-year-old Oregon girl who a medical examiner concluded
committed suicide.

Brad Berry, the DA in Yamhill County, southwest of
Portland, said in a letter to The Associated Press that the public interest
fails to outweigh the invasion of personal privacy to the family of Samantha
Kuberski.

The McMinnville Police Department, which publicly disagreed
with the medical examiner’s ruling, declined to release the documents when the
investigation was closed in January, prompting the AP to turn to
Berry.

The police, acting on the wishes of Samantha’s family, cited an
exemption in public records law which states that releasing the records would be
such an invasion that a reasonable person would deem it highly
offensive.

The girl, days short of her 7th birthday when she died in
December, is thought to be the youngest person ever to commit suicide in Oregon,
according to the state Department of Human Services. Police detectives, however,
said they believe the death was an accident.

Both sides largely based their conclusions on interviews conducted with the
girl’s parents and siblings. Though the records of those interviews remain
secret, police and medical examiners discussed what was said.

Detectives
learned Samantha was well-liked, well-adjusted and did well at school. She had
not been abused, had not suffered a recent trauma and had expressed no thoughts
of suicide until about an hour before the incident, when she threatened to kill
herself after being chastised by her mother and sent to her room.

While
her mother and three siblings were in another part of the house, the authorities
said, Samantha got inside an unused crib that had no mattress or box spring. She
placed a child’s belt around her neck and tied it to the upper railing of the
crib, hanging herself. The first-grader died at a hospital after the family and
paramedics tried to save her.

Dr. Clifford Nelson, the deputy state
medical examiner, ruled the death a suicide, a conclusion police did not
support.
‘‘The disagreement is a little more philosophical than it is material to the
case,’’ McMinnville police Capt. Dennis Marks said prior to the public records
request. ‘‘It’s not that we disagree with the mechanics of what happened. It’s
the finding that a 6-year-old could form that kind of intent.’’

Nelson
said it’s a disturbing case, but he couldn’t ‘‘fudge the facts to make people
feel better.’’

Samantha’s parents declined to be interviewed for this
article.

Child psychiatrists contacted for their opinion could not speak
specifically about this case, but said it’s possible for a girl that young to
form such intent. Dr. Gregory Fritz, academic director at Bradley Hospital in
East Providence, R.I., said it’s ‘‘old-fashioned’’ to think otherwise.
‘‘Children can have feelings of sadness and misery that profound,’’ he said.
‘‘They can organize themselves to purposely and intentionally take their own
lives.’’

Berry, the district attorney, declined to file any charges,
saying he could see the death as a suicide or an accident, but neither is a
crime and there’s no evidence of foul play.

He and Dr. Karen Gunson, the
state’s chief medical examiner, said Samantha and her siblings had been warned
about the danger of belts when they used them while pretending to be dogs on
leashes.

‘‘Statements were made by the girl that indicated she was going
to kill herself,’’ Gunson said. ‘‘She had the means and she realized that if she
put something around her neck that was dangerous and could cause death — because
her parents had told her that. My contention is that shows intent.’’

She
added: ‘‘Maybe it was a totally impulsive thing that happened, that’s probably
true. But I also see that in adults.’’

Samantha Kuberski, commits Suicide at 6 Years Old.


April 06, 2010 09:53 PM EDT (Updated: April 16, 2010 08:48 AM EDT)
A six year old baby girl, Samantha Kuberski of McMinnville, Oregon hanged herself today. How a 6 year old would even know of such an act is beyond me. Samantha Kubreski was sent to her her room. She threatened to kill herself, but her parents thought nothing of it.
She went in the room, tied a belt around her neck and hanged herself. The parents are in disbelief and no charges have been filed. Who would think a child of six and in 2 days 7 years old, would have the wherewithal to hang herself?
Samantha Kuberski, 6, of McMinnville, Oregon has the dubious distinction of being the youngest person to commit suicide in the State of Oregon.
My deepest sympathies to the parents.
The state has declared it a suicide.

If this was an open and shut case of suicide, why have they not released the medical reports?   This makes it suspicious to me.  Hope no one got away with murder,

Quote from previous post:

Brad Berry, the DA in Yamhill County, southwest of
Portland, said in a letter to The Associated Press that the public interest fails to outweigh the invasion of personal privacy to the family of Samantha Kuberski.

The McMinnville Police Department, which publicly disagreed
with the medical examiner’s ruling, declined to release the documents when the
investigation was closed in January, prompting the AP to turn to
Berry.

The police, acting on the wishes of Samantha’s family, cited an
exemption in public records law which states that releasing the records would be
such an invasion that a reasonable person would deem it highly
offensive.

But I still don't know what difference it would make. If I'd lost my child like that it would be so devastating that nothing else in the world would matter; I wouldn't care.

What shocks me is a child even knowing about suicide - threatening "I'm going to kill myself".  Where do they learn such things?

I'm not convinced the little girl ever said that.  This is shrouded in way too much mystery for me.

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