Waco, TX and Milwaukee, WI - This story is sad and messed up on a number of levels, and many of you know I don’t say that lightly. So hang on to your chairs and get some Kleenex, because this one’s just like that.
Last Friday, Alisa Lorraine Evans, 38, put her two-week old fraternal twins, Josiah and David Smith, into a bathtub in her mother’s Milwaukee home. Then she waited for the babies to stop struggling.
Evans’ mother, Joyce Smith, told police that she came home from errands on Friday and found the twin babies on a bathroom floor. Alisa Evans was sitting on the edge of the tub and just “raised her arms as if she was in distress”. The grandmother took the babies to the next room and called 911. Baby David was pronounced dead at a Milwaukee hospital on Friday. As of this writing, Josiah is still alive.
Alisa Evans told police that she’d been talking to herself most of Friday, trying to make the feelings in her head go away. She’d been depressed, she said. When police asked her why, she told them about her other son, Jonathon David Smith.
Jon “J.” Smith was shot in the head and killed on October 31, 2007. A Waco High School basketball player, he’d been on a friend’s porch in Waco, Texas, where he lived with his stepfather. Jon and friends were hanging around, handing out Halloween candy, when Jon’s friend Demarcus Rashad Alexander, 17, started playing with a handgun he’d brought with him. Jon was shot accidentally and died shortly thereafter at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco. A memorial Myspace page was set up for “J.” by his friends.
That Myspace page is significant because the profile information in it asks for extra support for “Mrs. Lisa and Vince”. “Mrs. Lisa” appears to be Alisa Evans, J.’s mother. More than that, Alisa Evans may also have been a grandmother - Jon appears to have had a son. Evans did not react well at all to the loss of Jon. Already pregnant with fraternal twins, recently separated from her husband and living with her mother in Milwaukee, she sunk deeply into depression.
Evans’ mother told police that her daughter had “been talking about hurting herself for some time.” Why there was no help for Alisa Evans, I don’t know. Her depression only increased after the birth of her twin boys, one of whom she named “David” to honor Jon. Police say that Evans had been talking out loud on Friday with the hope “that by talking about it, things might get better”. Instead, things got worse. Evans said she had filled the tub with water but then drained it before filling it up again.
“Defendant did not want a temporary solution, she wanted something permanent. She wanted the children to go to Heaven,” police said. Evans was in the Milwaukee County Jail Monday with bail set at $500,000 for one count of intentional homicide, and one count of attempted homicide.
16 responses so far ↓
1
LL44
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:20 am -so sad. why didn’t anyone help her?
2
ballgirl
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:30 am -WTF! She was in serious need of some professional help. How can her mom and friends not see something tragic like this coming? Coupled with grieving for the loss of her oldest son, she probably had some serious post-partum depression. Them out-of-control hormones can whack a sista out! Tragic & sad…
3
ells9824
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:36 am -This is awful. Obviously in need of mental help and let it be known, but no one did anything.
Why I am more willing to give her a pass than the lady from yesterday who did the same thing, I have no idea, but I would opt to stick her in an institution before I put her in prison.
4
LL44
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:39 am -ells - i feel the same, but i think it was the loss of her older son & recent separation coupled with the crazy burden of raising twins alone, that invokes MY sympathy.
5
ells9824
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:42 am -Granted, we don’t have a physical picture of Alisa to look at, but the picture Imp painted with her words is horrifying. The lady from yesterday just looked cold and inconvenienced to me. I dunno….
6
impqueen
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:47 am -I’m going through all kinds of pages looking for a picture of Alisa Evans - I’ve even verified that her Texas LVN license lapsed last August. So hopefully I’ll have a shot of her and/or her babies soon.
I’m a little more willing to feel sympathy for Alisa in this case. She was so overwhelmed, grieving, and it wasn’t like she didn’t tell anyone.
7
ells9824
Jan 22, 2008 at 12:26 pm -I looked high and low, as well. I found a video of her in the police car, but you can just see the shape of her and that she is crying. Her mother looks absolutely heart broken, though.
http://www.cbs58.com/index.php?aid=1575
8
Sherbear
Jan 22, 2008 at 1:49 pm -I saw this on the news and was dumb founded. She should have gotten help. Her mother knew she was having a hard time. Someone should have tried to help.
2 weeks old. Damn. I can not believe it.
9
Miss. Hill
Jan 22, 2008 at 2:22 pm -The grandmother should not have left her unattended! I do feel for her it’s hard to understand the rationality of hurting from losing one child to taking attempting / taking the lives of the twins? I would think I would look at them as a reason to live. She truly needed / needs help.
10
Nyrak
Jan 22, 2008 at 4:05 pm -I live in Milwaukee and just heard about this story this morning. I know she was depressed about losing her son in TX, and she was talking about killing herself, she wanted the babies to go to heaven to be with their brother.
Why her mother didn’t do anything, I don’t know. She had been telling her she was depressed…why wouldn’t her mother do something to at least try to help her?
11
dammitall
Jan 22, 2008 at 5:16 pm -Okay, I finally understand why kids hate bathtime.
12
carie215
Jan 22, 2008 at 8:11 pm -This is simply sad. Sick, maybe…but definitely sad. Post-partum depression is VERY real and VERY disagnosable and treatable. If people are willing to recognize the signs and insist on treatment for their loved ones! I think this lady Alisa was clearly out of her mind…no excuse for killing the kids, but I think she was sick and needed and could have gotten help had anyone cared to step up!
13
ERnurse
Jan 22, 2008 at 9:50 pm -I’m beginning to think family members just don’t know where to go to get help. I can’t believe that they aren’t worried and feeling helpless. I guess there is just not enough information out there for more people to know. Seems like people should have a psych evaluation upon leaving the hospital and another one 1 week later. Names,numbers, should be given to patient and family members. Maybe a post-partum support organization like AA for new moms? I don’t know, I’m just brainstorming.
14
WryBread
Jan 23, 2008 at 8:28 am -I think people go into denial about family members’ situations. They just try to get through the day and hope “something” will happen. It may be, too, that they try to get the person help and the person resists. That’s their “right” until they harm themselves or others. In this case it was others. This story is heartbreaking.
15
Athena
Jan 23, 2008 at 1:44 pm -Having been in the family of someone who obviously needs psychiatric help, I will state for the record that, sometimes, even when the effort is made, that help can be incredibly hard to get.
Granted, this is a much different situation, but, a couple of years ago, my boyfriend’s brother was suffering from drug-induced psychosis. He was clearly troubled - speaking in “tongues”, violent mood swings, manic behavior, etc. After researching and speaking with plenty of professionals, it looked as though our only option was to attempt to sign him over to the state, as we could not force him to receive treatment against his will. That was no option, however.
Luckily, everything turned out well. We kept him off the drugs with constant supervision and he eventually pulled out of it. But had he not…We didn’t have many options.
16
mo.armymom
Jan 24, 2008 at 12:34 am -My heart is breaking for this woman. I’m not one to stand up for child killers, but this one is different. This poor woman was crying out for help, and no one listened. She and her children were failed. What about her obgyn, and of course her mom. This could have been prevented. It just makes me ill.
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