Mother Kills Self, Autistic Son, In Despair Over Debt, School Placement

What a terribly tragic story--our hearts go out to their family.


KENSINGTON, Md. -- Ben Barnhard finally had reason to be optimistic this summer: The 13-year-old shed more than 100 pounds at a rigorous weight-loss academy, a proud achievement for a boy who had endured classmates’ taunts about his obesity and who had sought solace in the quiet of his bedroom, with his pet black cat and the intricate origami designs he created.

But one month before school was to start for the special-needs teen, his mother, psychiatrist Margaret Jensvold, shot him in the head, then killed herself. Officers found their bodies on Aug. 2 in the bedrooms of their home in Kensington, Md., an upper-middle class Washington suburb. They also found a note.

“School — can’t deal with school system,” the letter began, Jensvold’s sister, Susan Slaughter, told The Associated Press.

And later: “Debt is bleeding me. Strangled by debt.”