I just finished reading my Saturday morning newspaper and decided to post this story from the Columbus Dispatch.
It is very sad. The end of the story has the JW twist.
Comatose woman raped, police say Saturday, July 20, 2002 Jodi Nirode THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Police say Robert McColgan, 51, of New Rome repeatedly raped Paula Carter, 33, while she lay in an insulin-induced coma. Doctors don't expect her to survive, her mother says.
Paula Carter
Descending the seven stairs to her daughter's West Side apartment, Kay Caldwell was confronted by police crime-scene tape -- and prayed that her nagging maternal instincts had been wrong.
For weeks, Caldwell had feared that her 33-year-old daughter, Paula Carter, was sinking deeper into depression.
But at her daughter's urging, Caldwell agreed to wait until June 19 -- when school was over -- before coming to Columbus to take Paula Carter and Carter's son, Austin Stewart, back with her to Alabama.
She was two days too late.
In the early hours of June 17, while 8-year-old Austin was with his father, Carter slipped into a coma from one or more insulin shots.
For 14 hours, police say, the single mother lay in her apartment, convulsing from seizures.
The pain of not having been there to help her daughter is excruciating, Caldwell said.
But what is worse is knowing who was -- and what he was doing.
Columbus police say Robert McColgan, 51, of New Rome lay beside Carter and repeatedly raped and fondled her while she was in a coma.
A friend of Carter's found her naked with McColgan about 2:30 p.m. June 17, police say. The friend went for help from the Wedgewood Village Apartment staff, said detective Jason Pappas of the Columbus police sexual-abuse squad.
When the friend returned with others, McColgan still was fondling Carter, Pappas said. Police were called.
"Not calling for help. What's that?'' Caldwell asked of McColgan. "That's not human. I've picked dogs off the street and taken them to vets. You don't just let someone lay there and die.''
McColgan has pleaded not guilty to six counts of rape and two counts each of gross sexual imposition and sexual battery. He is being held in the Franklin County jail on $250,000 bond.
Additional charges could be filed. That's because Carter is not expected to live, her mother said.
At Doctors West, tubes continue to feed Carter and supply pain medication in her hospital bed, but the ventilator that helped her breathe is gone.
Doctors weaned her from it last week, but they don't hold out hope, because "she has shown no improvement since she's been there,'' her mother said.
"Probably what will happen is she'll have an infection she won't be able to fight off or pneumonia will set in,'' Caldwell said from a West Side hotel where she sleeps after sitting each day beside her daughter's bed.
Meanwhile, Columbus homicide detectives continue to investigate.
They want to know where the insulin came from and how much was injected.
"If she passes away, the coroner will do an autopsy,'' said homicide Sgt. Eric Pilya. "And what we do depends in large part on what the coroner finds.''
It's not known whether Carter injected herself with insulin or someone else did.
Carter was convinced she was diabetic, though she'd never had such a diagnosis. "She only assumed she was because I am and my mother is.''
It's unclear how McColgan knew Carter -- if at all.
Police say she met him the day before she fell into a coma.
A woman who identified herself as Robert McColgan's wife at their home said that he had been delivering a door-to-door advertising supplement at Carter's apartment.
"He told me he didn't do it, and I believe him,'' his wife said.
McColgan has no criminal record in Franklin County.
Carter wasn't without problems, her mother said.
Carter's son went to live with his father in Shelby County in May after she slapped Austin in the face and pointed a pocket knife at him. Domestic-violence charges were filed.
Carter was receiving psychiatric help. Her mother said that depression was eroding every part of her daughter's life, including making her think that she needed insulin for diabetes.
Part of the problem was that Carter had felt lost in Columbus since she moved here in late April. Born and raised in Shelby County, Carter had lived almost all of her life in small towns.
Caldwell said she thinks that if she had been here, her daughter would have received better mental-health care.
Not heeding her maternal instincts is haunting Caldwell. "I feel I should have been more persistent,'' she said, sobbing.
She takes strength from her Jehovah's Witness faith and the work she is doing to gain custody of her grandson. Austin's father is in jail on an unrelated charge.
Caldwell said she tells her story in the hope that other parents might become more involved in their children's life when there are problems -- before it's too late.
"If they tell you 'no,' keep trying,'' she said, "because I don't want them going through what I'm going through.''
Dispatch Staff Reporter Dean Narciso contributed to this story.
The poor woman. This story was just reported and it happened weeks ago. I cannot believe that they just reported this.
I feel really sorry for the child. With the mother gone and the father in jail, the JW grandmother is sure to get custody.