commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Laurel Michelle Schlemmer, 40, of McCandless, PA (located 10 miles north of Pittsburgh) lived in a lovely home in what has been described as a quiet upscale neighborhood. A religious woman, she was a stay-at-home mother which gave her the opportunity to focus her attention on her three sons, who were 3, 6 and 7 years of age.
Unfortunately, Ms. Schlemmer has reportedly struggled with mental illness and/or instability for some time now. Things came to a head on Tuesday morning when, responding to what she called “crazy voices”, after packing her 7-year-old off to school on the school bus at around 8:40 am, she ordered her two younger boys, 3-year-old Luke and 6-year-old Daniel, to take off their pajamas and get in the bathtub.
According to an Allegheny County criminal complaint, “Schlemmer said after the boys got into the tub, she got into the tub ‘fully clothed’ and ‘crazy voices’ were telling her to push the boys into the water. Schlemmer explained that at one point she [was] sitting on top of the boys while they were under the water in the tub.”
By her convoluted logic, the woman apparently “thought she could be a better mother” to her oldest son “if the other two boys weren’t around,” at least that’s what she told the detectives.
She also believed the two younger boys “would be better off in heaven,” a point few would quibble with given the quality of Ms. Schlemmer’s mothering.
What is curious is that at some point in the midst of the drowning, a sliver of sanity returned and Ms. Schlemmer got off of her boys and pulled them from the water. She told the police, however, that she didn’t attempt CPR because she didn’t know how to perform the procedure.
She also was cognizant of the need to conceal what she had done and allegedly tried to hide her wet clothes in a trash bag before the paramedics, who she called after pulling her boys from the tub, arrived at the scene.
Once they were apprised of the situation, the rescue workers rushed the two boys to UPMC Passavant Hospital, where Luke died. His older brother Daniel was transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where he remained in critical condition as of Wednesday.
Ms. Schlemmer is being held without bail. Her charges include criminal homicide, aggravated assault, child endangerment and tampering with physical evidence. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 11th.
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Neighbors said they were stunned to hear the woman killed her child.
“I said hello to her and she seemed fine,” Jennie Leonard, who saw Schlemmer at the bus stop just moments before the tragic incident, told WPXI-TV.
“When the kids got on the bus, everybody waved as we always do.”
The neighbors explained that Ms. Schlemmer’s husband, Mark, was at work when the assault occurred.
A neighbor who did not wish to be identified and who broke down in tears, stated that the family did everything together and seemed very happy. Two bouquets of flowers were tucked Wednesday into a bush at the front of the family’s home on their winding street of split-level houses and well-kept yards. Mourners also left a small stuffed leopard and a burning votive candle.
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Although it’s always touching when goodhearted neighbors turn out to support neighbors who are grieving or who are in trouble, the record shows that there were earlier indications that Ms. Schlemmer was either not “quite right” or, alternatively, was an accident waiting to happen. In September 2009, she was given a citation for leaving one of her boys unattended in a parked car. According to the police, the interior of the vehicle reached a sweltering 112 degrees.
Fortunately, the child was not injured and Ms. Schlemmer was ordered to pay a small fine.
According to Joe Mandak of the Associated Press, the prosecutors are reviewing yet a third incident involving Ms. Schlemmer and her children.
Although the prosecutors were not willing to discuss what they were investigating, Ms. Schlemmer’s pastor, Dan Hendley of North Park Church, explained that she had backed into the same two victims (her two little boys) with her van 10 months ago in the driveway of the boys’ grandparents’ house in a nearby town. Pastor Hendley had counseled the family after the incident.
The pastor is convinced that the van encounter was an accident. “What was shared with me is she was in the van and the boys were behind her and she didn’t see them,” he said. “She thought the boys had run inside and, instead, they were in back of the van.”
At the time, the van accident did not result in any charges.
Pastor Hendley felt that the family had recovered from the van accident, which caused internal injuries to Daniel and left Luke unable to walk for a time.
“They seemed to be doing well from the distance from which I observed them,” said the pastor carefully.
The pastor did admit that there were some concerns about Schlemmer’s mental state as a result of the accident, but not because anyone had any suspicions about what happened.
At present, Pastor Hendley and other friends at his evangelical Presbyterian congregation are working to help support the father, Mark Schlemmer, and his 7-year-old son.
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One fact sticks out like a very sore thumb. Given her mental instability, Ms. Schlemmer was probably not the best candidate to pop out three babies within a four year span. Even the most stable of women will struggle at times with the pressures of motherhood. For an unstable person like Ms. Schlemmer to have two boys in a 2-year period followed by a third boy three years later just doesn’t make sense.