photo gallery

Murder of Alex Spourdalakis

Over the weekend of June 8-9, 2013, Alex Spourdalakis, a then-14-year-old severely autistic boy from River Grove, Illinois, was found dead in his apartment.

Suspicions quickly fell on his mother, Dorothy Spourdalakis, age 50, as well as his caregiver, Jolanta Agata Skrodzka, age 44, because, authorities said, they had been frustrated with dealing with his autism. Additional motives proposed by the plaintiffs include that Dorothy and Jolanta may have felt that Alex was not getting sufficient care for his autism and wanted to put him out of his misery.

On the following Tuesday, Dorothy was ordered held without bond on charges of first-degree murder. The plaintiffs also stated that, though Alex was stabbed to death, that Dorothy and Jolanta had originally plotted to kill him with sleeping pills.

The allegations state that Dorothy stabbed Alex four times in the chest, before handing the knife to Jolanta, who then, investigators say, used the same knife to kill the family cat. The two then tried to commit suicide by taking a large quantity of sleeping pills; they did not succeed.

On June 9, River Grove police found Spourdalakis and Skrodzka unconscious and locked in Alex's bedroom with his body. Dorothy Spourdalakis's attorney, Michael Botti, has said he is considering an insanity defense, saying, "Every door closed, she had nowhere to go. She had nowhere to take her son, there's no help for him."

Background

Alex, who weighed about 225 pounds, was sent to the hospital the previous year after developing uncontrollable fits of violence. While there, Dorothy has said he was left in four-point restraints for 12 days. Prior to his death the police in River Grove were already very familiar with him, since they had frequently been called to his apartment to help restrain him. Additionally, in May, Andrew Wakefield had visited Alex and made an appeal video on YouTube requesting a home for Alex, saying that if they could not find one soon, that Alex would be taken away from his mother.

Wikipedia.org

 

'Alex will not suffer under the system': How mother killed her autistic teenage son after he was restrained in a hospital bed for 12 DAYS by doctors who couldn't understand he had a serious stomach illness

• Mother Dorothy Spourdalakis campaigned for Alex to be removed from the hospital so he could receive better care

• Disgraced British autism researcher Andrew Wakefield recorded a YouTube request for help so Alex would not be committed to a psychiatric ward

• After Alex left the hospital, Spourdalakis and his godmother Jolanta Agatha Skrodzka looked after him 24 hours a day

• Police say the women became overwhelmed when Alex's condition deteriorated outside the hospital

• Gastric specialist diagnosed Alex with a condition where he had a myriad of small lesions in his stomach that caused him severe pain

By Michael Zennie and Snejana Farberov

August 31, 2013

The desperation of a mother who killed her severely autistic 14-year-old son after doctors could not figure out why he was in pain has been revealed in a heart-breaking handwritten note.

Dorothy Spourdalakis and her relative Jolanta Agat Skordzka, both of Chicago, were charged with first-degree murder in June after investigators said the women stabbed Spourdalakis’ son, Alex, to death in a failed murder-suicide plot.

In a note that the mother wrote before trying to end her life, Spourdalakis accused the medical community of neglecting her son, keeping him restrained 'like an animal,' and treating him with psychiatric drugs that made his condition worse.

Spourdalakis removed Alex from Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital this past spring and brought him to live with her in River Grove, Illinois, after claiming that her son was neglected and abused at the hospital.

Weeks later, Spourdalakis and Skrodzka found themselves unable to handle the responsibilities of providing Alex with the 24/7 care he required.

Convinced that no one could help the boy, whose condition had deteriorated since he came to live with them, the two desperate women allegedly made a suicide pact and decided to kill him to spare the boy further suffering.

Investigators say Spourdalakis stabbed her son in the chest several times, then slashed his wrist, nearly severing his hand, and then took a large quantity of sleeping pills along with Skordzka.

The women, however, survived the suicide attempt and were charged with murder.

