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San Gabriel Valley Tribune
By RUBY GONZALES | rugonzales@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Authorities say they believe the deaths of a Monrovia mother and her baby fatally struck by a Metro train on Wednesday were the result of a murder-suicide.
The 36-year-old woman was carrying her 15-month-old son when she stepped in front of an L Line train, said Lt. Jaime Alfaro, who heads Monrovia’s police detective bureau.
He said she had a history of depression.
The collision happened near Duarte Road and California Avenue around 8:45 a.m.
The woman’s husband was at work when she walked from home to the train tracks, Alfaro said, bringing along her son.
The train engineer saw her walk into the train’s path but didn’t learn about the child, Alfaro said, until he was being checked out at a hospital.
“He was distraught,” the lieutenant said.
Public records show the woman was a nurse whose California license expired in 2018, after which she was raising her son. She had no record of discipline.
The Police Department, Alfaro said, can provide the public with phone numbers to programs for people needing help.
Mom, 36, ‘carried her 15-month-old baby into path of oncoming train in shocking murder-suicide’ — (The U.S. Sun)
A MOTHER carrying her 15-month-old son walked in front of a commuter train in what investigators are treating as a murder-suicide.
Therese Papagayo, 36, died along with the toddler at a railroad crossing in suburban Los Angeles.
A mother and baby were killed by a train at this crossing in Monrovia near Los AngelesCredit: Google
They were struck by a Los Angeles Metro ‘L’ train in the Monrovia district near Pasadena at 8.45am on Wednesday.
No one on board the train was hurt, sheriff’s office officials said.
A Los Angeles County coroner later ruled Papagayo’s death a suicide from “blunt force traumatic injuries”.
The Filipina mother crossed the railroad tracks on foot despite the cautionary bells indicating a train was coming, reports Monrovia Weekly.
Therese is said to have tried to throw her son out of harm’s way at the last moment, but they both died.
The train driver did not see the child and only learned two people had died later when he was being checked in hospital.
Heavy equipment was brought in to help raise the train and recover the bodies.
The Monrovia police department said they are treating the double death as a murder-suicide rather than an accident.