`This was a tragic family situation'

Mom held in slaying of 34-year-old woman with cerebral palsy

By James Kimberly and Angela Rozas, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter William Presecky and freelance reporter Rita Hoover contributed to this report
Published April 5, 2006

Kane County authorities Tuesday charged a St. Charles woman with the stabbing death of her disabled 34-year-old daughter, calling the incident that also involved their car plunging off an embankment a family tragedy.

First-degree murder charges were filed against Betty C. Whitten, 57, who was pulled from the mangled wreckage of the car Monday in downtown St. Charles along with the body of her eldest daughter, Nyakiambi Whitten.

The daughter, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities at age 2, had been stabbed three times with a kitchen butcher knife in the family's home in the 42W500 block of Hawk Circle in unincorporated Kane County on Monday morning, Sheriff Kenneth Ramsey said.

Soon afterward, Betty Whitten crashed the family's 2002 Hyundai sedan through a guardrail near the Prairie Street Bridge. It flipped on its roof in Mt. St. Mary's Park along the Fox River. Police said they believe Nyakiambi Whitten was dead before she was put into the car.

Ramsey would not discuss a possible motive for the crime other than to say that Betty Whitten was under pressure from circumstances in her life and from caring for her disabled daughter.

To read more please see http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-0604050257apr05,1,528938.story.

`This was a tragic family situation'

Mom held in slaying of 34-year-old woman with cerebral palsy

By James Kimberly and Angela Rozas, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter William Presecky and freelance reporter Rita Hoover contributed to this report
Published April 5, 2006

Kane County authorities Tuesday charged a St. Charles woman with the stabbing death of her disabled 34-year-old daughter, calling the incident that also involved their car plunging off an embankment a family tragedy.

First-degree murder charges were filed against Betty C. Whitten, 57, who was pulled from the mangled wreckage of the car Monday in downtown St. Charles along with the body of her eldest daughter, Nyakiambi Whitten.

The daughter, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities at age 2, had been stabbed three times with a kitchen butcher knife in the family's home in the 42W500 block of Hawk Circle in unincorporated Kane County on Monday morning, Sheriff Kenneth Ramsey said.

Soon afterward, Betty Whitten crashed the family's 2002 Hyundai sedan through a guardrail near the Prairie Street Bridge. It flipped on its roof in Mt. St. Mary's Park along the Fox River. Police said they believe Nyakiambi Whitten was dead before she was put into the car.

Ramsey would not discuss a possible motive for the crime other than to say that Betty Whitten was under pressure from circumstances in her life and from caring for her disabled daughter.

"Reviewing the totality of the circumstances, this was a tragic family situation," he said.

On Tuesday, Betty Whitten's husband, Earstin, 57, struggled to make sense of events, saying it is out of character for his wife. He has not talked to her since the crash, he said.

"There are different emotional stages in a person's life. Clearly ... something was not right," he said.

"I would like to know why this happened. I would like to see my wife get whatever assistance she needs to become whole."

Ramsey said Betty Whitten is "remorseful and emotional" and under suicide watch in the Kane County Jail, where she was being held in lieu of $2 million bail. She is scheduled to make her first court appearance Wednesday morning in Kane County court.

Earstin Whitten said his family had "normal issues" but no extraordinary problems. Nyakiambi, whose name means "first daughter" in Swahili, was "an innocent, loving, caring person," who was keenly perceptive, he said.

She was educated in special education programs in St. Charles schools and at Elgin Community College until she was 21. Her father said she loved music, eating at restaurants, and helping him in the vegetable garden and the kitchen, but she required care at all times. Cerebral palsy and vision problems made her prone to falling, so she needed help walking, he said.

"It is hard," Earstin Whitten said, his voice breaking. "I know how much she cared for me. She just enjoyed my company and the interaction. I would speak to her like she was an adult, and she enjoyed it."

Friends said Betty Whitten is a creative artist who enjoyed knitting and quiltmaking and was rarely seen out of the company of her daughter. She taught craft classes part time, her husband said.

"She certainly seemed like she had patience with her daughter whenever she came in here," said Annie Kordesh of the Fine Line Creative Arts Center in St. Charles, where Betty Whitten frequently attended classes in knitting and other crafts.

She also was active in her community, organizing a knit-a-thon at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles to benefit the Snug Hug for Kids clothing drive. The hats, mittens and scarves go to the Children's Home & Aid Society of Illinois.

"She never seemed out of sorts or expressed anything negative about her [daughter] or anything like that," Kordesh said.

