A New Jersey mother with a history of mental disorders and substance abuse regains custody of her child, then proceeds to go off her meds and kill her son:
What police found at her Camden rowhouse early Wednesday was even more horrifying. Thomas had decapitated her son and placed his head in the freezer. The 33-year-old mother later fatally stabbed herself after hanging up on emergency dispatchers, a violent end to a troubled life.
Thomas only recently regained custody of son Zahree after allegedly leaving the boy unattended in a car, telling police she had smoked marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP and blacked out in a nearby park. She previously lost custody of Zahree to relatives and was ordered to undergo treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders, according to the Department of Children and Families. Thomas was charged with child endangerment in the 2010 car incident, but the case was dropped…
The state’s child welfare agency said in a statement that Thomas had been receiving counseling and support services since a court-ordered reunification with her son April 3.
As a man, a father, and cultural critic, it’s hard to get really upset about this sort of thing anymore. I don’t know how many times the same observation can be made: The same system that systematically removes men from the family home, largely based on the happiness-seeking wants of the mother, the same system that underwrites out-of-wedlock motherhood, a system embedded in a wider culture that condones the death of nearly 60% of black babies in utero (and 23% of all babies nationwide), is the same one that re-inserts a vulnerable boy-child into the custody of a clearly troubled choice mommy. Then, as if the outcome has no relationship to preceding events, wrings its hands about the child’s “unfortunate” end. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. The safest place for a child is in the arms of his biological father, in an intact home.
HT: Michael Egan, in this comment thread at EW.
About the author: EW is a well-trained monkey operating heavier-than-air machinery. His interests outside of being an opinionated rabble-rouser are hunting, working out, motorcycling, spending time with his family, and flying. He is a father to three, a husband to one, and is a sometime contributor here at Spearhead. More of his intolerable drivel is available at the blog The Elusive Wapiti.
