Woman Weighs Suicide And Foreclosure - Chooses The Former To Avoid Losing Her Home
There’s been a lot of talk lately about “Jingle Mail”, or simply yelling “Uncle!” and walking away from a mortgage that is doomed to fail. The primary discussion revolves around the ethics of whether treating the loan document as a simple piece of paper rather than some blood-bound promise is appropriate. Many people close to foreclosure have had to weigh options. With mounting legal fees, repayments are no longer the amount past due but now several times that amount. Being 4 months past due with a total of $5,000, may mean that you need to pay upwards of $10,000 or the bank will foreclose. Expensive legal fees are often the back breaker there. The problem seems to be growing deeper into the larger metro areas as well.
At 53 years old, wife and mother Carlene Balderrama decided that she couldn’t take it anymore. She would shoot herself and end her life.
A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
Police said that Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.
The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama’s body at 3:30 p.m. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama’s body was still inside, according to Taunton police chief Raymond O’Berg.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O’Berg said Balderrama’s fax read, in part, “By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead.”
Truly sad. Suicide is such a final and permanent option that while few could possibly condone it, most sympathize with it. The epic proportions of futility that must be felt to feel that pulling that trigger is worth a life cut short… The magnitude of the basis for that feeling is enormous indeed.
As the article goes on to say, the motivation here was to provide her husband with the life insurance he could use to save their home. Though I doubt he would want to stay there. The pleasant memories that may fill the house after a natural death probably turn to haunting reminders knowing this is where she lay to be discovered by surprised strangers.
O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to “take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house.”
“I had no clue,” said John Balderrama explaining that his wife handled all the couple’s finances. “I’m just lost. I tell you I’m beside myself.”
He said Carlene had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them without his knowledge. He had no idea she hadn’t paid the mortgage in 42 months.
“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why.”
John Balderrama filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy three times from 2004 to 2006, but the courts dismissed the petitions. Debtors who declare bankruptcy under Chapter 13 generally can keep their homes while paying off their debts under a court-approved reorganization plan.
Check Out Some Related Posts
- Ron Paul Speaks Out Against The 2008 Bush Administration’s Federal Bailout Plan - Why It Will Not Work And How It Will Hurt You Even If You Have No Money Invested In The Market
- Foreclosures In Arizona Have Officially Spread To The Heart
- Foreclosure Notices, Recessions, and Bailouts, Oh My! - Arizona Breaks New Record For Number Of Foreclosure Notices Sent
- Which Credit Score Is My REAL Credit Score? Everywhere I Go It’s Different!
- The Five Most Dangerous Mistakes You Can Make Renting A House That Can Cost You Thousands And Lead To Eviction
- Arizona’s MLS (Multiple Listing Service) Loses Over 20% Of Its Members
- A Bright Light Among The Gloom: A Foreclosure Story That Actually Worked Out
- Arizona Foreclosures Dropped A Bit In July, But Are Still Up 95% over 2007
- No Jim Cramer, We Haven’t Hit Bottom Yet: The Number Of Current Foreclosures Is Up 121 Percent - Slowly Creeping Towards One Million U.S. Homes
- Are Credit Unions Better Than Banks? Perhaps, But Even Credit Unions Are Being Hit By Delinquent Auto, Credit Card, and Home Equity Real Estate Loans
I wonder if any of the folks coming to the auction (presumably investors) who saw the body or the crime scene felt a little eerie about their new hobby.
Whether they’re long term investors or new students from some learn-how-to-buy-forclosures book/audiotape course, I wonder if they realized they’re basically real estate vultures who rush to pick at the dead and/or dying hopes and dreams of some family.
Not like shame or emotion would bring the loan current and make everything alright, but I wonder how many folks got a wake-up as to how much of a dark market real estate can be sometimes…
Reminds me of repo-men who are just doing what the bank would just as soon pay someone else to do, but doing it so they can support their family at the cost of taking something away from another family.
The blood may truly be on the bank’s hands.. but eventually you’re gonna get some on yourself.
Replied to this on your reddit post as well, but worth repeating:
Yeah, you really can’t blame the investors.. if there’s a line of who’s the blame, even the bank may not be first unless it was some serious predatory lending.
The homeowners may not have understood the market, may have been overextended, the bank may have been unforgiving, etc.
They’re just picking up the pieces and trying to get a cut of the real estate pie.
I’m a coder and my job, to most people, is to get as many people laid off as possible. Instead of creating new opportunities to do more than send faxes or make copies all day, I’m the bad guy because efficiency takes jobs =/
This may be someone’s fault (the suicide and foreclosure) or it could have just been one perfect storm for a shitty ass situation..
This is all very sad, but the saddest part may be that almost all life insurance policies have an exclusion (will not pay anything) if the cause of death was suicide.
This is a sad and tragic story but there are some facts missing here.
The newspapers are reporting that she faxed a letter to the mortgage company and then shot herself. But neither the newspaper or the mortgage company know if this is in fact what occurred. All that is known is that someone faxed the letter to the mortgage company and that she was shot. The letter could have been faxed by someone who murdered her and someone else could have shot her.
There is no claim in any of the news reports that the mortgage was to high for them to afford (more than 30% of their income), nor is there any mention of any egregious interest rate or any mention of what the interest rate wa, something which likely would have been measured if it was unreasonably high
The husband made around $100,000.00 i.e. about $8000.00 a month so they easily could have afforded a mortgage of price of this house of around $225,000.00. Where was all this money going. They had the money to pay the mortgage here but did not pay it.
The wife was not working and there is nothing in the news articles indicating that she looking for work to pay the mortgage.
The husband claims that his wife managed all the finances and he did not know that for 42 months she was not paying the mortgage, that she ripped up all the notices.If he was giving her money to pay the mortgage where did that kind of money go.
The husband claims that his wife managed all the finances and did not know that for 42 months she was not paying the mortgage, yet he has filed for bankruptcy 3 times. He has an income of around $100,000.00 yet he is not paying his bills, where is the money going.
If he filed for bankruptcy the mortgage company which likely regularly does credit checks would have known and presumably filed something in the bankruptcy court. He had to list his expenses in the bankruptcy.
Did he list he was paying a mortgage, and if so wasnt he required to produce receipts. When he filed for bankruptcy year after year after year he was required to notify the mortgage company each time as they were a creditor. Didn’t the mortgage company file anything in court that he was not paying the mortgage he claimed.
I, too, would be very interested in answers as well. It’s a terrible story but unless he became unemployed or that 100k+ a year was commission based and his sales market crashed, I don’t see how things add up.
Thanks for the clarification!
Even though we are told of instances of foreclosure in terms of statistics, to so many, it’s a story of a family member or friend that they know.
I’m not sure who to blame - the owner who could’ve taken different actions to avoid foreclosure or the banks and government who do such a poor job of keeping homeowners informed with all their small-print info.
It’s a spiral where everyone is chasing and blaming someone else. But one thing that we all can agree on in difficult times like this is that it’s a downward spiral that is collectively drowning us as a whole nation that once was prosperous and less wounded.