Ten Executions Gone Shockingly Wrong
Sara Apple Missing in Ohio: Mom Disappears With 4-Year-Old Son Max Apple
Monday, June 20, 2011 at 8:58 am
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| Sara was undergoing counseling for depression when she disappeared |
The pair have been missing ever since.
According to her family, Sara's the kind of person who talks to her mother daily, so it would be unusual for her to be out of contact. But she has recently been in contact with her biological father, who appears to have been out of the picture for some time. He lives in the Carolinas, so detectives believe she may have driven to his house.
Sara is described as 5-feet-tall and weighing 140 pounds. She's driving a white, 2004 Saturn with Ohio plates.
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| Police now believe Sara emptied her family bank accounts and ripped off her employer before fleeing with her son Max |
When she picked up her son after work last Thursday, it seems Sara planned to disappear all along. Police discovered unsent goodbye letters to family and friends. She'd also been stashing money for her getaway, keeping it instead of making the mortgage and car payments.
She'd drained her family's bank accounts and opened new accounts without her husband's knowledge.
Her bigger problem is that she may have also ripped off her employer, Fiberglas Federal Credit Union, where she worked as a teller. The company says there was a significant shortfall in her drawer after she left Thursday.
The credit union isn't sure how much money is missing; it's now conducting an audit. But Newark police have dropped their missing persons investigation. The next phase will likely be a criminal probe.
UPDATE II: Sara and Max Apple have been found safe in Maine.
She apparently told police in Trenton, Maine that Ohio detectives were looking for. But that won't be the end of her troubles.
Her husband Chris says they were still living together while amicably pursuing divorce before she left. He wanted out due to her infidelity, he says. But while she was away, he filed for divorce and petitioned for custody of Max. He says his wife suffers from depression and probably stopped taking her medicine.
Police also expect to charge her with inducing panic and interference with custody. Then there's the missing money from the credit union that still must be accounted for.
Mother and son and expected to fly back to Ohio today.
See our last story from the Missing Persons file: Lauren Spierer Missing in Indiana: Student Last Seen Arguing Outside Apartment Building.
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60 comments
I'm glad this story turned out the way it did...and this chick obviously does not need to have custody of that little boy if she's this unstable...And shouldn't there be a kidnapping charge in there somewhere? She did take off with the kid without letting his father or anyone else know where the hell she was going...
All this talk about meds making her do it. Meds made her cheat on her husband? Create a nest egg of money instead of paying the bills? Plan to run away and clean out the accounts? Steal from her employer the day she ran away? Uh huh. People do that without taking meds or drinking or whatever. She's got really poor judgement.
I see some comments about how maybe she was on antidepressants or something, no excuse, sorry. No more of an excuse than if she was drunk, or stoned, or strung out on meth, heroin or any other drug. You choose to take any substance, especially prescribed meds, which have warnings of side effects, you need to take responsibility for yourself and your actions.
That would depend upon the circumstances of the prescribing, how diligent the doctor was and how honest the drug company was about the drug. Also, whether or not her use was a result of a government program like the Mother's Act. As long as she was not diagnosed as part of a govt. program and the Dr. and pharma company's behavior were at 100% beyond reproach, then yeah, hold her accountable.
Most people would prob. opt not to take those particular drugs if they were given objective, unbiased and thourough information on them.
your quite seriously against these anti-depressant meds arent you? fair enough you must have your reasons but could you please acknowledge that it is perfectly possible this woman is just a thief and medication had nothing t0 do with what she did? as far as im concerned that is the more likely scenario..Prescription meds are not the reason for all crime..
I saw her the other day chatting with a couple of cops in dunkin donuts. They were all happy because she bought a round of donuts for everybody.
Everybodys different.whether or not shes on meds....depressed or stressed.we all deal wit it differently.some act out n some dont. Some steal lie cheat kill or runaway n some get help or deal with it.nobodys perfect.im not sayin what she did is right but none of us really know what her situatuation is or was.
what a loser. Sorry babe but being treated for depression doesn't make you clean out the family bank account. and somebody said on another comment that maybe one reason she did this is because the husband was abusive? Sorry, but how does that explain ripping off her employer? or not telling ANYONE in her own family-including her mother who she was apparently close to-about her whereabouts? no, what we have here is just a garden variety selfish bitch who only cared about herself. and she had also not been making her mortgage payments or anything else that would indicate a responsible woman trying to do the right thing.-not someone trying to escape a bad situation.
