According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, an Eagan woman under the influence of alcohol set fire to her home after writing her obituary and choosing the music for her funeral. While she claimed it was because her husband had been trying to kill her, she refused the officers’ requests for more information.
From the complaint:
Officers proceeded to the residence and entered through the front door. The house was full of smoke and officers did their best to search the residence for people and pets. No other people or pets were found in the residence. While in the residence officers located two different fires. One fire was in the living room where the curtains were on fire. The second fire was in an upstairs bedroom. The fire department was called to the scene and the fire was eventually extinguished.
[...]
Klatt told officers that her husband was trying to kill her; however, when officers asked atricia Joy Klatt additional questions Klatt responded that it was none of their “f*cking business.” It was later confirmed that Klatt’s husband had left the residence around midnight with one of their daughters after the initial disturbance and had not returned to the residence. Klatt was the only person at the residence at the time the fire was started.
An officer with the Eagan Police Department accompanied fire fighters into the residence after the fire had been extinguished to document the scene. The officer took photographs and noted that fire detectors appeared to have been tampered with and there was an obituary for Klatt written out on a table along with songs for her funeral. The fire marshal found at least two points of origin for the fire and perhaps three additional areas in two separate rooms where a fire had been started on lace curtains but failed to spread.
It is really sad when mental health issues spiral so far out of control that they so very seriously impact the lives of so many others. When someone gets desperate enough to kill themselves but is clearly so irrational that they would leave their obituary and list of funeral songs in the same home they planned to burn down, something has to be done to help that person towards recovery before it happens again.
Have you ever dealt with any mental health issues in your family or circle of friends? Have they ever impacted you as seriously as this incident did? Are you concerned that your “crazy neighbor” may actually do something like this to themselves and thus take out your house along with theirs? Do you worry for our public safety personnel who have to deal with these sorts of issues frequently? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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June 12th, 2012 at 7:43 am
My mothers side of the family has had several folks who have either committed suicide or attempted it. It’s always devestating. A couple years ago a senior in high school, classmate of my kids who lived at the end of our street hung himself in the garage. His mother found him. The family was wrecked, parents split, other sibling started getting into serious trouble with substances..
June 12th, 2012 at 7:50 am
Yes, this person is clearly mentally ill.
Any normal person would put the obituary on facebook before pretending to try to kill themselves.
June 12th, 2012 at 8:06 am
Yep. I’ve encountered within my circle people with depression (mixed in with the mess that is alcoholism), bipolar, and another with delusions (seeing things). It’s sad and trying for everyone concerned.
June 12th, 2012 at 9:51 am
I agree with lefty that she is mentally ill, and I expect that the county attorney’s criminal charges will simply add more problems for the family that is at its breaking point. She needs help, not jail time.
June 13th, 2012 at 6:54 am
A few days before his 50th birthday, my dad killed himself. He struggled with alcohol his entire adult life, complicated by degenerative disk disease.
On the law enforcement side, cops see up close and personal the toll of suicide. Not only do they have to deal with what goes on in general society, the suicide rate for cops is more than twice that of the general population, and MN has lost at least 3 cops to suicide in the past month and a half. It doesn’t make the news, though.
Cops who have been retired due to disability have an even higher rate. No one really keeps stats (retired cops are out of sight, out of mind), but estimates are in the range of 25 times the rate of the general population. Sadly, cities and counties are indifferent to this. If a disabled cop commits suicide, it is a money saver for them, because they don’t have to pay for the cop’s medical care anymore.