Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Job Loss Leads to Family Tragedy

Lupoe FamilyA man apparently despondent about losing his job killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself. In one upstairs bedroom, the bodies of twin 2-year-old boys were found beside their dead mother. In another bedroom, 5-year-old twin girls and their 8-year-old sister lay next to their lifeless father.

The bodies of five children and two adults -- the children's mother and father -- were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. Ervin Lupoe apparently called 911 and contacted a television station by fax before committing suicide, authorities said.

A suicide note found at the scene "indicated a business dispute" between Lupoe and Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. In the faxed note to KABC, the man said he was despondent over an employment situation, police said.

Kaiser Permanente said Lupoe and his wife, Ana, were both former employees of the medical center. Both had been terminated, with Lupoe's termination coming last week.

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plez sez: this story brought tears to my eyes. the loss of hope and the loss of life is tragic.

there is something terribly wrong with our society when our lives are so identified by how many zeros are on our w-2 forms or what kind of car is parked in the driveway or who is sending your paycheck. thousands more people are looking at job losses in the coming weeks and months... it pains me to think how many hundreds of unemployed people are looking at ending their life due to a job loss.

i believe before we'll fix this economy, something must be done to repair our country's fragile psyche.

~ ~ Citations ~ ~

Read the AJC.com article about the Lupoe family tragedy.

Read the MSNBC article about the job loss tragedy.

Read the CNN.com article about Lupoe family tragedy.

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1 comment:

Kim said...

I too was saddened by the story. So many lives taken senselessly. There have been so many suicides due to loss ofmoney and jobs as of late, and sad that people define their only value by money. Yes it's a necessity in today's world but when one thinks they are worthless without it....it's just SAD.