KEUNG o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-03-04 published
Mom charged in kids' deaths
First-degree murder count laid after girls found in bathtub
Tamil community leader calls for more counselling programs
By Curtis RUSH and Nicholas
KEUNG,
Staff
Reporters with files
from Bob MITCHELL and the Star Library, Page A2
A 30-year-old Markham woman whose two young daughters were found
dead in the family bathtub Thursday night has been charged with
two counts of first-degree murder.
Sivananthi
ELANGO remains in serious condition in Markham-Stouffville
Hospital with self-inflicted slash wounds to her wrists and throat,
York Regional police said yesterday.
Without giving specifics, Insp. Tony
CUSIMANO said police have
found evidence to support the first-degree charge, which implies
an act committed with planning and deliberation.
Renu ELANGO, 2, and Movlika
ELANGO, 3 months, died Thursday while
their father was out on an errand. Their grandparents, who lived
with the family, had come home, looked for the girls and heard
only silence from the locked en suite bathroom, police sources
said.
They summoned a basement tenant for help breaking in and discovered
a horrific scene -- the mother bloodied, the children thought
to be drowned. The tenant called 911.
CUSIMANO confirmed that paint thinner had been found in the room,
but wouldn't comment on its significance.
He said it was too early to speculate on why the tragedy occurred,
or whether the woman suffered from depression or post-partum
psychosis. The latter, a serious mental health disorder that
can appear after childbirth, has been linked to similar murder-suicide
attempts.
Police say the family arrived from Sri Lanka around 1990. Neighbours
said they had moved into the two-storey Sophia Rd. home, in the
McCowan Rd. and 14th Ave. area, around Christmas.
The incident came less than a month after a Toronto man, Huc
Minh CHAU, 40, was charged in the slaying of his wife, Shao-Feng
LIANG, 38, and their two children. His sister has said she had
tried to get
CHAU committed to a psychiatric facility.
Since 1990, at least 22 children in Toronto alone have been killed
by their mothers, with clinical depression implicated in many
cases. Mental health professionals and community workers say
the social isolation and lack of support felt by immigrant women
may aggravate depression and economic stress that can lead mothers
of any background to take such a terrible step.
"In any culture, there's always the social stigmatization associated
with mental illness. But in some communities, people don't even
have the language and translation (to speak about) mental illnesses,"
said Martha
OCAMPO, of Across Boundaries, a Toronto ethno-racial
mental health centre. "It is particularly difficult for the mothers,
who are afraid that their kids would be taken away from them.
The social expectation that a woman is the caretaker of the household
just doesn't help."
David POOPALAPILLAI of the Canadian Tamil Congress said the community
has been shocked by the tragedy, which follows an incident in
July 2001 in which Jasotha
MAHENDRIRAN was charged in the murders
of her daughter Shyami, 5, and son Sajeev, 3.
"Even though our community is now more established than when
we first came here 20-odd years ago, mental illness and things
like post-partum depression are still very new to the community,"
POOPALAPILLAI said.
"We do need more counselling services. Some people still face
the language barrier and have trouble accessing the mainstream
services. Right now, we still don't have an expert in this health
area in the (Tamil) community."
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