Mother, Godmother Charged with First Degree Murder
Details on the charges in the Alex Spourdalakis murder from ABC in Chicago.
"Prosecutors allege that mom Dorothy Spourdalakis and godmother Jolanta Agatha Skrodzka planned for a week to murder the teen. They believe the constant care may have been too much for the women, who served as 24/7 caregivers for the teen."
Orac's take on this sad story is so completely speculative that it beggars belief! He essentialy opens with, "I can't help but suspect" and ends with, "one can't help but wonder." As to Alex's reasons for hospital admittance, he says, "I still remain puzzled as to why Alex was admitted to the hospital." Gee, Orac, that would be your clue to just maybe not speculate or even try to. The word "suspect" was also used several times. Honestly! What a feeble artice and so speculative for one who claims to love science. Absolutely Ridiculous.
Posted by: Truth Seeker | June 14, 2013 at 05:15 PM
@ Bob Moffitt in all caps
"WHEN WILL AUTISM SPEAKS .. INSTEAD OF DEVOTING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO CREATE "AUTISM AWARENESS" .. WHILE AT THE VERY SAME TIME SQUANDERING MILLIONS MORE ON THE SALARIES AND BENEFITS (PERKS?) OF THEIR HIGHEST EMPLOYEES .. REACH OUT TO MOMS LIKE DOROTHY SPOURDALAKIS .."
It's usually a good idea to do a just a touch of research and study before shouting. If you did, you'd learn that Autism Speaks has spent a significant amount of time and effort (and money) reaching out to individuals and families, many in underserved communities, to educate them about and direct them to good quality resources in their area. Recall that AS is not a service provider, but advocacy organization that supports service providers and people with tools, training, financial grants, among many their many initiatives.
Those resources are provided free of charge to any and all and available on their website. They include the Autism Safety Project http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/autism-safety-project funded by donations from individuals and corporate sponsors like FedEx as well as many issue specific resources like the Challenging Behaviors Toolkit http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/challenging-behaviors-tool-kit (all of with are now or in the process of being made available in Spanish language versions...which isn't cheap to do). These efforts and others raise autism "awareness", or the "knowledge and understanding" of all stakeholders impacted by autism. "Awareness" will always matter a ton.
The funds Autism Speaks raises and spends and the areas they are sourced from and directed to are, just like any other nonprofit (large or small), based on a stated mission shared by supporters, which I am a longtime one.
Instead of dragging them into this horrid (and I agree avoidable) crime, let's all focus instead on how to best direct resources...both public and private...to the folks in the autism community who badly need them, whether they are in short term crisis or living under long term stress, like so many of us are. Working to try to fix the problems with whatever group you prefer will lead to positive change. Misdirected venting? Not so much.
Posted by: Dadvocate | June 14, 2013 at 03:57 PM
This is a horrible tragedy to Alex, the care givers, to the family and to society.Who we are determined by how we treat others,specially the weakest of the society. Let us stay strong and do not divide the autism community. Say a prayer for our Alex,say a prayer for the mother and the godmother.
Ask what services these children and young adults and their parents need,so that no parents have to take this dark road ever again. Some of us are stronger, some of us have better support,some of us developed some coping skills.What we see here is a system failure. Society must prepare to help the autistic community and we will have to build residential day
care centres or supported living centres where they receive the highest level of care,just like everyone else. YES,A WAKE UP CALL FOR ALL PROFESSIONALS,HOSPITALS,SOCIAL WORKERS,
AND GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE OFFICIALS.THIS IS A SYSTEM FAILURE.IT TAKES MUCH MORE TO RAISE A DISABLED,HIGH NEED YOUNG PERSON THAN TWO CARE GIVERS.THIS IS THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR THE AUTISM TSUNAMI.
Posted by: oneVoice | June 13, 2013 at 09:22 PM
@ Camo Mom TX
"Hey Autism Speaks, put your money toward the equivalent of no kill shelters for us to drop our kids off at when we're at the end of our rope. Do something useful! That is the maddening part of all this -- IT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED!"
@ Raymond Gallup
I would rather see families go down the road our family went down, than the road these two women went down. If parents know of families like this, please tell them to contact me at my email address. What happened to Alex Spourdalakis should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.
These two comments are well-worth noting:
"That is the maddening part of all this -- IT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED .. and .. "What happened to Alex Spourdalakis should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED".
Obviously .. this tragedy was not "caused" by a lack of AUTISM AWARENESS .. so ...
