AP
Last updated: 7:53 am
July 24, 2008
Posted: 3:46 am
July 24, 2008
TAUNTON, Mass. - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house, she would be dead.
Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m., police said.
The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama's body at 3:30 p.m. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m., and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama's body was still inside, according to Taunton Police Chief Raymond O'Berg.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company.
O'Berg said Balderrama's fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house, I'll be dead."
O'Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the [life] insurance money and pay for the house."
Joe Whitney, who works with Balderrama's husband, a plumber, said that she handled the bills and her husband didn't know about the pending foreclosure.
"John didn't even know about it, that's the surprise," Whitney told The Boston Globe. "It's just one of those awful, awful tragic events."
