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Aunt once had ‘brief mental illness’
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Family, friends and even law enforcement could come to only one conclusion yesterday after the announcement by the Middlesex district attorney that a much-loved Bellingham woman had killed herself and her twin sister’s young children in a bizarre and horrific double murder-suicide Jan. 11: “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“There are not many other scenarios that I can think of as tragic as this one,” said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone, whose office investigated the baffling tragedy that unfolded Jan. 11 after Marcelle “Marci” Thibault picked up 5-year-old Kaleigh and 4-year-old Shane Lambert from her sister’s New Hampshire home to take them to her house for a “pirate and princess” sleepover party.
Leone said Thibault had once suffered “brief mental illness,” but the events were no less inexplicable. The district attorney said the mother of two teenage children was driving a 2003 Lincoln sedan southbound on Interstate 495 in Lowell when she turned the car sharply and drove across the median strip and into oncoming traffic on the northbound side.
She drove the car in the breakdown lane on the northbound side before exiting onto a grassy shoulder, he said. Thibault got out of the car and undressed herself and the children, Leone said. She then scooped up the children in her arms and walked into the highway, he said.
Leone said Thibault and the children were struck by two cars. The operators of those vehicles did nothing wrong, Leone said. The aunt and children were pronounced dead at area hospitals.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said the Rev. David Mullen of St. Brendan’s parish, where Thibault had recently become active as a volunteer. “I don’t know what suffering she would be in. Her personality was very upbeat. It’s not the personality of someone who plots to take someone else’s children.”
Thibault had experienced “brief mental illness and some treatment,” Leone said. She did not leave a suicide note.
“It was literally a brief incident. It appeared she was fully recovered. There were no signs from anyone close to her that that there was any chance of a relapse,” said Paul Young, a family spokesman.
Young said he had no other details about the episode or how it was treated. He told the Associated Press the episode was in the past year.
Leone said investigators decided the deaths were a murder-suicide after a week of interviews with family members, friends and witnsesses. He said there was nothing in Thibault’s demeanor that suggested she was poised to kill the children when she picked them up for the sleepover party.
“These are very loving parents who would not let their children go with their aunt if they thought the children were in any danger,” Leone said of Danielle and Ken Lambert.
Thibault, a former prom queen and star high school athlete, was a stay-at-home mom who volunteered at her church. She frequently threw parties at her home for her neighbors and her nieces and nephews, and she loved kids, friends and relatives said. More than 700 people attended her funeral this week.
“She was a very sweet, positive person,” said one neighbor yesterday.
Thibault married her high school sweetheart, Michael. She and her identical twin, Danielle, were each other’s maids of honor and were called the “giggle sisters” when they were children because they were always laughing.
“We came from a large, close-knit family, just like our parents did, and we wanted our children to grow up with that same closeness,” sister Tamsyn Coady of Webster told the Herald last week.
The Lamberts’ children were much loved by their family. Shane “was the classic boy. He loved trucks and trains,” Coady said.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Family, friends and even law enforcement could come to only one conclusion yesterday after the announcement by the Middlesex district attorney that a much-loved Bellingham woman had killed herself and her twin sister’s young children in a bizarre and horrific double murder-suicide Jan. 11: “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“There are not many other scenarios that I can think of as tragic as this one,” said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone, whose office investigated the baffling tragedy that unfolded Jan. 11 after Marcelle “Marci” Thibault picked up 5-year-old Kaleigh and 4-year-old Shane Lambert from her sister’s New Hampshire home to take them to her house for a “pirate and princess” sleepover party.
Leone said Thibault had once suffered “brief mental illness,” but the events were no less inexplicable. The district attorney said the mother of two teenage children was driving a 2003 Lincoln sedan southbound on Interstate 495 in Lowell when she turned the car sharply and drove across the median strip and into oncoming traffic on the northbound side.
She drove the car in the breakdown lane on the northbound side before exiting onto a grassy shoulder, he said. Thibault got out of the car and undressed herself and the children, Leone said. She then scooped up the children in her arms and walked into the highway, he said.
Leone said Thibault and the children were struck by two cars. The operators of those vehicles did nothing wrong, Leone said. The aunt and children were pronounced dead at area hospitals.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” said the Rev. David Mullen of St. Brendan’s parish, where Thibault had recently become active as a volunteer. “I don’t know what suffering she would be in. Her personality was very upbeat. It’s not the personality of someone who plots to take someone else’s children.”
Thibault had experienced “brief mental illness and some treatment,” Leone said. She did not leave a suicide note.
“It was literally a brief incident. It appeared she was fully recovered. There were no signs from anyone close to her that that there was any chance of a relapse,” said Paul Young, a family spokesman.
Young said he had no other details about the episode or how it was treated. He told the Associated Press the episode was in the past year.
Leone said investigators decided the deaths were a murder-suicide after a week of interviews with family members, friends and witnsesses. He said there was nothing in Thibault’s demeanor that suggested she was poised to kill the children when she picked them up for the sleepover party.
“These are very loving parents who would not let their children go with their aunt if they thought the children were in any danger,” Leone said of Danielle and Ken Lambert.
Thibault, a former prom queen and star high school athlete, was a stay-at-home mom who volunteered at her church. She frequently threw parties at her home for her neighbors and her nieces and nephews, and she loved kids, friends and relatives said. More than 700 people attended her funeral this week.
“She was a very sweet, positive person,” said one neighbor yesterday.
Thibault married her high school sweetheart, Michael. She and her identical twin, Danielle, were each other’s maids of honor and were called the “giggle sisters” when they were children because they were always laughing.
“We came from a large, close-knit family, just like our parents did, and we wanted our children to grow up with that same closeness,” sister Tamsyn Coady of Webster told the Herald last week.
The Lamberts’ children were much loved by their family. Shane “was the classic boy. He loved trucks and trains,” Coady said.
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