Father Texts Son For Final Time Before He Hanged Himself After Being Asked For Back Child Support
A 45-year-old father that didn’t know where else to turn ended up sending his son one final text before ending his life. Just hours after receiving a letter ordering the man to pay £11,000 (approximately $17,000) in back child support for his now adult son, Ian Sandywell sent his son a last message and then hanged himself.
“Delete me out of your life please. I’m going to hang myself.”
According to the Mirror, that was the text that Ian Sandywell sent his 22-year-old son, Ben. It would be the last time that anyone would ever hear from him as shortly after, he ended his life by hanging himself.
Hours later, Jo-Ann Balsamo, Sandywell’s wife, arrived home from work and found her husband dead in their garage.
The letter he received came from the Child Support Agency, and it was a demanding request for back payments of child support. The payments were requested for his son Ben on November 11 of last year.
According to Opposing Views, Balsamo said that Sandywell contacted her at her job around 12:30 p.m. and began frantically asking for the money. She said that the thought of having to pay all that money was stressful and really got to him.
“He was upset. He was crying. He said he was concerned about the amount of money they wanted on a monthly basis, which was £520. It was stressful for him.
“I was surprised how upset he was. We had letters before and he was going to go through the appeals process. By the end of the conversation he had calmed down and we said goodbye normally.”
Apparently, Ian Sandywell then contacted his parents in hope of being able to get the money he needed for the back child support.
During the day, Sandywell had gone back and forth on texts with Ben about 40 times. Around 2:30 p.m., he sent the frightening text, and then a couple minutes later, there was one final text reading, “I’m sorry Ben, I love you.”
Father Ian Sandywell hanged himself after Child Support dem… http://t.co/mbM4KnyWcX | https://t.co/NiBh6tzG0o pic.twitter.com/LVUMFucN4x
— Berserk News (@berserk_news) June 4, 2015
Balsamo’s daughter had gone to the house earlier and saw the lights on, the TV paused, and the door unlocked, but she didn’t see her stepfather. When Balsamo arrived home around 7 p.m., she found him in the garage and called the paramedics, who pronounced Sandywell dead at the scene.
Alcohol was found in his system that was twice the legal driving limit.
Ian Sandywell had been paying child support for 13 years, but then he fell behind. The request for the $17,000 was more than he had ever previously been told to pay. Balsamo said the “rude letters” left her husband “in despair” over fear he couldn’t make those payments and the mortgage payments.
The coroner said that Ian Sandywell was concerned about the child support payments and his texts that day contained “rather silly things” and didn’t think “anyone would have believed him for a minute.” Those final texts to his son did end up being his final words before he followed through and hanged himself.
[Images via Shutterstock]
