Mother's Murder/Suicide Letter

When I checked my mail around three this afternoon, I found an envelope marked "urgent" from a viewer in Livermore.  I opened it and started to read. "Dear Mr. Noyes:  This letter is an explanation in the deaths of my daughter and myself.  A murder/suicide." 

I have to admit it took several minutes for it to sink in -- I often receive letters with complaints that turn out to be invalid, with descriptions of imagined conspiracies.  But, the detail in this letter was too real. 

 

For five pages, Diana Harden described the fifteen-year ordeal she and her daughter endured.  Yvette Harden became a quadriplegic and suffered brain injuries in a car accident when she was 28.  Her mother admitted she was a difficult patient, but says nursing home workers abused her.  Yvette bounced from one nursing home to the next; Diana tried to bring her home and care for her, but the job proved to be too difficult.  She finally sent her to Oakland Springs Health Center on 10th Avenue. 

Yvette lived there for six years, but Diana wrote that her daughter suffered abuse -- the nurses "tell her she's 'a fat pig' and that they 'hate taking care of her' and they wash her in the shower 'like a car, real hard', then they turn the cold water on to punish her.  When she screams, they turn it back before the charge nurse can get there."

The strain apparently became too much for the two of them.  Diana wrote, "I can't let her go on like this.  She has been begging me to end it for two years.  My health is failing and I don't want to leave her alone.  Please tell her story."  She signed the letter, "Diana Harden ... a Mother who grieves."

The first call I made was to Diana Harden's home in Livermore.  I heard her voice on an answering machine and left a message, something to the effect, "This is Dan from Channel 7, checking to see if you're okay."  The next call was to the nursing home, where an operator quickly patched me to the administrator, Charles Drake.

I told him I was checking on one of his patients; had a Ms. Harden passed away in the last week or so?  He answered, "I really can't talk about it." I pressed: "I'm not asking for comment; I just need to know yes or no, is she alive?"  He again said he couldn't comment, that there's an investigation underway.  Finally, he said I should call the Oakland police.

It was true.  (See our report from tonight here.)  Diana Harden walked into the nursing home last night after ten o'clock, pulled out a gun, killed her daughter and killed herself.  She had been planning it for some time -- her letter was dated August 26th; the postal stamp shows she mailed it Saturday, the day before the killings.

She left behind a long list of reasons.  We'll be following up in the days ahead.

Comments

[Deb]

This is heartbreaking. I can't imagine the anguish of the mother, and what led to her to do what she did. I know nothing about this nursing home but I do know that nursing homes, convalescent centers, and assisted living facilities in general are in need of better supervision, and dare I say, regulation. The residents in such facilities are so vulnerable. What can an "average citizen" do to help?

[robin]

Why weren't the daughter and the mother's assertions about abuse taken seriously? I wish she would have gotten in touch with you before it progressed this far Dan, you could have set up surveillance cameras to catch these fiends in the act. So sad...needless and sad.

[Hu]

Such a racket, "homes" have a bunch of lawyers. Consumer has no chance- and little has changed since my grandmom died 10yrs ago.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472746409]

I worked with Diana Harden for a number of years and remember all the trouble she had with her daughter, Yvette, even before the accident. Yvette had lost custody of her only child to Diana and was "acting out" when she crashed her car. Accident? We'll never know. But Diana tried her best to take care of her daughter. It was a nightmare (she also had custody of the five-year-old child who is now about twenty years old.)I hate the way it all ended...so violently...and with so much anger. I can't help but wonder what all this might have looked like if we had a national health plan.

[frances king]

I worked with yvette 3 years ago she was a good person loved for me to get her coke soda from the lounge every nite before I went home. such tragic loss.

[jacqueline.brunson]

please please !! tell this story!! maybe it's god will and some good may come out of this!! we never know where we or our love ones may end up!!!Nurseing home employee need to be stop !! people are human ,and not anmials!! they need to accoutable for their actions!!! yhey need to be charge with something!!

[C. Skinner]

It saddens me to hear of this news and I will always wonder why Diana did not look to other avenues for help. I believe Gods will is never to have his children take their own lives, and certainly not the lives of others. How awful for these stories of abuse and neglect to have had to be heard like THIS before any changes are made in these so called Nursing Homes! They should watch their employees the way that retail stores watch theirs! My heart goes out to Diana's daughter, her family and friends.

[joi]

This is for all workers in the nursing homes. We the caregiver, the mandated reporter, we'll always be the one the patient see, to talk to, doing care for them (eventhough the outsiders thinks its just a "job"). We're the one(caregivers) who get kicked, slapped, cursed and yelled at..but, still we have to do our job...patients care. But, the abused? We dont have to take that? But, since we took this position, being a nurse comes with understanding, patience, and most specially caring for them. Treat them like our family as they say. And, we do. This is a tragic and traumatizing especially to the family and our hearts goes out to them. All I want to point out is that don't judge us (caregivers) and dont put a conclusion that we are a "monster." thank you...just voicing out.

