LUKE SCHLEMMER and DANIEL SCHLEMMER - 3 and 6 yo (4-2014) - / Charged: Mother, Laurel Michelle Schlemmer - McCandless, PA

McCandless mom charged in death of son, 3

Woman tells police she heard ‘crazy voices’


April 1, 2014 11:21 PM


By Liz Navratil and Lexi Belculfine / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A McCandless mother told Allegheny County police Tuesday that she heard "crazy voices" and then pushed her two young sons down into a bathtub of water and sat on them thinking she could send them to heaven, according to court documents.

Laurel Michelle Schlemmer, a 40-year-old former teacher now charged with homicide, told detectives she thought she could have been a better mother to her oldest son if "the other two boys weren't around and they would be better off in heaven."

One of the boys died after Tuesday's incident and the other was hospitalized in critical condition.

KDKA video: Neighbors stunned by McCandless tragedy



Ms. Schlemmer got out of the tub, replaced her wet clothes with dry ones and put them in a trash bag that she carried to the garage, along with two towels, police wrote in a criminal complaint. Ms. Schlemmer returned to the bathroom, pulled her 3- and 6-year-old sons out of the tub and placed them on the floor next to it and called 911, police said.

"[Ms.] Schlemmer said she never attempted CPR because she did not know how to do it," police wrote in a criminal complaint.
Tuesday night, she was being held in the Allegheny County Jail while she awaited arraignment on charges of homicide, aggravated assault and other crimes.

Her 3-year-old son, Luke Schlemmer, died at UPMC Passavant about 10:50 a.m., roughly an hour after police arrived at the family's home in the 9500 block of Saratoga Drive.

His 6-year-old brother, Daniel Schlemmer, remained in critical condition at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. A third boy, a 7-year-old, was at school at the time.

Ms. Schlemmer's father, Donald Ludwig, declined to comment Tuesday evening after he met with police. Her husband, Mark Schlemmer, and his relatives could not be reached for comment.

To those who lived near the Schlemmer house all seemed fine before Tuesday morning. Laurel and Mark Schlemmer married in July of 2005 in Grove City. He worked as an actuary and she as a teacher, according to their marriage license. In recent years, Ms. Schlemmer was a stay-at-home mother, neighbors said.

The couple bought their two-story colonial home on Saratoga Drive in May 2006, according to county real estate records.

Neighbor Bob Majersky said he spotted Ms. Schlemmer playing Frisbee in the front yard with her sons Monday evening.

"If this hadn't happened today, the kids would have been out here playing a pick-up ball game," he said Tuesday night.

He described the Schlemmers as a wonderful family that did not exhibit any outward signs of trouble.

"Can you image that dad?" Mr. Majersky said. "It's a regular Tuesday, and he gets a call: 'Your children were found unresponsive in the tub.' "

Court records show police expressed concern about Ms. Schlemmer's interaction with a child in at least one instance before.

Ross police cited Ms. Schlemmer in September of 2009 with a summary offense of leaving a child unattended in a car, and she was found guilty.

A Ross police report from the time indicates that police found the child, who was not named in the report, unattended inside a Honda Odyssey parked at the Ross Park Mall shortly after noon on Sept. 5, 2009. They estimated that the child had been alone for about 20 minutes.

"The windows were part way down and officers were able to open the door to let the vehicle cool," police wrote. "Officers were able to take a heat gun and get a Temp reading of 112 degrees inside the vehicle."

They noted that the child was "OK."

Ross police said Tuesday they did not have any information indicating which child was in the car.

Neighbors Tuesday struggled to reconcile their memories of the Schlemmer family as a peaceful, normal family with the news of the incident.

"We're sick. We're just sick about it," neighbor Mary Lou Lioi said.


http://www.post-gazette.com/local/north/2014/04/01/Two-children-found-unresponsive-in-a-bathtub-in-McCandless/stories/201404010177#ixzz2y3Jx4bSZ

'Crazy Voices' Told Laurel Schlemmer To Drown Sons: Cops


 | by  JOE MANDAK
Posted: 04/02/2014 8:04 am EDT Updated: 04/03/2014 7:00 am EDT




PITTSBURGH (AP) — Police say a Pittsburgh-area woman told them she heard "crazy voices" telling her to push her sons underwater before she sat on the boys in the bathtub, drowning her 3-year-old and leaving his 6-year-old brother in critical condition.

Forty-year-old Laurel Michelle Schlemmer of McCandless was jailed without bond after she was arraigned early Wednesday on charges including criminal homicide, aggravated assault and child endangerment.

Allegheny County detectives say Schlemmer told them she tried to drown her two youngest sons after her 7-year-old son left for school on Tuesday.

Schlemmer allegedly told police she "thought she could be a better mother" to her eldest "if the other two boys weren't around and they would be better off in heaven."

Court records don't list an attorney for Schlemmer, who faces a preliminary hearing April 11.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/02/crazy-voices-laurel-schlemmer_n_5075736.html

Rusty Yates sees 'eerie' similarities between Andrea Yates, new Pittsburgh case


By Craig Hlavaty | April 4, 2014

Rusty Yates sees "eerie" similarities between the tragedy that unfolded at his Clear lake home and a new case of Pittsburgh mother accused of killing her children.

