A Michigan mother who kept a blog, chronicling her experience with an Autistic 14 year old daughter has been charged on warrant with attempted murder.
Kelli Stapelton, 45, was found unconscious in her car, after what police believe to be a suicide attempt in Grand Rapids. Ms Stapelton was released from hospital after been treated for Carbon Monoxide poisoning on September 5, and arraigned on bail while daughter Isabelle remains in critical condition.
Police said she and her daughter, Isabelle, were found Tuesday evening unconscious in the family’s van in a rural part of Benzie County. Coals had been burned in the van and the windows were rolled up, state police Lt. Kip Belcher told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Ms Stapelton has been keeping her blog since September 2012, The Status Woe, chronicles life as a parent living with an Autistic child. She wrote in her final blog post dated September 3, she writes:
“If there is anything I’ve learned in my relatively eventful life, it’s that I’m not special or unique. If something has happened to me, I know it’s happened to someone else.
I have to admit that I’m suffering from a severe case of battle fatigue. I’m so happy that Issy has successfully completed treatment. It was a miracle making that happen. But I never once had any peace or rest. There was a constant (and very real threat) that funding would be pulled. It was not as exhausting as getting my ass kicked (literally) every day, but there was no time to lick my wounds while she was in treatment either.”
This came as Ms Stapelton was battling with the school system in Michigan to get a place for Isabelle at school as it was difficult to find her a permanent school place due to Isabelle’s aggressive behaviour.
Speaking in a recent interview with the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Kelli Stapleton told the newspaper:
“She is a great kid with a lot of potential,”
“She’s so smart. She started reading when she was 2. She’s got so much to offer, but her aggression is going to limit her life as much as anything.
By the end, I was as much of a target as anybody. Of course, I can defend myself a little differently. She’s gotten to that point where she can’t help herself. She’s hurting herself and she’s hurting others. She’ll always be autistic and she’ll always be with us, but unless we’re able to get some help for some of these behaviors she has, I don’t even know how to predict how the next 20 years will look like. If she was permanently broken, maybe we could have given up at some point. But she’s really not.”
On September Autism Daily Newscast reported on the story of Dorothy Spourdalakis. Another mother who committed to killing her son and failed in then trying to commit suicide.