A new documentary produced by the Autism Media Channel has shed light on the months leading up to the autistic teenager's death – a time which his mother and godmother spent struggling to care for him around the clock and figure out what was ailing him.

While staying at home with his caretakers, Alex , a 200-pound non-verbal autistic boy, developed uncontrollable fits of violence, during which he would kick, thrash about and bite those who approached him. River Grove Police Chief Roger Loni told CBS News that it took six to eight paramedics to subdue him.

Alex's mother believed that her son's violent behavior was caused be severe stomach pains, but according to the woman, doctors did not provide a diagnosis. Instead, the 44-year-old mother said that her severely disabled son was left in four-point restrains in the emergency room for 12 days.

During his confinement, the 14-year-old would often writhe in pain on the gurney while his mother washed his feet, fed him and slept on the floor by his side.

CBS reported that three months before Alex's death, Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital was cited for wrongly keeping the teenager restrained without doctor's orders.

Finally, help came from a gastric specialist in New York who confirmed Dorothy Spourdalakis’ fears when he discovered that Alex's stomach was studded with a myriad of tiny ulcers that caused him severe pain.

While the family pursued treatment, Alex's caretakers were growing increasingly desperate. His mother said that no hospital would keep her son, and her insurance company refused to cover the cost of his medical care.

In one email, the anguished woman wrote in part: 'Alex has been forgotten... I don't have a safety net so I could help him recover.'

Dorothy's attorney, Michael Botti, said of his client that she was out of options and had nowhere to go for help.

Before the woman and Alex's godmother ingested sleeping pills in a failed attempt to end their lives, Spourdalakis left a handwritten suicide note explaining why, in her opinion, her son was better off dead.

'Alex will no longer be treated like and animal,' she wrote, 'or subjected to restraints.'

The letter noted that 'Alex will not suffer under the system 'and 'will not be neglected and abused by the medical community any more.'

The woman also claimed that her son was being treated as 'retarded or less than human' just because he was disabled, and that as a way of treatment, he was being stuffed with psychiatric drugs 'that made him crazy.'

This week, Spourdalakis was ordered held without bond. Her attorney is considering going the route of an insanity defense in the case.

Dorothy Spourdalakis had pleaded for financial help this spring to remove her son Alex from hospitals in Chicago, where she claimed he was neglected and abused. Controversial British autism researcher Andrew Wakefield personally recorded a YouTube request for help last month to find Alex a home and said that he would be taken away from his mother if supporters didn't act.

After Wakefield's appeal, Alex left the hospital and was taken into Spourdalakis' care.

Weeks later, police say, Spourdalakis and his godmother and caretaker Skrodzka could no longer handle round-the-clock care for Alex because they believed the 200-pound teen's 'emotional condition had worsened' since he was removed from the hospital.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Spourdalakis and Skrodzka planned a suicide pact in their cramped apartment above a plumber in River Grove, Illinois.

They first allegedly tried to kill Alex with sleeping pills. When that didn't work, police say, Alex's mother grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the teenage boy multiple times in the chest as he lay in bed, according to authorities. She then allegedly slashed the boy's wrist, nearly cutting off his hand.

Once Alex was dead, she handed the knife to Skrodzka, who used it to kill the family cat. A suicide note said the women killed the cat because they did not want it to go to a shelter.

The pair wiped off the knife and returned it to the butcher's block in the kitchen. The detailed their actions in a suicide note, according to authorities.

They then took sleeping pills with the intention of killing themselves and laid down in Alex's bedroom and locked the door, according to authorities.

The boy's father, who is separated from Spourdalakis, found Alex dead and the two women barely conscious after he went to the apartment when no one answered his repeated phone calls.

Spourdalakis, 50, and Skrodzka, 44, were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and then charged with first degree murder.

'The murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner,' Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Maureen O’Brien told the Tribune.

The two women had been publicly campaigning for Alex to receive better care since March, when Spourdalakis alleged in the autism activism site Age of Autism, that her son was mistreated at Loyola University Medical Center.