WHEN WILL AUTISM SPEAKS .. INSTEAD OF DEVOTING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO CREATE "AUTISM AWARENESS" .. WHILE AT THE VERY SAME TIME SQUANDERING MILLIONS MORE ON THE SALARIES AND BENEFITS (PERKS?) OF THEIR HIGHEST EMPLOYEES .. REACH OUT TO MOMS LIKE DOROTHY SPOURDALAKIS .. BEFORE THEY BECOME SO DESPERATE THEY BELIEVE THEIR CHILD WOULD BE BETTER OFF DEAD THAN ALIVE?
A GOOD PLACE TO START WOULD BE TO ASK CAMO MOM TX AND RAY GALLUP FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE!!!!
(Sorry for all the CAPS .. but .. I this tragedy deserves CAPS)
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | June 13, 2013 at 04:26 PM
Very sad story. Keep in mind this was an act of hopelessness by the mother and god mother and should never have gotten to that point.
Keep my story in mind regarding Eric. A story of hope!!! Helen, my daughter Julie and I were at my wits end too and in a dark place like these two women but we went and got a lawyer in special education/disability law when no one else would help us. He arranged for Eric to get into an a good out-of-state residential center that would look after him 24/7 and treat his aggressions. They didn't strap Eric down like they did to Alex in that Illinois hospital and like Eric in Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth, NJ. The video brings back bad memories of Eric in that hospital and Alex looked a lot like Eric does, it is eerie.
I hope parents will consider what I did and can always contact me at [email protected] if they get in that dark place. I would rather see families go down the road our family went down, than the road these two women went down. If parents know of families like this, please tell them to contact me at my email address. What happened to Alex Spourdalakis should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.
Ray
Posted by: Raymond Gallup | June 13, 2013 at 01:35 PM
This was the ultimate showdown between a SYSTEM in Denial of what is, that would do ANYTHING to prevent reality from being seen and that must act to cover for its culpability in manifesting today's global epidemic.
The SYSTEM (med/pharma/media) just would not acknowledge the physiological aspects of the boy's circumstance...because from their perspective he had none - to them, Autism does not include the physical/health problems that Alex faced (and millions others), thus they feel justified (morally/legally) in doing nothing to treat him - beyond the SYSTEM supported institutionalization/drugging.
It seems the mother did everything she could to get decent support, she cannot be blamed for advocating a complete integrative approach to treating her child and should NOT have been forced to abdicate her intelligence and intuition and just allow the SYSTEM to take her boy away and undoubtedly cause further harm. (which was about to occur). The NEWS is a bit deceptive, making it sound like she refused available help - my understanding is that said help was to TAKE her son away and drug him in an institution - forever!
This case MUST be the bottom...how can it get any lower?
Mother: Please see my boy's condition accurately, and help treat it accordingly.
System: NO... to the point of hospital lockdown (well documented that Loyola refused to treat the boy's demonstrable symptoms for over a month, and rather only aimed to drug his behavior).
Mother: Help! You're not listening, my boy is ill and needs treatment.
System: No, we don't see it that way - his behavior is unacceptable regardless of cause, we're going to take him away from you and do as we choose.
Mother at wits end...
OUR system caused this tragic showdown and everyone shares the responsibility to no longer tolerate a world of systematic deceit and inhumanity. Indeed this was a complex circumstance and no one has the right to cast judgment on the mothers chosen actions…though it is abundantly clear that she and her child were abused by our SYSTEM for some really messed up reasons.
It's an unquestionable scientific fact that severe GI issues can accompany autism AND be a great cause of pain and the outward behavior Alex exhibited. Autism is a PHYSIOLOGICAL disorder, modern science had demonstrated this. Yet the SYSTEM continues to get away with the antiquated LIE that Autism is just psychological and that behavioral "problems" can be addressed with drugs. They MUST hold this deception to cover for the fact that they are NOT helping the millions of children who's demonstrable physical symptoms CAN BE ADDRESSED…sometimes simply by giving conscious attention to what they eat.
NO ONE can condone what she's done - however, it's inhumane to not a least venture to truly comprehend the circumstance she was in and the COMPLETE hopelessness forced upon her - learn to let your compassion trump your judgement.
James
Posted by: James | June 13, 2013 at 01:25 PM
Alex had a right to live. He was murdered in the most base and painful way imaginable by the person he trusted most. Alex is the core of this story, not his mother. We spend so much time lamenting the plight of the poor parents that we forget that a PERSON was murdered. That person had a name: Alex.