Actually Steve, anti-depressants and their withdrawl can cause far worse side effects than just thinking stealing and running away are acceptable solutions,
If you look at a site called "Patientsville" you will see that may side effects of popular antidepressants are even fatal. The list is long and bizarre, and "gun shot wound" is in the top 30 sinde effects for many of them.
This woman could certainly be a victim of a screen and drug program like "The Mother's Act" named after Melanie Blocker-Stokes who jumped out of building while under the influence of many psychotropic drugs designed to treat PPD. Her mother was given huge sums of money by pharmacuetical companies to get behind the act in memory of her daughter. The questionairre used in the diagnosis for PPD under this act contains three questions.
This woman was probably sufferring from mania and emotional blunting caused by anti-depressants.
wow, you are SO right! its totally the medications fault right? so for the months and months leading up to this she had absolutely NO CONTROL OVER HERSELF OR HER ACTIONS?
who had the responsibility to keep taking her medications? her husband was divorcing her for adultery, she stopped paying her mortgage and car payment, ripped off her workplace, and left town. anything else she isn't responsible for? give me a fucking break. do you know how idiotic you sound? many side effects listed on the boxes of many drug list fatality as a side effect. did she decide to to take this drug anyway-even with the side effects potential?
yes she did. who decided to stop taking them? she did. if she stopped taking all together without tapering off-that's her fault too. end of the fucking blame game. you don't know what she was suffering from either, so stop making excuses for her.
Meds are the best life-saving treatment there is. I am sick of everyone blaming meds and I hope that depressed people get all the meds they need. Educate yourself! Fully 40% of kindergarteners have thought about or attempted suicide in the last decade. Risk of child suicide is highest than it's ever been.
mania as you describe it would not produce prolonged periods of deep methodical planning in order to rip people off-and its clear this took place over many months, not overnight. Speaking as someone who has been treated for depression, including medication that didn't work, I am wondering when people are going to start being asked to take responsibility for what they do-depression is not a get out of jail free card. you have essentially made an excuse for her bad behavior-and you don't really have any solid proof that medication caused this, only speculation.
to answer your question, grand theft/embezzlement is a felony-and depending on how she did it it may be more than one. I suspect she will be charged with a felony around taking off with the kid-and not coming forward to police when she was declared a missing person. I agree with you-if your husband is beating the crap out of you and you have a shared bank account, he deserves to have his financial ass handed to him on a platter, but it sounds so far as though he is a stand up guy. However, even if he wasn't-why did she contact no one-and rip off her employer? If I was running from an abusive spouse, I could see keeping my location secret from HIM but the cops? people who love and care about me? or anyone for that matter? not even trying to go to a shelter? it says she was being treated for depression-not how. We don't even know for sure if she was on medication at all at the time of the incident yet(which is why I want more info). We DO know this was NOT something she just up and did if she was both not making her mortgage or car payments for several month leading up to the point at which she ripped off her husband AND the bank. as I said before I want more info.
found this on another site "the mother will possibly be charged of panic or interference with custody."
steve, what are all the felonies? maybe stealing from the bank was something she decided at the last minute. as far as not taking her meds. we really don't know how much meds she was on. maybe when she decided to leave her husband, she didn't need them anymore. cleaning out the family accounts is something i would do if i decided to leave my abusive husband. to me, that would be a good payback for him. stealing from the bank NO! maybe he is lucky she didn't snap and shoot him. women are getting even that way now.
wow, this is impossible to respond to-half of what you said is insinuated or inaccurate and a good deal of it is your opinion "They tend to give harsher sentences when anti-depressants are involved" makes it sound like you have personally kept track of the tens of thousands of cases each year-and I am not buying it-as well as sounding like you have something against doctors that prescribe these meds " the doctor blames the person or the condition" which is just not true. are their some crap doctors? Yeah, but that's hardly an indictment of the field as a whole. What about all the irresponsible patients who lie and give misinformation to their doctors? or who incorrectly report symptoms? or who don't follow up? is that the fault of the doctors and the pharmaceutical industry too?
c'mon! the problem is that EVERYONE seemingly wants to pass the buck. Some of these drugs are lifesavers. as I said above I will follow this case and her trial(which there will be because she committed more than one felony and crossed state lines) and you do the same and we'll both see what kind of truth comes out of it.