Days later, Spourdalakis wrote on Age of Autism that a donor had come forward and given her the money to let her take Alex away from the hospital. She said that the money allowed her to take Alex to get the care needed.

'We know no one will help us unless we help ourselves,' she wrote.

By May, he was back in the hospital and was facing long term psychiatric commitment.

Controversial British surgeon Andrew Wakefield also became involved, asking the 'autism community' to help find Alex a place to stay before he was put in 'long term psychiatric care.' He said Alex needed someone to provide a place where he could 'be on the necessary diet' and 'complete the treatment' for his autism.

Wakefield has been stricken from the British medical register. He is an autism researcher who claims to have found a link between the measles vaccine and autism - though his research was later discredited.

'He needs something simple in the country where he can run around and get the treatment that he needs so he can get better,' a beleaguered Spourdalakis said in a May interview with Autism Media Channel.

Wakefield responded to the MailOnline's story with the following statement:

'On Sunday May 26, members of the Autism Media Channel (AMC) went to the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. There we visited the late Alex Spourdalakis, his mother Dorothy, and his Godmother. Alex was in four-point restraint and apparently refusing to eat or drink.

His mother was beyond exhaustion and despair. The main reason for her despair was the prospect of Alex being sent to a long-stay psychiatric hospital and heavily medicated with behavior-altering drugs drugs without any treatment of his underlying medical problems.

AMC issued an appeal on Alex’s behalf to protect him from this fate. We did not, at any stage, advocate for his release from the Lutheran General Hospital.

The following day Dorothy informed us that the hospital could find nowhere that would take Alex and that his insurance carrier had refused to pay for any further inpatient care at the Lutheran General Hospital.

It appears that, as a consequence, he was discharged from that hospital despite his precarious position and that of his carers. It is our opinion that Alex’s tragic death reflects the abject failings of a medical system that has no effective answer to the autism crisis.'



 

Prosecutors say letter details slaying of autistic boy

River Grove women charged with murder described their actions in suicide note, officials say

By Joseph Ruzich - ChicagoTribune.com

June 12, 2013

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic River Grove boy and the child's full-time caregiver killed the boy because they believed he was suffering from deteriorating health, according to a letter prosecutors said the women wrote before they also tried to take their own lives.

The mother, Dorothy Spourdalakis, 50, and the caregiver, Jolanta Agata Skrodzka, 44, each were ordered held without bail Wednesday after being charged Tuesday in the stabbing death of Alex Spourdalakis.

Spourdalakis and Skrodzka initially tried to kill Alex on Friday evening with an overdose of prescribed sleeping pills because they believed his "emotional condition had deteriorated" after a recent prolonged illness, prosecutors at the Cook County courthouse in Maywood said. The women also believed he was receiving subpar medical treatment, prosecutors said.

When the drugs failed to kill the boy, described by police as "severely autistic," Spourdalakis stabbed him four times in the chest with a kitchen knife, including twice in the heart, and slit his wrist, prosecutors said.

Spourdalakis then gave the knife to Skrodzka, who killed the family cat, which the two women said in the letter they did not want sent to an animal pound after their deaths. The women then cleaned the bloody knife and returned it to the kitchen, prosecutors said.

When they were assured Alex was dead, they took several pills in an attempt to kill themselves, prosecutors said. They went into the boy's bedroom and locked the door.

Each woman is charged with first-degree murder. Both made statements admitting their roles in the killing, prosecutors said.

"The murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner," Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Maureen O'Brien said.

Prosecutors said Spourdalakis broached the murder-suicide plan with Skrodzka, who also was the boy's godmother, and Skrodzka agreed to help. Skrodzka had received medical training in Poland, prosecutors said.

The women appeared in court in blue scrublike outfits and were not wearing shoes. The no-bail order was issued by Cook County Judge Thomas Tucker.

Alex had multiple wounds when he was discovered Sunday afternoon in his bed in the second-story apartment on West Grand Avenue, River Grove police Chief Rodger Loni said.

