SC - Shawn, 4, & Triniti Campbell, 1, die in hot car, Hanahan, 29 July 2007

[zadari]

ive been wondering that also . being a single mother with barely any income is so hard and then when you go to get the help they just go by what you make without taxes taken out which isnt fair here utility bills dont even count .only thing that counts is rent . while no one should have to support anyone on thier tax dollars id rather see it going to our citizens instead of immagrants .nothing against them but .they at times seem to get more help then our people my husband being a hard worker himself feels the same way . flame me all you want for my 2 cents but this is how i feel

 

[southcitymom]

I'm going to stick my neck out here and will probably get it chopped off but here goes anyway.....

I think it is horrid that this mom didn't call 911 when she discovered that her children were dead. I think it is horrid that she took them home instead and bathed them, dressed them, and then proceeded to put them in garbage bags under her sink.

But there are also questions that I would like to have answers to. The answers won't change what happened and they won't change her charges or her having to be accountable for what she did.

I would like to know if the mother was supporting her babies on her salary? Did she get child support from the father or fathers? She was living in a cheap efficiency motel which means there was nowhere for her kids to play inside or outside. Was that all she could afford? Was she getting help with her babysitting bill from DHS? Did she feel that she couldn't afford to miss a day's work as she didn't have a babysitter and it would take away from her income for rent, food, etc? Were the windows rolled down in the vehicle and had the kids been eating anything all day?

I would also like to know what kind of a mother this mother was up until that day? Did she feel desperate in her situation and feel that she had no other recourse then to take the kids to work with her? Did she have no family that would help her with the kids for 1 day?

This mother could have totally lost it when she found her kids dead in the vehicle. Her behavior doesn't sound to me like a mother who just went about
bathing and dressing her kids like nothing was wrong. It sounds like she was loud enough for the neighbors to realize that something was wrong and that one of the neighbors had seen the kids in the bags under the sink. This mother kept saying that she wanted to kill herself. Maybe she planned to after she got the children bathed etc but someone called 911 before she could do it.

From what I have read so far she sounded like a desperate mother who did the only thing that she thought that she could at that time. She wouldn't have left the kids in the car if she had thought they would die. Until I hear that she was a terrible mother and DHS had been called on her a lot I am going to withhold judgment. There are so many mothers in the position that I see this woman in with no money and no help just barely getting by on the little paycheck they get twice a month. They aren't sitting on welfare with a monthly check coming in but maybe they would be better off if they were. When you are a single working mother DHS will help with the babysitting for a period of time and then you are on your own whether you are making $10.00 an hour or $5.00. This is the way the current welfare laws work. These women get no help. I don't know how a lot of single women make it on the wages most of them have to live on.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[dr dona]

I am so glad someone finally commented that mom may have been overwhelmed. A neighbor had made the comment she was a great mom- she cooked home cooked food for the kids, was loving, etc. This shift she worked was not her usual work schedule.. I've seen cases where people get called in to cover for someone else when you are not scheduled- you're told to come and a strong hint is made that if you don't- kiss your job goodbye!!! No sitter- have to go in- took kids with her.-I think the lady flipped out after she found her children dead!!! Stupid yes- but she may have felt she couldn't do anything else!!!

 

[Bobbisangel]

I am so glad someone finally commented that mom may have been overwhelmed. A neighbor had made the comment she was a great mom- she cooked home cooked food for the kids, was loving, etc. This shift she worked was not her usual work schedule.. I've seen cases where people get called in to cover for someone else when you are not scheduled- you're told to come and a strong hint is made that if you don't- kiss your job goodbye!!! No sitter- have to go in- took kids with her.-I think the lady flipped out after she found her children dead!!! Stupid yes- but she may have felt she couldn't do anything else!!!