Yes, in a perfect world, the person who was experiencing drug - induced mania or psychosis would report this to the doctor. But, people who experience those mental states usually do not report them b/c they feel that there is nothing wrong with them and are only interested in avoiding treatment. Additionally, most of the time if mental side effects are experienced, the doctor blames the person or the condition (after all, they prescribed the drug, so it can't be that) and will up the dose or add more drugs.
I would be very interested in what you have to say about the fact that they did not work for you, but millions of people love them and consider them "live-savers." Even by your own personal experience, they don't affect all people the same.
Lastly, the court system is part of the govt., of which the FDA and govt. run departments of mental health are also. They are probably not going to disagree with themselves. They tend to give harsher sentences when anti-depressants are involved, even when the most heniously neglegent health care is provided like cases such as Melissa Huckaby, Rebecca Riley, David Ragsdale.
I even saw court documents on a VA case (don't remember the name) where a court appointed psychologist determined that a man would not have killed his wife if he had not been on anti-depressants at the time. He made numerous attempts to get an appointment and attempted to have himself committed b/c of mental issues while on numerous psych meds and was turned away by the clinic. The judge gave him 25 years.
The courts are harsher on these cases b/c it doesn't serve their purposes for anyone to get out and tell their story.
that is pretty much what I am getting at. When I was taking medication for depression, I was told "if you see any signs of side effects contact your doctor" which meant I needed to be the one who would bring that issue up. In this case, unless she can prove beyond reasonable doubt that every single act she did was 'due to drug reaction'-which I still don't buy-then this is going to be laughed at in court. If you have ever watched someone with drug induced mania-its a a fairly extreme change from their normal behavior-but even those people will notice the change in their own personalities-as do the people around them. and I am sorry but I find it hard to believe she was able to hold down a down a job as a bank teller and also be 'manic' from meds as bank tellers are pretty heavily scrutinized and deal with the public all day. I think I will follow up on this case because I would LOVE to find out what her excuse is.
I was on lots of meds as a teen here and there- Said meds have been blamed for this and that killing from messed up teens. If I didn't get pushed over the edge I'm not buying the crap of blaming the meds. When I was preggy hormonal I was still responsible for MY actions. When I was taking anti-sad pills I was still responsible for MY actions. Drugs, perscribed or not, are not an excuse. Why?!?! you either are YOU or let the elements take ahold. we as humans KNOW that pills alter who you are- however at the base you are still cohearent and functioning. it's when you overdose on ANY thing (pills, street drugs, booze) that your mind super saturates and you get to be black-out or not 'you' anymore....
my partner is a clinical psychiatrist and we've discussed this exact issue many times-including his testifying in a court of law. I don't want to get drawn into a debate about the pharmaceutical industry-everyone knows they're only interested in making money and protecting their asses-but you can't always blame drugs for everything either-and again, just based on what I am reading in this article hardly give credence to a medication driven case of mania. there are too many other factors we don't know about to 'blame' the medications, or the medications alone.
The proof is on the package insert which contains a list of potentional side effects that is quite large. Mania or akathsia is one of them and can be ongoing. If we are to expect people to take responsibility for their actions, why are pharmaceutical companies and the FDA protected from lawsuits by the govt. due to pre-emption? Shouldn't all their information be 100% true, accurate and their drugs be top-noch?
wow!! So your a thief and a liar, you clearly couldn't have been that depressed as you planned robbing everyone blind.
it is possible for the husband to be a part of it, people can only take so much. and abusers dont show the abuse to everyone...YOU can know one person so very well but things happen and people slip into holes they try to hide... is it possible , yes it sure is. maybe he found all the money gone the letters and all the depression was getting to him to and did away with it, making a story out of it..but it is possible she just was tired of feeling the way she did and simply lft and reinvented hersel along with her boy, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.....hello readers look at the kind of scary crazy stories we find on here, seriously anything could have happened or can happen, no one can say untill tey are found and know from her...god bless the family and friends of te family and may god take them under his wing and help with whatever they may need
I'm glad to hear that she and the boy are presumed okay, but it just goes to show that you don't always know someone as well as you thought you did. I think she's awful to scare her family and friends like that, especially putting them in fear for the little boys life too. If she had sent the goodbye letters she wrote, all of this worry could have been avoided. I do wonder why she felt the need to get away so quickly and quietly though. If she hadn't stolen money from the credit union she would have had a better chance to remain hidden. Hope they really are okay.
Well aside from the charges she may face from the bank...maybe they will both turn up safely.
Because missing children should always be reported. And when they are reported, the more their news gets out there, the more likely they are found. Why do you even come to this site?
