Homeowner Chooses Suicide Over Foreclosure

Millions of Americans have suffered under anguish and despair under the collapse of the housing market over the last several years. Thousands have lost their homes to foreclosure. For Carlene Balderrama, that ending was just too much to take. She chose to leave her home (pictured below) on her own terms:

Mrs.Balderrama, faced with the auction of her family home at 5 PM this past Tuesday, faxed a letter to her mortgage company at 2:30 p.m., saying that "by the time you foreclose on my home today, I will be dead". The 53-year-old wife and mother also left a note for her family saying they should "take the life insurance money and pay for the house". Most insurance policies will not pay under deaths ruled to be suicides.

The mortgage company, PHH Corp. of Mount Laurel, N.J., contacted police who found Balderrama at 3:30 PM dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound from her husband's high-powered rifle. Prospective buyers arrived to bid on the home while police cruisers blocked the driveway and Balderrama's body remained inside the home. Ironically, the auction had been postponed for reasons not available at this time.

Apparently she handled most of the family's finances, and her husband was completely unaware of the pending foreclosure. The strain of carrying that load on her own proved to much for her. Bruce Marks, chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said it's not uncommon for homeowners to contemplate suicide when they cannot keep up their mortgage payments. Marks's group counsels homeowners in crisis and responds to such crises by immediately notifying the police, he said.

"What gets us so angry is that people blame themselves," Marks said. "They can't see past their sense of responsibility to see the responsibility and the predatory nature of these lenders. The fact of the matter is, unless something dramatic happens, there's going to be more and more people like her taking their lives."