Mother drives herself and 3 children into Hudson River; all four drown

Mother drives herself and 3 children into Hudson River; all four drown

BY Joe Kemp
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Wednesday, April 13th 2011, 4:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday, April 13th 2011, 10:18 AM

A Newburgh, New York mother fleeing a domestic dispute drove a minivan loaded with her three young children into the Hudson River, killing everyone aboard, officials said.

The woman let her 10-year-old son out of the vehicle before plunging off a dock into the murky water about 8 p.m. Tuesday night, Newburgh police said.

The boy ran to a nearby fire station to get help, but by the time firefighters got to the scene, the car had disappeared into the river.

Marine units and divers were called in and the vehicle was found about an hour later and pulled up by a tow truck.

Inside they found the woman with her two sons - ages 5 and 2 - and 11-month-old daughter, police said.

"It's a horrible sight, all of them in the car," Newburgh Police Chief Michael Ferrara told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown.

Shortly before being alerted to the sinking vehicle, police said they responded to a call about a domestic dispute at the woman's home about six blocks away, but when they got there, the house was empty.

Details of the domestic incident were not immediately clear and the names of the victims were not immediately released.

The city of Newburgh, in Orange County, is about 60 miles north of New York City.

The chilling episode bears and eerie similarity to the notorious Susan Smith murders.

Smith made headlines in 1994 when she rolled her car into a South Carolina lake with her two young sons trapped inside.

Smith claimed she had been carjacked by a black man, but investigators later determined she had lied and had sunk the car herself. She is serving a life sentence.

AtownPeep wrote:I heard about this yesterday and am very disturbed by it. If this woman wanted to take her life over rejection from a man, then more power to her, but it should have been a solo endeavor. I have no sympathy for her at all.

Kral wrote:This story is appalling...

Lashanda Armstrong's aunt furious over separate burials for kids, mom in murder-suicide
BY Edgar Sandoval and Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Thursday, April 21st 2011, 4:00 AM



Family gather at Hudson River for what would have been Lainaina Armstrong's first birthday.

A last-minute funeral feud blocked Lashanda Armstrong from spending eternity alongside her three kids, leaving the late mom's family seething at the children's cheating dad.

Jean Pierre, father of the three youngsters drowned last week in the Hudson River, broke a week-long silence on Wednesday to announce separate funerals and burials for the mother and kids.

His devastating decision came barely 24 hours before the Armstrong family had planned a single funeral for Lashanda, 25, and the children. The four were set for side-by-side burial.

"I am very angry," fumed Angela Gilliam, the dead woman's aunt. "This jackass just came in here and messed everything up. She should be buried with her children, regardless of what she did."

Instead, 5-year-old Landon, 2-year-old Lance and 11-month-old Lainaina will be buried Monday in a Congers, N.Y., cemetery. Lashanda Armstrong's burial is set for today at the Brick Church Cemetery in New Hempstead.

Pierre, 26, has no plans to attend his high school sweetheart's funeral. Gilliam promised her side of the family would turn out for Monday's farewell to the kids.

"I won't say anything to him," Gilliam said. "It's not about him. It's about my niece and two nephews, not about him. I think I'm better than that. I know I'm better than that."

Pierre, through a lawyer, released a terse four-paragraph statement defending himself in the April 12 tragedy.



Only young Lashaun (lower left) is left alive after mom Lashanda's murder-suicide Hudson plunge. (AP, top left)

Neighbors described Pierre as cursing and pounding on the door of Armstrong's Newburgh apartment for 30 minutes before she drove the family van into the river.

The pair were reportedly arguing over Pierre's repeated infidelities.

Only Lashaun Armstrong, 10, survived by slipping out a power window in the sinking minivan and swimming back to shore.

"I have been inaccurately portrayed as being directly responsible for the tragedy," Pierre said in the statement.

"If I could, I would have changed some things in my past. [I] am shocked and distraught by what happened. This has been a very devastating tragedy for all concerned."

Pierre was arrested in February after leaving his 2-year-old son unattended, with neighbors finding the half-naked child wandering in the snow at 1:15 a.m.

Before word of the separate funerals came out, the Armstrong family gathered along the banks of the Hudson to celebrate what would have been Lainaina's first birthday.

The clan will reunite this afternoon in Spring Valley for Lashanda Armstrong's funeral, where the mourners will include good Samaritan Maeve Ryan.

"It's going to be very emotional, I know," said Ryan, who found a dripping-wet Lashaun after his escape. "I know I'm going to be crying."