The two women were found in a semiconscious state, police said.

Alex was found when his father and uncle went to the apartment after failing to reach anyone there by phone, Loni said. The boy's parents are separated, the chief said. The mother and his caregiver were taken to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital on Sunday and released Tuesday, officials said.

Authorities said the women had "issues" including "frustration" with the condition and care of Alex, including dealing with his autism. In a TV news report three months ago, the boy's mother accused a local hospital of neglecting and mistreating her son.

According to Loni, officers had been to the apartment numerous times to assist with transporting the boy to medical appointments.

"He was big and strong and unwilling to go to the doctor," said Loni, who said the teen weighed more than 200 pounds. "We had to restrain and hold him down."

Dave Clarkin, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, said the agency received an abuse allegation regarding the youth in January but determined the accusation to be unfounded. The agency offered the family support services, but the offer was not accepted, he said.

The family residence is in a two-story brick building that has a plumbing business on the first floor.



 

Prosecutors: Autistic boy killed because of deteriorating 'emotional condition'

By Joseph Ruzich - ChicagoTribune.com

June 12, 2013

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic River Grove boy and the child’s full-time caregiver explained in a suicide letter that they killed the boy because his emotional condition had deteriorated after a prolonged illness, prosecutors said today.

The child’s mother, Dorothy Spourdalakis, 50, and the caregiver, Jolanta Agata Skrodzka, 44, each were ordered held without bail this morning after being charged in the stabbing death of the teen.

Spourdalakis and Skrodzka initially tried to kill Alex Spourdalakis on Friday with an overdose of prescribed sleeping pills because they believed that his "emotional condition had deteriorated" after a recent prolonged illness, prosecutors said at the Cook County courthouse in Maywood said today. They also believed he was receiving subpar medical treatment, prosecutors said.

When the drugs failed to kill the boy, described by police as “severely autistic,” Dorothy Spourdalakis stabbed him four times in the chest with a kitchen knife, including twice in the heart, and then slit his wrist, almost severing his hand, prosecutors said.

Spourdalakis then gave the knife to the caregiver, who killed the family cat, which the two women said in the letter they did not want sent to a pound after their deaths. The women then cleaned the bloody knife and returned it to the butcher block, prosecutors said.

When the women were assured Alex was dead, they took several pills in an attempt to kill themselves, prosecutors said. They then went into the boy’s bedroom and locked the door.
Both women signed statements admitting their roles in the murder, prosecutors said.

“The murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner,” Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Maureen O’Brien said.

Prosecutors said Dorothy Spourdalakis initally discussed the plan with Skrodzka, who also was the boy’s godmother, and Skrodzka agreed to help.

Each woman is charged with first-degree murder and they were ordered held without bail. The women appeared in court in blue scrub-like outfits and were not wearing shoes.

Alex Spourdalakis had multiple wounds when discovered in his bed in the second-story apartment on West Grand Avenue Sunday afternoon, River Grove police Chief Rodger Loni said.

The two women were found in a semi-conscious state, police said Monday.

Authorities said the women had “issues” including “frustration” with the condition and care of the child including dealing with his with autism.

Alex was found when his father, who is separated from his mother, and his uncle went to the apartment after failing to reach anyone by phone, Loni said. The mother and the caregiver were taken to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, officials said. They were released from the hospital on Tuesday, the day they were charged with murder.

According to Loni, officers had been to the apartment numerous times to assist with transporting the boy to medical appointments. Loni said he was “severely autistic.”

“He was big and strong and unwilling to go to the doctor,” said Loni, who said the teen weighed more than 200 pounds. “We had to restrain and hold him down.”

DCFS spokesman Dave Clarkin said the agency received an abuse allegation regarding the youth in January but determined the accusation to be unfounded. The agency offered the family support services, but the offer was not accepted, he said.

The boy's mother three months ago accused a local hospital of neglecting and mistreating her son in TV news report.

The family residence is in a two-story brick building that has a plumbing business on the first floor.