Rie Fujii (Dominick and Gemini's mother) is currently serving an eight year prison term in Alberta. When that is over she will be deported and will (most certainly) go home to Japan, where her wealthy family will put her in a mental institution.
Some of the newspaper articles say she left them for ten days.
Google her name, if you want the rest of the story. This happened the same year as the Andrea Yates horror - WHY don't people accept that sometimes mothers need help?
And how can people treat their children like they're disposable?
10 comments:
I have been thinking about this non stop since reading about it. PPD is really horribly serious, and people do NOT talk about it! I found out a friend suffered it badly, as did my SIL (who lives far away). Neither one of them sought help. They were too far in the funk. Luckily, both came out, but now they are vehement supporters of GET HELP FAST.
It sounded like this woman snapped after the birth of her second child. Why didn't the children's father help? Why didn't the neighbors call? It's just so sad. So very sad.
She had PPD? She was able to go out partying and having a good time, but the excuse was PPD? Sounds like an excuse to me to try and not take responsibility for her actions.
I had PPD.
I forgot, she only got 8 years?????? what an injusice.
I actually think the diagnosis was a borderline personality disorder.
Disassociated with reality.
You're right, Vickee. I'm astonished by how unaccepting the general public is for mothers with any sort of post partum problem. The sad thing was that in this case, she lived in a few shelters along the way (which are staffed with mental health people - these shelters, at least) and her daughter was born prematurely and had to spend a few weeks in the hospital, and STILL noone picked up that she was overwhelmed.
And Ang, I agree. Eight years is not nearly long enough.
I'm still holding out for garrote.
Although, in places where that's not an option, 8 years will prove acceptable if you put the criminal in "GenPop."
-J.
I'm so trying not to think about this. These stories are haunting. Poor babies, poor babies, poor babies. How many years did the neighbor that ignored the screaming babies for days get?
Liz - I don't want to tell you.
This is a hideous story. How can people hurt kids so badly? How can you not know where you put the baby's body, for goodness sakes.
And at what point does mental illness completely expunge responsibility? Having said that, I think many of our governments fail in their duty of care to the mentally ill. This woman must have shown symptoms before this all happened. Why wasn't she under any form of mental health care, particularly given she had children.
As for PPD, I think many many more people go through it than the statistics show. I didn't have it, but I did go through something similar when my son was about one and a half,so I think it also lasts longer than people think. Bringing up a child is not what people think. I'm not quite sure why there isn't a more formal education program to help people with parenting before they have a baby. The reality often comes as a very rude shock.
By the way, I can't stand other people's kids screaming for lengthy periods, it breaks my heart. I'm assuming the neighbour had some excuse for not ringing the police?
SOrry about the diatribe! This post really mattered to me.
know what pisses me off? ANYONE can have a kid. No special tests, classes or seminars. Got to have a background check around here AND wait 3 days before they let you purchase a gun.
I was a teen mom. I also went through infertility treatments to have my last child. So, I can see this from both sides. I also suffered from PPD and had to go w/ou meds due to no insurance. (huh, my kids are sleeping peacefully right now in their beds with a full tummy and hopefully having sweet dreams.)
Having a child should be a blessing.
I wanted to delete my previous comment and saw no way to do it. Sorry about that. The comment about my kids was a little rough.
Anyway, I realized I forgot to address gthe fact that it was not PPD. duh...
I read some on the news stories. She took advantage of a 'crisis daycare' or something like that. Someone, somewhere should have noticed something was not right. She was going to a corner grocery w/out the baby. The shelters. Someone should have realized something was wrong with her.
the neighbors.... well, if I heard children or babies crying for an extended period of time, I would have at least when and knocked on the door. I know people are worried about minding their own business and such. I would have at least knocked to see if someone needed help. Made up an excuse about needing some sugar or something. Then when no one answered call the cops. People drop dead all the time. (a little harsh, I know) but they do. I would be concerned something had happened to the adult in the house, it would never have crossed my mind that the kids were left alone.
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