Earstin Whitten said he learned of trouble in his home Monday morning from a frantic telephone call made by his 24-year-old daughter who was home with her mother and sister.

"She was in fear for her life when she ran from the house. She flagged down somebody and called from their cell phone," Whitten said. She also called police.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the 911 call and found blood at the home. By the time Earstin Whitten arrived from his job in Northbrook, police had cordoned off his house and refused to let him inside, he said.

While sheriff's police were at the well-kept raised ranch house in a cul-de-sac of similar homes on large lots, a St. Charles police officer happened upon the Whitten family car stopped on Prairie Street just west of the bridge over the Fox River.

The officer thought the car had stalled, police said. He turned on his emergency lights and tried to approach the driver, but Betty Whitten put her car into gear and sped off the side of Prairie Street, police said.

The officer radioed for help, and rescue workers took Betty Whitten and her daughter to Delnor-Community Hospital in Geneva.

Nyakiambi Whitten was pronounced dead in the hospital. An autopsy Monday determined she had died of stab wounds, but found no defensive or self-inflicted wounds on her body, said Kane County Coroner Charles West.

Her mother was released from the hospital Monday afternoon, a spokesman said.

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jkimberly@tribune.com

arozas@tribune.com

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Jones' Secretary Was Not Cool.

Women, I called IL Speaker of the House Emil Jones' office the other day to request an increase in asset allotments for seniors, on a designated call in day, and the secretary tried to swat me down!

I called in using NexTalk, which if you are unfamilar with it is a software program that functions like a TTY. When I called, the secretary goes, "A relay call? Oh, I don't have time for this. I am guessing you are calling about the senior issue?" How dare she assume why I am calling, and how dare she say she doesn't have time for a relay call? I am perfectly aware that my calls take a long time...it's taking some of my sweet time away too! And I am feeling a little hearing people-Jim Crow about this. Hearing Calls Only. So I gave her an aggrieved response but added that she should remind Speaker Jones to support an increase in allotments. Can you retaliate and advocate at the same time? Hmm.

I wonder if she heard me.

FRIDA as Public Testimony....Every Day.

Today I was at the Chicago Foundation for Women's Summit on Reproductive Rights. While getting my vinegar stirred up there, I've also noticed lately we haven't been posting on this poor site so today marks my effort to get some more vinegar out in the public discourse...and piss and spit and what have you.

One of the panelists speaking today was a current member of the Empowered Fe Fes. Among other things, she related the story of going to the ob-gyn with her mom and having the doctors mistake her mom for the person who needed services. Now, this girl is a wheelchair user, and basically, she said, the doctor couldn't believe she was actually having sex and might actually need some of the ob-gyn services.

I know lots of women with disabilities will say that's not the first or last story of discrimination they've ever heard, but my point in briefly relating it right now is that WE MUST TESTIFY. The barriers we encounter every day are unfair, unjust and all about bias. If we don't speak up about it though, it never happened.

So, I am calling on you WWDs out there (Women With Disabilities...kinda like WMDs, huh?) to share some of your experiences and insights on this site.

I, for one, could really do without the communication stress and hearing bias involved in going to the doctor. To the receptionist: "I'm deaf, make sure I see you when you call me!" To the nurse: "I'm deaf, can you face me so I can read your lips?" To the doctor: "Can you face me so I can read your lips, and also, can you spin that stool up a few inches so I can see your mouth better?" To the accounts person: "Can you show me to whom I need to address this check?" Yeah, I'm still someone who is in an ongoing process of becoming empowered, so I haven't yet seen the doctor with an interpreter. In low-stress situations like getting my sinuses checked, I'm not too worried, but you can bet I'll call the interpreter if, for some, reason, I get wind that I need surgery. I don't focus well when I'm really stressed out.

I will add this observation on functioning in a hearing environment in this kind of situation: yes, I am constantly guessing as to what the doctors will say. In lipreading it's all about the context. So, basically when I visit the doctor, I have two visits: the one I guess at, the one that happens, and possibly also a third...the one I missed cause I wasn't using an interpreter.

Maybe I should just go see the signing doctors at Mt Sinai, but then I wouldn't get to fight AND get checked up too. Piss and vinegar...well. I just want to go see a doctor in a place that is geographically convenient for me, which Mt. Sinai is not. But next time I go see the doctor, I'll request an interpreter and report on how THAT works out.

So I'm not talking about a jaw dropping instance of discrimination here...but I am TESTIFYING. WWDs, FRIDA wants to hear from you!