As reported in the Chicago Tribune, and reported here, here is another anecdotal story of yet another death linked by 'coincidence' to antidepressants. Oh wait, there are black box labels now, aren't there?
A Kane County woman charged last month with fatally stabbing her disabled adult daughter with a kitchen knife sought medical treatment for depression just days before being arrested for murder, according to police.
A police detective who testified Wednesday at a Kane County coroner's inquest into the death of 34-year-old Nyakiambi Whitten said Betty Whitten, the dead woman's mother, had complained of depression to her physician two or three days before the April 3 fatal stabbing in the family's home in the 42W500 block of Hawk Circle in unincorporated Campton Township.
According to St. Charles Police Detective Robert Bobinski, who interviewed the physician, the 58-year-old Whitten, whom he said the doctor had described as usually bright and happy and easygoing, reportedly told him she was "feeling like she can't get out of a hole."
In addition to prescribing an antidepressant, the doctor recommended that Whitten seek help from her church community, Bobinski testified.
St. Charles police became involved with the case, along with the Kane County sheriff's office, after city police saw Whitten drive her car off a bridge in downtown St. Charles with her daughter's body inside the vehicle.
According to forensic evidence presented at the inquest, the physically and mentally disabled woman was stabbed three times with a kitchen knife. One of the wounds penetrated her heart, said Bobinski.
The coroner's jury ruled the death a homicide.
Sheriff's investigator Craig Campbell said the stabbing appears to have taken place in foyer of the family home. After putting her daughter into her car, Whitten drove east into St. Charles where "she had indicated it was her intention to drive into the Fox River," said Campbell.
Bobinski said the dead woman's bloodied T-shirt had no puncture wounds, indicating the shirt was moved out of the way before the stabbing. "I don't think [the daughter] had the mental capacity to defend herself,"
said Bobinski said.
Fearing that she might be harmed, Whitten's other daughter called police to the home.
Whitten, who has been on a suicide watch since her arrest, has been transferred to a state facility for psychological treatment after being declared mentally unfit to stand trial on the murder charge.
A court filing by Kane County Diagnostic Center psychologist Alexandra Tsang indicated Whitten could become mentally fit for trial with treatment.
Glad to see the labels worked
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