You are so right and this gal probably couldn't afford to lose her job. Then she would have had no way to take care of her kids. I hope the courts take her circumstances into consideration if this was the case. I would guess that this woman is absolutely heartbroken over the death of her babies and guilt is probably eating her alive. I just feel so bad for her if these were the circumstances that she faced that horrible day. I raised four kids by myself and if one of them was sick I had to miss a days work. It really hurts the paycheck when you are self supportive and a one parent family. When the kids got older they stayed home alone if they weren't feeling well unless they were really really sick and I would call and check on them. It's hard if there is no one to turn to to help you. I had a babysitter but you don't take sick kids to the babysitters where they can infect the other kids. My family didn't live anywhere near me to help out. It's rough when there is just you to depend on.

 

[txsvicki]

I wonder if the kids had been left in the car before in cooler weather. Mine would have been trying to get out, rolling down windows, honking the horn, but I suppose her car was hard to get out of with the locks and electrical windows. The four year old must have been really taught to obey even though it probably doesn't take too long for a closed car to heat up dangerously.

 

[AfterMidnight]

Thank you kind souls who realize how hard it may have been for the mother. I once was in a position where I had to work with 4 kids to feed, house, and clothe without any support from their father. No, I didn't leave them in the car, but I did have to leave them with questionable baby sitters. It was that or STARVE on the street. It's about time that mothers got some understanding for the things they face.

Yes, the outcome was bad, but maybe society needs to lend more of a helping hand to American taxpayers - like this working mother, and less to illegals parading through our streets demanding what rightfully belongs to American citizens.

I cry for these children, but I also cry for the mother.

 

[Taximom]

I would feel very differently about this mother had she kept them in the car so she could go out partying all night. I'm with the last few posters. Maybe she thought she would be able to check on them every 30 minutes or so?

I, too, have felt that desperation of trying to find someone to watch my child so I could keep a job. My ex didn't pay child support and I would never have left my daughter with him even if I was dying. All my family and friends worked. His family was in another State. I needed that job!!

I didn't realize how blessed I was that I found someone, unlike this poor woman.

 

[nanandjim]

I am so glad someone finally commented that mom may have been overwhelmed. A neighbor had made the comment she was a great mom- she cooked home cooked food for the kids, was loving, etc. This shift she worked was not her usual work schedule.. I've seen cases where people get called in to cover for someone else when you are not scheduled- you're told to come and a strong hint is made that if you don't- kiss your job goodbye!!! No sitter- have to go in- took kids with her.-I think the lady flipped out after she found her children dead!!! Stupid yes- but she may have felt she couldn't do anything else!!!

The only thing that I wish the mother had done was take the kids inside the building with her. Wasn't it late? She could have made up a little bed with sleeping bags or blankets for the kids. They probably would have slept. Of course, she may have asked if she could bring her kids in and was denied.

It is a sad, sad situation. I can sympathize because I, like others, were in this desperate situation. I also had to take the day care that I could afford, which usually wasn't very good.

I really think that employers should provide daycare to working mothers. It is very expensive; and many women have to work to survive. At least, this woman was working and wasn't on welfare. I surely hope that they give her a break because she sounds like she was a good and caring mother, other than this tragic incident.

 

[kwatson696]

HANAHAN, S.C. -
Sametta Heyward was in a bind. The single mother was scheduled to start a double shift at 3 p.m. and her baby sitter had just canceled.
"She was either told to come to work or be fired or she was afraid to call in sick - one of those things," said police Lt. Michael Fowler.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/04/ap3987827.html


This is wrong!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zanko]

Her behavior afterward says severe traumatic break. To take the babies home and bathe them? IMO she was out of her mind. I didn't see the Nancy Grace story, so I'm assuming she knew they were in the car. Was there any developmental or mental health issues diagnosed with mom before hand? I can't imagine someone in this day and age wouldn't know the consequences of leaving a child in a car. Desperate or not, I feel like she had to lack some mental capacity to leave them in the car all day.

 

[Mira]

i cant help but feel pity for this mother. what she did, or felt forced to do, was awful, but she is obviously bereft.

my girlfriend has 3 children, and had several years of desperate times. i took care of her kids. if i had been unable to keep them, she would have been fired, without a doubt. many companies have no compassion, and child care is a major excuse to fire people.

