Just days before I was to celebrate another middle-age birthday, I heard on the news that the mayor of an affluent suburb here had killed her 19-year-old daughter before turning the gun on herself. Authorities believe 55-year-old Jayne Peters ”” mayor of Coppell, Texas”” might have planned the murder-suicide based on notes found at her home.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers are taking a long look at numbers showing that middle-age adults (45-54) ”” like Peters ”” have the highest suicide rate in the nation for the second year in a row.
Why? In general, researchers see a broad range of factors…..
This story has been in the news a lot here recently. Mayor Peters’ daughter had received a car for her high school graduation and had been planning to attend the Univ. of Texas this fall. She was planning to attend freshman orientation the day that her mother killed her. In the aftermath of this tragedy, it came to light that the University had never received her application, the high school had never sent a transcript, and the car was a rental that was returned shortly before the mom was last seen alive. The mother had “taken care of” the application and the enrollment, apparently. The speculation has been that the mom/Mayor could not face her daughter learning of the deception. No one knows for certain, unless the notes that the Mayor left (which have not been made public, as far as I know) illuminate that. A senseless tragedy, compounded by the mother’s taking the life of her own child and her failure to get help from those who could have provided it.