The former husband of Andrea Yates, who killed her five children in 2001 by drowning them in a bathtub, spoke to this week to Headline News' Jane Valez-Mitchell regarding a similar case in Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh-area Michelle Schlemmer is accused of holding her two young sons under bath water, killing a 3-year-old and leaving a 6-year-old fighting for his life in a hospital. The mother told officials that she had heard voices, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Schlemmer's 7-year-old son was not harmed.

Yates' seven-minute appearance detailed the Schlemmer case and looked at similarities between both cases. Yates commented that the use of presciption medications could have been a factor in this new tragedy.

"I really feel for their family. They are being thrust into the media spotlight," Yates said.

Andrea Yates, now 49, was initially convicted of capital murder in 2002 for the drowning deaths of Noah, 7, John, 5. Paul, 3, Luke 2, and Mary, 6 months, and sentenced to life in prison. An appeals court granted a new trial, after which she became a patient at Kerrville State Hospital.

In February, it was reported that Yates' doctors had recommended that she be granted permission to attend group outings with other patients at the state psychiatric hospital where she has been institutionalized since a 2006 retrial found her innocent by reason of insanity, according to her attorney George Parnham.

After much public outcry, Yates dropped the request for group outing passes.

To pass the time at the hospital, she makes greeting cards and sews aprons, which are sold anonymously at craft shows. Parnham said Yates sends the proceeds to the Yates Children Memorial Fund, which began in 2002 to improve the mental health outcomes of mothers of new babies in the region.

Rusty Yates divorced Andrea Yates in 2004 and he has since remarried and started a new family.

http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/crime-courts/article/Rusty-Yates-sees-eerie-similarities-between-5376580.php

Rusty Yates has no business putting himself in the center of this.  That POS is far more responsible for the deaths of his children that the woman he kept captive and drove crazy.

He should be in prison yet he has a whole new life and a whole new family.  Disgusting.

I agree with you Twink. I wonder why Jane didn't interrogate him about his own children's deaths. He should have been held responsible too.

6-year-old boy in drowning case against mom dies



Mother drowns sons: Laurel Michelle Schlemmer is seen in an April 1 booking photograph.  AP Photo: Allegheny County Police
Laurel Michelle Schlemmer is seen in an April 1 booking photograph.  AP  1 day ago | By Associated Press    

ITTSBURGH (AP) — A 6-year-old Pennsylvania boy whose mother allegedly held him underwater in a bathtub has died, four days after his younger brother drowned, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Saturday.

The boy, Daniel Schlemmer, had been declared brain dead after authorities say he and his 3-year-old brother, Luke, were submerged underwater by their mother at their McCandless home Tuesday in western Pennsylvania.

Forty-year-old Laurel Michelle Schlemmer is being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bond on criminal homicide and other charges in the death of her younger child.

County detectives say the mother told them she tried to drown both boys by sitting on them in the tub after a third son left for school. They say she told investigators she heard "crazy voices" telling her to push the boys underwater.

Mother drowns sons: A stuffed animal and flowers sit April 2 along the walkway outside the home in McCandless, Pa., where two children were found unresponsive in a bathtub on Tuesday.AP Photo: Joe Mandak

A stuffed animal and flowers sit April 2 along the walkway outside the home in McCandless, Pa., where two children were found unresponsive in a bathtub on Tuesday.

Daniel had been on life support at a Pittsburgh hospital, according to the prosecutor's office.

Schlemmer didn't speak during a short video conference earlier this week, and her attorney, Michael Machen, declined to comment afterward.

Machen got court permission to have Schlemmer evaluated by a psychiatrist hired by her family. She appeared in a special vest that is designed to prevent inmates from tearing off their clothes and is on suicide watch at the jail.

County detectives said Schlemmer told them she tried to drown both boys after her 7-year-old son left for school that day.

Schlemmer told detectives she thought she could be a better mother to her oldest son "if the other two boys weren't around, and they would be better off in heaven," a police complaint said. She also told police she got into the tub, fully clothed, and sat on the boys because "crazy voices were telling her to push the boys down into the water." The boys' father, Mark Schlemmer, was at work at the time.

Child welfare officials are scrutinizing the drowning and the family's contact with Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth and Families.

The county agency first contacted the family last year, after Schlemmer backed her van into the same two boys, according to police and her pastor. The county office determined that was an accident, according to Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Kait Gillis.

April 5, 2014, 7:49 PM

Drowning case in Pennsylvania takes tragic turn


Laurel Michelle Schlemmer is seen in this booking photograph released by the Allegheny County Police April 1, 2014. AP Photo/Allegheny County Police



PITTSBURGH -- A 6-year-old Pennsylvania boy whose mother allegedly held him underwater in a bathtub died Saturday, four days after his younger brother drowned, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed.