 

[Zanko]

Do they know if she checked on them or not? She may have thought that they were asleep and only discovered otherwise when she arrived home. How absolutely horrible. I hope employers with zero tolerance for absenteeism think of the horrible consequences when parents are not allowed to miss work. I've known people employed by companies with these sorts of policies. It should be illegal.

 

[SadieMae]

This story makes me soo sad! Here is a mother who was doing the right thing...working to support her children. She was getting no outside agency help. Maybe she was from a family she didn't trust to care for her kids, maybe she had no family. There was nothing available to help her fill in the gaps. Yet...millions are spent on programs & services for illegals. She was backed into a corner, and I think she looked long term at her situation. Miss work, get fired, no food or shelter for her kids. Go to work, the kids will probably just sleep and be safe in her car for ONE time. I truly feel sorry for her. It's obvious how much she loved them to clean them. There should have been help available for her, she was trying her hardest to provide for her kids.

 

[philamena]

I don't think this mama knew how dangerous leaving the children in the car would be, you know what I mean? She was stressed, didn't have a sitter and needed to keep her job. I have to say, I've cried about her children dying but I also cried for the mama. Maybe she did her best and it was a horrible mistake.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I am sorry, she was a mother and she KNEW her children came before work...no matter what. It was stated she could have called the aunt to babysit and she did not. I don't see how she passed all the tests to get her where she was and she did not have the common sense to know her children could die in a car. Either we have the worst healthcare people working for our disabled or we have blinded ourselves to believe that people actually should be immune to prosecution because they "forgot" to drop their children off for daycare (not what she did, but still...at least they KNEW they should not have left them in a car!)

C'mon, People! WE as a society know this is bogus! YOU should always KNOW where your children ARE! YOU are a PARENT!

 

[philamena]

SS,
I agree that she didn't use common sense. But I can't lie either, for some reason my heart is breaking for her too.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I didn't say I didn't have feelings for such a person, but the penalty is the same. Her children are dead and she is totally responsible. No matter what the reasons are. SHE is the PARENT!
Go ahead and cry for her...because it is all you can do. We can't change the fact she gave her children a death sentence in a hot car for what reason? I can't feel sorry she did not care enough to call the aunt or find alternative day care...And I will not feel sorry that she simply did not try!

 

[Squishified]

I only feel sorry for the children.

 

[Bobbisangel]

Well I do feel sorry for the children and the mother. How does anyone know what they would do until they walk in those shoes. I've never been there but I'll be darned if I will act all self righteous just because this has never happened to me and I was lucky enough to have a boss that understood that sometimes a parent has to stay at home with the kids.

Maybe this mom had a reason for not wanting to leave her children with the aunt. Maybe the aunt was the only available person and who knows what kind of person the aunt was. If she was an addict would it have been better to leave the kids with her taking the chance that they wouldn't be watched or that other addicts might be there? We have no idea why she didn't want to leave them there. If there had been appropriate sitters available I would think the mom would have contacted them.

I think each and every one of us have the absolute right to feel however we want to feel about what happened to this poor woman and her children. That doesn't give anyone the right to talk to us like we don't have that right. I feel compassion for this mom....anyone else has the right not to feel anything for her.

When I wrote my first post about this situation I didn't jump anyone who had stated their opinion before me. I just stated what I thought and how I felt.
I take it personally when someone decides how I should think or feel. I'm sorry for this mom and the hell she is going to live in for the rest of her life and I do hope that the state takes her circumstances into consideration and that IS MY OPINION THANK YOU.

 

[MsPooh]

I only came in to ask a few questions to those here that are flaming this woman for what has happened........
1.)Do you have children?
2.)Have you EVER been in this position?
Bobbiesangel you said it best in the first line of your last post..noone can know what it is like to walk in her shoes, unless you have been there.