http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/13/2011-04-13_ma_drives_car_into_hudson_killing_4.html

Quote :

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.

I saw this in the news here in NY. What a sad story. This woman was a victim of domestic abuse and a cheating boyfriend. I wish she had the strength to just leave and start over, instead of taking the cowards way out and taking those poor kids with her. I pray that the child that survived is able to make it through this and become a strong person and gets all the love and support he needs.

Here is a link to the updated story.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/04/14/2011-04-14_youre_going_to_die_with_me.html

So sad. I'll refrain from giving my full comments on this out of respect though.

co-sign tmontyb. I didn't want to use the happy face emoticon.

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.

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.

yeah..this is kinda how I feel too. Believe me I understand & sympathize with the pain & agony life can dump on you. But if people think this is the answer, it's the one for them. Leave innocent people out of it.

It is an appalling story, and obviously the mother was out of her mind. Leaving the kids behind and just offing herself would not have the effect I am sure she was going for.

She was going for a big "eff you" to her boyfriend, taking the kids with her. I wonder if he even cares. That would only add to the tragedy. I wonder if there were any family or friends who could have intervened or offered some help or support. Maybe all this mother needed was a night out. Some small gesture to show her it wasn't that desperate.

We are all told to mind our own business though. Keep out of it, it only concerns the 2 people.

What I'd like to know is why is this a common choice for mothers looking to end it all and take their kids with them? It seems this is something you hear quite a bit of more than others, or course the one everybody remembers most is probably Susan Smith who managed to get away and just killed her kids. Why is the big fascination with these kinds of mothers drowning their kids in their car?

wow, my heart goes out to that poor 10 year old

I hate that this woman died because I really wanna see her convicted. She let the 10 year old go and I can just imagine how that scene probably went. She's all crazy, hysterical and yelling. The 10 year old is terrified and yelling to get out and in her psycho hoodrat state, she defiantly says "fine, go!" and lets him out but refuses to let the others be spared as a way of punishing him for not being part of the family murder/suicide.

Kral wrote:

This story is appalling...

"Appalling" sums it up, but at least this woman took her own life too, unlike Susan Smith.

Read about this today. People crazy. She should've just killed herself.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/04/21/2011-04-21_mom_wont_be_buried_with_3_kids_she_killed.html#ixzz1KBdhPCRw

Quote :

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."

Mom or not, I wouldn't want my children buried next to their killer either.

With parents like that those poor kids were doomed from the start.

Read about this today. As fucked up as the father is and he prob. directly caused her to kill herself....I agree with his decision.

He is their father, so he has the final say. They'll just have to deal with it. There wouldn't be a funeral if the complaining aunts crazy niece hadn't decided to kill herself and her kids.

That poor kid. This is going to haunt him for a long time. Hope he will be able to deal with all of it & have a decent life.

What a disturbing story. Those poor kids, especially the 10 year old who survived. I can't even imagine what he's going through.

I don't blame the father at all for not wanting his children's killer to be buried next to her victims or to share the funeral with them. She forfeited any rights when she murdered her babies.

If I were the father, I wouldn't want the funeral service to be shared either.

The original story stated that she let the 10 year old out of the car before she drove into the water like she was sparing him. The second story says that he escaped from the sinking mini-van like she intended to take him with her too. Shudder