Body of Murdered 8-Year-old Boy Lies Unclaimed in City Morgue
The Autism News | English
Gigi Jordan was desperate to find a cure for her son’s severe autism according to reports. (DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero)
By Nina Mandell | DNAinfo
Nearly three days after the shocking murder of an 8-year-old autistic boy in the Peninsula Hotel, his body sits unclaimed in the Medical Examiner’s morgue.
His mother, Gigi Jordan, a wealthy pharmaceutical executive, is locked in a psychiatric ward at Elmhurst Hospital, in Queens, awaiting arraignment on charges she murdered the little boy called Jude Michael Mirra with a drug overdose.
His biological father, who had not seen Jude in years and gave up custody so he could be adopted by Jordan’s second husband, lives in California.
“Jude is alone. Nobody has identified his body,” the father, Emil Tzekov, told the New York Post.
As Jude waited to be claimed, friends and family described how Jordan had become increasingly obsessed with finding a “cure” for his autism.
The wealthy pharmaceutical executive “went to clinics all over the country looking for a treatment, grasping at straws,” one source told the New York Daily News about Jordan’s erratic behavior.
A friend told DNAinfo on Friday that Gigi had devoted herself to researching the disease, even as her marriages to two men crumbled.
On Friday, a relative in Belgium called police after Jordan sent an email threatening to kill herself and the child, which led the NYPD to track the pair to a room at the Peninsula Hotel, on Fifth Avenue.
Inside the room, police found little Jude dead on the bed and his mother lying on the floor, barely alive, next to him. Police said she had killed the boy by feeding him a drug overdose.
Jordan has been charged with murder in the second degree.
The woman described in reports had become withdrawn and desperate over the past few years. Friends also told the News that Jordan cut all ties six months ago as she became increasingly desperate to fix her son’s condition.
She once claimed her child was being molested by a satanic cult and was detained by Wyoming police, authorities told the New York Post.
She also made similar claims in a rambling letter to a Wyoming sex-crimes investigator, and more recently in a rambling 20-page suicide note the Post said.
Jordan also indicated the mob was after her, according the report.
Source: http://www.dnainfo.com/20100208/midtown-west-hells-kitchen/body-of-murdered-8yearold-boy-lies-unclaimed-city-morgue
Report from Associated Press:
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Carissa Toscano Garabedian
Tragic. Such a shame.
Geoffery Beeson
Abbie Rich
What this really shows in the recent line of parents killing their autistic children is that there is really NO support system out there that is easy to find for parents. When you have people who tell you that autism isnt real…that you have done something to your child, it is sad. In my own life my father in law told me that I had done something to my kids to make them the way they are. I think the issue is no one wants to “label” autism because they are so obsessed with breaking it down into “types”. Its so hard because autism isnt a disease that can be “seen”, like down syndrome, or blindeness, a hearing aide in an ear….my aspergers boys on the outside look “normal”…so obviously I have just caused them mental issues….
Laura Barbuto DeAngelo
From the article it sounds like the situation was more complicated than it might seem at first – the mother apparently had some sort of mental illness – sounds like paranoid schizophrenia. I think it will be hard to tease out cause and effect. Did the stresses related to her son’s condition cause her mental illness? Probably not – but no doubt the stresses made the condition worse. God bless the child. And the mom.
Tre Benson
The invisadisability of autism.
Stork Dok
Maybe this is cynical but I wonder if she is going to claim mental incompetence? That poor child. Doesn’t he have any relatives in the USA to claim his body?
Carissa Toscano Garabedian
I read that his natural father will be coming to bring him to California
Beverly Misnik
This is very tragic, but I do have to agree it is hard enough raising a child with disabilities, but when your doing it as a single parent with very little support system it can be overwhelming. My son was diagnosed 8 years ago and still after 8 years all I get from my family is “he needs spanked or more discipline” ” I baby him too much” “Because I talk about his disabilities and take him to therapy, doctors, ect…I made him believe he has autism”. These are just a few of the responses and blame I get for why my son is the way he is. He has at least 8 different diagnosed disabilities, but it will always be something I did,didn’t do, or just my parenting in general that is why my son “acts” the way he does. That is what is tragic that in 2010 with all the information and proof ect.. that people especially family members still refuse to accept or even acknowledge the truth.
Sharon Fargo
The mother in this case was wealthy, and she isolated herself. It sounds like it wasn’t that she lacked support, so much as she rejected it. Because she was ILL. She’s no martyr. When are we going to say it’s wrong to kill your children? Even if they have a “terrible” syndrome? When will we say that the lives of the disabled are valuable? I’m sick of people who think autism is a fate worse than death. This is the logical outcome of that way of thinking.