(and, yes, as the parent of a severely autistic, low verbal child, I do get it.)
Posted by: Dana | June 13, 2013 at 01:20 AM
If they did this as charged, did they really think this was better than letting him be put in a psych ward? I don't understand why they fought to get him out of the hospital if this was how they felt. I guess they felt that this way he would be resting in peace, instead of suffering. I don't know enough to pass judgement, yet I wonder why they couldn't reach out to the people who had reached out to them, and where were the father and son in all this? Regardless of any speculation or explanation, bottom line is it is so f-ing sad.
Posted by: Twyla | June 12, 2013 at 10:11 PM
Everyone was saying that they did it but, as a Mother, I didn't think it was possible given the method they chose to end his life. I just can't imagine any Mother doing this to their own child. I know that they were under extreme stress on a daily 24/7 basis for so many years, but, still, would there not have been a more humane way to do this if they REALLY felt it was their only option at this point? Also, we need to know more about what lead to this extreme action on their part. I'm thinking that perhaps the Mother knew that she was not going to be around for very much longer and worried that nobody would be willing and/or able to care for her son? Let's not judge until we know all the facts, ok?
Posted by: Karen | June 12, 2013 at 08:38 PM
Bless this family and may we begin offering appropriate services for individuals with severe autism. Another sad wake up call. Aren't we defined by our society as how we provide and care for our most vulnerable. Tragic.
Posted by: Rosemary Buffalo, NY | June 12, 2013 at 06:12 PM
Camo Mom TX
Without condoning murder in any way it is fairly obvious that these two women were in an extreme and helpless situation. There is no reason to pretend that this was not so.
Posted by: For Camo Mom TX | June 12, 2013 at 05:13 PM
You all have no idea the stress we people go through who have individuals with bowel issues. Fortunately, I found what worked and saved the life of my son. But the tortuous pain he was going through and the horrible outbursts with him even harming me and ruining everything in the house because he couldn't control himself. I hope you never...never...never face what I faced. My younger son was falling apart with mental health issues due to the family anguish. My younger son had to go and live with a friend while I battled the system to help me and I finally won and I finally got the treatment procedure because I just happened to see an ad for the device in a disability magazine. Don't blame until you've been in their shoes! We must help people when they need help. That goes for so many recent things that happened such as the mom we read about whose son killed her and he had autism.
Posted by: Martha Moyer | June 12, 2013 at 05:11 PM
We all must care for our severely affected children/adults who have autism 24/7. There are hundreds upon thousands of mothers who are at the end of their rope with children more difficult than Alex. Single moms or dads with no help. Yet they do not choose to horrifically stab their child to death then slit their wrists to make sure they really do die.
The shame is on the choice those women made. Not those who do not condone murder for any reason, for anyone. This is yet another incident that will divide the autism community.
So what, when our kids are diagnosed with autism we should be given a "just in case" death cocktail for when we're old or tired or at the end of our rope, so that we can give it to them to kill them because we don't have other options? That's not judging. It's saying that no, that is not ok. At all. Sure we've all felt what she must have felt in the desperation of no help. But to act on that desperation is not cause to over look what she did. To do that is to say that if when I'm dead and my son God forbid ends up in an institution that it will be ok for someone there to kill him because he was too much trouble. Or euthanize him because there was no room anywhere for him.
My god. Abandoned dogs have better options than our kids.
Hey Autism Speaks, put your money toward the equivalent of no kill shelters for us to drop our kids off at when we're at the end of our rope. Do something useful! That is the maddening part of all this -- IT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED!
To say that mom shouldn't be criticized for what she did is an insult to the rest of us who live the same life, many worse -- who never had a massive group effort to get them help, no doctor drive them or their child hundreds of miles to get help -- yet who do not choose murder even though the end of their rope has been long in the rear view mirror.
Posted by: Camo Mom TX | June 12, 2013 at 04:41 PM
So, where was the father all the time when this young man should have been protected from himself? The mugshot of the women say it all. There was no help, and the rest of society points a finger and says look at this awful crime. What have we come to to sensationalize a mother's end of the rope. Shame! Shame! shame!
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 12, 2013 at 03:15 PM
Eyes can get that red and puffy both from punching and crying.
I wonder if the curiously silent bioethics community will have any 20/20 hindsight.... or are they too busy cherry-picking the easy cases for their media showboating? (Yes, that's you, Mr. Caplan.)
Posted by: nhokkanen | June 12, 2013 at 02:50 PM