The boy, Daniel Schlemmer, had been declared brain dead after authorities say he and his 3-year-old brother, Luke, were submerged underwater by their mother at their McCandless home Tuesday in western Pennsylvania.


Play Video



Forty-year-old Laurel Michelle Schlemmer is being held in the Allegheny County Jail without bond on criminal homicide and other charges in the death of her younger child. With Daniel's death, the charges against her are expected to be amended.

County detectives say the mother told them she tried to drown both boys by sitting on them in the tub after a third son left for school. They say she told investigators she heard "crazy voices" telling her to push the boys underwater.

Daniel had been on life support at a Pittsburgh hospital, according to the prosecutor's office.

Schlemmer didn't speak during a short video conference earlier this week, and her attorney, Michael Machen, declined to comment afterward.

Machen got court permission to have Schlemmer evaluated by a psychiatrist hired by her family. She appeared in a special vest that is designed to prevent inmates from tearing off their clothes and is on suicide watch at the jail.

County detectives said Schlemmer told them she tried to drown both boys after her 7-year-old son left for school that day.

Schlemmer told detectives she thought she could be a better mother to her oldest son "if the other two boys weren't around, and they would be better off in heaven," a police complaint said. She also told police she got into the tub, fully clothed, and sat on the boys because "crazy voices were telling her to push the boys down into the water." The boys' father, Mark Schlemmer, was at work at the time.

Child welfare officials are scrutinizing the drowning and the family's contact with Allegheny County's Office of Children, Youth and Families. The county agency first contacted the family last year, after Schlemmer backed her van into the same two boys, according to police and her pastor. The county office determined that was an accident, according to Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Kait Gillis.

Schlemmer faces a preliminary hearing April 11.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-schlemmer-dies-after-allegedly-held-underwater-by-mother/

A sad but expected turn of events.

Doctor Offers Mental Health Perspective On Why Some Moms Harm Their Kids

April 2, 2014 5:33 PM



(Photo Credit: KDKA)

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Whatever was going through the mind of Laurel Michelle Schlemmer, we likely will never know.

The 40-year-old mother of three boys is charged with drowning her youngest son, 3-year-old Luke, in the family bathtub.

His 6-year-old brother, Daniel, survived. A third child was at school.

She told police she heard “voices,” and believed her boys would be better in heaven.

But even more shocking than the act itself is that mothers killing their children is not as uncommon as we would want to believe.

“It’s a cultural taboo for mothers to harm or kill their children, so it’s not something that people want to think happens,” say Dr. Gary Swanson, M.D., a child psychiatrist at Allegheny Health System.

In a major study, the American Anthropological Association found that an estimated 200 moms in this country kill their children each year.

“It’s usually precipitated by something connected to some sort of mental illness or problem,” said Dr. Swanson.

In 2001, the public struggled to comprehend how Andrea Yates could systematically drown her five young children in Texas, carrying each separately to the tub, and then calmly calling to tell her husband what she had done. Yates also had a long history of mental illness.

More recently, and locally, Sharon Flanagan, of West Virginia, was accused of drowning her 2-year-old son in a hotel bathroom in Green Tree.

What is most troubling about these cases is that most often these women give signals before they act.

“And most people’s instant response is, ‘Oh, no you don’t!’ or ‘No you shouldn’t feel that way!’ which is not particularly helpful,” Dr. Swanson said.

Postpartum depression ranging from less serious “baby blues” to outright psychosis is frequently pointed to as a trigger that 50 to 80-percent of moms experience.

Mood disorders are treatable with talking therapy and medications, or in the extreme with hospitalization, but it’s getting that help that’s critical.

“If they’re not in treatment, getting them emergency treatment is critical, especially if they’re saying, ‘I want to hurt myself. I want to hurt someone else,’” Dr. Swanson says.

Dr. Paul Friday, Clinical Psychologist at UPMC Shadyside, joined the KDKA Afternoon News to talk about the voices that people hear and what they mean.

“Auditory hallucinations are not a sign of mental illness, we all hear voices. Some are command hallucinations, which is what we are talking about in this tragedy but every body who is listening here has heard let’s say their mother calling their voice when they are alone in a room, that doesn’t mean you’re crazy,” Friday said.


Friday continued to say that just because you hear voices or have any hallucinations of any of our fives sense it doesn’t mean that you are crazy how you react to these things determines that.

“So many people hear voices, and they are benign, sometimes they are comforting or metaphysical or metaphorical and give us good guidance. There is a story of a woman who was heading into the World Trade Center on 9/11 and heard a voice to get off of the subway at a station before she would have gotten off, she followed it got off and boy wasn’t that a good thing to hear,” Friday said.

Friday says the importance that we put on these voices is key to this discussion and the outcome of people decisions.

“If you have a sense that you are in charge of the voices then this is very good. If you have a sense that the voices are in charge of you, that’s when you need to talk to a mental health professional,” Friday said.

There are plenty of other types of hallucinations that people can experience in any of the five senses, auditory is just the most common.

You can hear the whole interview below:



http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/04/02/doctor-offers-mental-health-perspective-on-why-some-moms-harm-their-kids/