Husband Reflects On Foreclosure Related Suicide Of Spouse

Posted in Foreclosures, September 30th, 2008 |

The husband of Carlene, John Balderrama is reflecting and going over the incidents that led to the foreclosure related suicide of his wife.

On that fateful Tuesday afternoon John had a premonition of something going wrong when Carlene called him on his cell phone. She just told him to return home immediately and abruptly rung up. Balderrama is a plumbing expert working for a construction company based in Denver. He was at his work site in Andover when his wife called. Sensing trouble he kicked off in his truck driving hard for an hour to reach his home at Taunton. He was met by the police on his front lawn. In a haze he remembered half noting the foreclosure auction notice posted on the door of his modest house.

In respond to his anxious queries he was told that his wife was dead! 54-year-old Carlene lay inside the house in the basement. The wound appeared to be self-inflicted. It was a shotgun blast from one of John’s hunting rifles, which he used to keep, locked in a case. Initially he thought she was murdered. John recalled that she was allergic to rifles. He kept them because on in November for seven days he would go hunting deer with his buddies. He was surprised that she managed to find the keys and load the gun.

The news of Carlene’s foreclosure related suicide hit the headlines across the globe. Official investigation is still continuing.

Just an hour before the police came upon her body, Carlene had faxed a letter to her lenders, PHH Mortgage Corporation of New Jersey telling them in no uncertain terms that if they foreclosed upon her house they would find her dead. The suicide note also had another line, which was not initially released at the time of the news flash. It read, “I hope you’re more compassionate with my husband and son than you were with me.”
John continues to stay in the house with their 24-year-old son.

The PHH had cancelled the foreclosure auction that was scheduled to be held that day at 5 pm but it is not clear whether it was done before or after receiving the fax. Neighbours did not know about the shooting but they noticed that people were coming to bid at the foreclosure auction.