[sad]

I worked with patients in nursing homes when I had just reached employment age and can testify myself to the fact that they do suffer a great deal of abuse. I used to go home crying every night, planning my steps and trying to figure out ways to spend more time with patients, listening to them. The blame for this can only be equally distributed, because that's where it belongs in most cases I saw. It belongs to the families who warehoused their loved ones and never came to see them because of the unavoidable depression and guilt it caused them. It belonged to the administration of the nursing home, who refused to be honest with investors about the number of staff it would REALLY take to give the care recipients in the home the quality attentive care they deserved at the end of their lives. It belonged to the nurses who administered meds and dealt with the sickest and then turned their heads while aids cheated on their care routines to get the overwhelming amount of work assigned to them done. And it belonged to the aids who succumbed to the pressure from above and instead of speaking out and insisting on more help took their frustrations out on the helpless patients, babying some and abusing others at their whim, rather than risk losing their jobs by speaking out. And that is why I was fired in less than two months.

[United Christian Church]

I'm sorry Lady Di, that you did not give those around you (the church, your friends, loved ones) a chance to intervene on your behalf and that you felt the need to take matters in your own hands and in this way. You will be missed.

[AutismAwareness]

I live in So Cal. I came across this story thru my unions e-mail newsletter. It made me so sad, but I completely feel for this Mother and Daughter alike. It keeps me up every night, dreading the day I can no longer care for my Autistic son. These are what my nightmares are made of, the same type of situations this Mother had encountered with her child. It's bad enough that my son's Non-Public School covers up incidents, I guess this is just things to come for us. All the complaining and constant demand for change or compassion falls on deaf ears. There are always those aides who touch your heart thru their extra caring ways, but they are the ones who are deemed troublemakers when they get to involved with us and try to help! My son has been in and out of Pscyhiatric Centers for 72 hour holds when he endangers himself and he is only 15, but has the mental capacity of a 5 year old child. I would visit and he would be so medicated he would be drooling. Not to mention his underwear full of feces and his hair so mated it had to be cut. This was short term care people!! Also, he had injured himself onetime and went from the ER to the clinic, and was still bloody days later, because he wasn't cleaned up by the staff. Amazing. Again, short term care. Can you imagine what type of long term care he'd be getting? I don't condone taking lives, but I can understand this Mom's pain. I couldn't imagine having to put my son in the hands of those who really don't give a damn about him. He needs bowel care, no one gets paid enough to wipe some guys butt! It will wear thin eventually. Sorry for venting, but as a Mother, the pain is so intense when our children are disabled. Unfortunately she had found that this was her only way out. Rest In Peace. I'm so sorry.

[passing a drug test]

Nice Post I already digged this,i have posted your blog on my site

[Nursing tank]

Thanks for the post, it's really very helpful!

[C. Gibson]

I new the family many years ago, and hearing about this made my heart just sink. My prayers go out to the family and I really hope peace has come to Yvette and Diana.

[gaymanhadenough]

The term autistic has been misused to describe persons with anything from cerebral allergies and schizophrenia to attention deficient disorder and post traumatic disorder. Sadly, few doctors and educators understand true cases of autism to make a correct diagnosis. So they go with the latest media driven flow. Pick and choose from a broad and ever expanding spectrum. Or worse, they guess. The hallmark traits of autism are: sensitivity to sounds, specific tastes in food/drink, strange body postures, repetitive behaviors, inability to control emotions or excitement, poor reasoning skills, needs routines, resists changes, sense of direction and memory better than other skills, thinking based on association, not reasoning, once distracted by olfactory, visual or auditory stimuli, they become preoccupied. This is markedly DIFFERENT than ADHD, in that ADHD presents as easily distracted by stimuli, BUT, the person bounces focus from one thing to another. ADHD people don’t stay hyper-focused or fixate on something. That is what you will see a truly autistic person do. Fixate. Appear to be in a world of their own. Not wanting to play or socialize with others. Not wanting to play or socialize with others is only a hallmark trait of autism when it ALSO involves, not willfully choosing to ignore or not play with others. A truly autistic person doesn’t choose to not play or socialize, it’s simply who they are-- not to play or socialize with others—is in itself the core of autism—within oneself. They may show signs of affection or social skills, but it will almost always be brief. FYI: jenny mccarthy's kid was never autistic, is not autistic. Much like the mother who wrote the book about "tony" the allegedly autistic kid she cured, yeah right. Turned out "tony" had a rare cerebral allergy to milk...he was never autistic..and yes, years from now we will all know that McCarthy is yet another FRAUD who poses as a mother of an autistic son who was cured, but the truth is, he never had autism.....what a racket, what a scam , what a disgrace and slap in face to all families who are dealing with authentic autism as you can see on youtube when you type in autism and seizures or autism and self injury.....

[Tony]

We often overlook the criminal activities of "sticks and stones", "sit and lie", organized nuisances of; noise campaigns, vandalisms, street theater, illegal surveillance, smearing of character, well orchestrated entrapment..etc...

When these activities become organized and for hire, it can and will destory a lot of innocent people...

http://www.sherlockinvestigations.com/index.php?page=celebrity-stalking-cases