Posted on 10/20/2006 1:39:28 PM PDT by Dog Gone
ATLANTA — A lovesick teenage girl drove into an oncoming car in a suicide attempt that she counted down "8, 7, 6..." in a text message to the female classmate who spurned her, authorities said. The teenager survived but a woman in the other car — a mother of three — died.
Louise Egan Brunstad, 16, was charged Thursday with felony murder. Prosecutors said they intend to try her as an adult. If convicted, she faces an automatic life sentence.
"She was actually counting down her imminent threat: 'Nine, eight, seven, six ... I'm going to do it,'" said Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
Authorities said Brunstad rammed her family's Mercedes-Benz head-on into a smaller Daewoo driven by 30-year-old Nancy Salado-Mayo, who was killed. Salado-Mayo's middle child, Lesly, 6, was in a child safety seat and was treated for fractured ribs and other injuries.
Brunstad, who was treated for an ankle injury, had told friends she planned to kill herself after another female student at Holy Innocents Episcopal School refused to have sex with her, Howard said.
Witnesses told police the girl never slowed as she crossed over a turning lane and into oncoming traffic on busy Roswell Road in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood on Oct. 4.
"She was traveling at a high rate of speed," Howard said. "This is an intentional action."
The girl's attorney, Drew Findling, declined to discuss the allegations but expressed the family's sadness over the accident.
"This young lady and her parents are devastated by this horrible accident and by the death of Mrs. Salado-Mayo and the injuries of her daughter," Findling said. "They are praying for the quick and healthy recovery of her daughter and for the well-being of her husband and other children."
After a memorial service in Atlanta, Salado-Mayo's body was returned to her native Mexico for burial. Her husband, Mario Bibiano, a steel worker, was unable to attend the funeral because he remained by his daughter's bedside at an Atlanta hospital.
Brunstad was on crutches in court Thursday for a brief hearing on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. Howard said she is being held at a mental health facility, and is wearing an electronic monitor around her ankle to prevent her from running away.
Now I know why I've always been told teenagers are idiots.
These suicidal nutballs often (and intentionally) take innocents with them.
I want my MTV.
Since she is a woman, I'm sure her insanity plea will be accepted by the jury.
Slamming a Mercedes into a Daewoo? There wasn't going to be any suicide there.
Saw this on Boortz this morning. See below for additional commentary.
http://boortz.com/nuze/200610/10202006.html#teendriver
I'm really confused here. Why isn't this murderer being kept behind bars?!
"Brunstad, who was treated for an ankle injury, had told friends she planned to kill herself after another female student at Holy Innocents Episcopal School refused to have sex with her, Howard said."
what the f is wrong with kids today?
I am not at all ready to listen to any excuses for this selfish .... whatever she is.
Probably not. ....but nevertheless suicide/homicide was her intention.
Spurned lezbo wannabee.
[SAD SARCASM]
It was the lover's fault for not being open to her needs. It was society's fault for repressing her. It was the patriarchal church's fault for labeling her a sinner. It was school's fault for not providing a homosexual affermation program. It was the other motorist's fault for being in the way. It was...
[/SAD SARCASM]
The most dangerous drivers I've seen are teenage girls.
I feel so sorry for this poor girl and what she now might be feeling...
Not.
Hang her.
Sad, really. If I felt the need to take myself out of play; the only person who would be in danger of going with me, would be the person interfering with my plans.
Isn't one prime motivator of suicide is to leave a feeling of guilt and remorse to the person felt to be 'responsible' for the suicide? How do you maintain 'victim' status, the martyr, the innocent; when you murder someone on the way out?
This person wanted to hurt someone, and she didn't care who. Dying meant that she could strike out in anger and avoid taking any responsibilities for her actions (at least on this plane of existance). Now, she'll get to pay penance on earth; and again in the hereafter. Shame, though. Her penance on earth is going to cost taxpayers who did nothing wrong.
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