Abby Grason

Case record: Abby Grason

Background

Abby Grason was a 25-year-old woman of Chicago. Her history included mental illness. Authorities also said she had been investigated for alleged child abuse and neglect by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Alma Grason was Abby Grason’s sister. Alma Grason described efforts to get her sister medical help and said she had filed child abuse and neglect allegations against Abby Grason in January 2003. Alma Grason said doctors released Abby Grason after determining she was fit to care for herself and her children. Alma Grason said she then called the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to complain that her sister was abusing and neglecting the children, and she said the agency concluded the allegations were unfounded. Alma Grason said she and other family members tried admitting Abby Grason to a mental hospital, and they felt helpless because, as an aunt, she said she had no legal rights to take the children.

The children’s father, Henry Younan, and his family were making funeral arrangements and struggling to understand what happened. Linda Rasho, Henry Younan’s sister, said the Younan family had been aware of Grason’s illness since June 2002 and they did what they could to help her. Linda Rasho and Henry Younan were planning to spend time with the children before the deaths.

The offence

Abby Grason faced allegations in connection with the deaths of her two young children. Authorities said she drowned 2-year-old Isaac Younan and 3-year-old Sandra Younan.

Authorities said Grason started a kitchen fire in the family home. Firefighters extinguished the fire and then found the children unresponsive in a bathroom. Authorities said Grason allegedly started the fire by putting two aerosol cans in a microwave.

After the fire started, Grason went upstairs to the bathroom and drowned the children as the house was burning. Authorities said Grason told investigators she killed the children because she thought they would not have a good life with her.

Investigation

Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Dalkin read a letter written by Matthew Markos, director of forensic clinical services for Cook County, during the hearing.

Matthew Markos said in the letter that Grason was unfit for trial and unable to assist in her defense. He said she was bipolar and suffered from psychotic paranoid delusions and psychotic affective disorder.

Assistant State’s Atty. Luann Rodi Snow gave Judge Raymond Myles a description of the children’s final hours in the townhouse. Snow said the slayings were predicated by Grason throwing her mother out of the home Sunday.

Assistant Public Defender Kathy Lisco told Myles that Grason had a significant mental health history.

Assistant State’s Atty. Bernie Murray said Grason told authorities that she wanted her children to go to a happy place and that she wanted to send them to heaven.

During the investigation, Grason told detectives that she drowned the children because the children would not have a good life with her. Police Commander Dean Andrews said Grason started the fire by putting two aerosol cans in a microwave, then went to the bathroom and drowned the children while the fire started to burn, and that she went to a neighbor’s house afterward and asked them to call 911.

Grason allegedly provided a 14-page handwritten statement describing what took place next.

Verbatim quotes:

• Alma Grason said: "What really hurts me the most is that I tried to intervene, but as an aunt I didn't have any legal rights to take these children"
• Alma Grason said: "That's the sad thing. They have to be killed first before they can be protected."
• The girl said: "I don't want to die, mommy."
• Assistant State's Atty. Bernie Murray said: "She wanted to send them to heaven"
• Assistant State's Atty.
• Alma Grason said: "We talked to her all the time,''

Arrest / court proceedings

Grason pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges and entered a not-guilty plea to aggravated arson.

A judge ordered Wednesday that Grason be held without bond after she appeared in bond court on two charges of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson.

Police said it was not immediately clear if Grason had an attorney. She was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

Trial / fitness to stand trial

Cook County Judge Dennis Dernbach ruled that Abby Grason was unfit for trial and ordered her held in a state mental hospital.

On September 25, 2006, Judge Dennis Dernbach ordered Abby Grason confined to a state psychiatric hospital for a year. At the end of that period she was required to return to court to determine if she was fit to be tried.

Sentencing

Grason was confined to a state psychiatric hospital for a year as part of being found unfit for trial.

Other details

Police Commander Dean Andrews said the children were found unresponsive in the bathroom by firefighters and pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police said Isaac Younan was 2 years old and Sandra Younan was 3 years old.

Firefighter arrival and scene details:

• Police and firefighters were called to a townhouse in the 5600 block of West Carmen Avenue at about 5:05 a.m. Monday.
• The building had four residential units: two on each side, with main entrances to the east and west, and two center units with main entrances facing the street.
• The only visible sign outside that a fire had occurred was a patch of soot on the wall above the back door.
• When police arrived, the mother was standing outside.
• Police reported that the fire, in the kitchen, appeared to be of suspicious origin.
• A neighbor told rescue personnel that there were two children still upstairs.
• One neighbor said he had heard the children playing in the bedroom about 8:30 p.m. June 20.
• That night, Grason was sleeping on a couch with Sandra; Grason ran a bath for the child.
• The neighbor reported hearing loud screaming coming from the townhouse at night and said that when neighbors confronted her, the mother "just got mad and went into the house."
• One neighbor described Grason as "talkative and very outgoing. I don't think she did anything to them. I can't see her hurting anybody."

Items and household context:

• By about 10 a.m. Monday, someone had left a small pair of hugging teddy bears on the front porch.
• The family car, a red Saturn, was parked in front.
• Two child seats were in the back seat, one blue and one beige.
• The children’s bodies were found in the bathtub on the second floor.
• The family had moved into the townhouse about three months earlier from Arizona.
• The mother had been raising the children by herself and had just enrolled Sandra in preschool at Prussing School.

Arizona child welfare history:

• An individual contacted a State agency in Arizona to allege that the children were experiencing "burns by neglect, substantial medical neglect, and substantial risk of physical harm,".
• A subsequent investigation did not find enough evidence to support those allegations.
• After the investigation was declared unfounded, child welfare officials in Arizona were contacted for follow-up.
• The agency did not keep tabs on the family and was unaware the family had moved to Chicago.

Family testimony and statements:

• Alma Grason said her sister "was kind of in a daze."
• Alma Grason said her sister asked if she could take the kids for a couple weeks so that she could get better because she was kind of sad.
• Alma Grason said the next day Abby Grason arrived at her sister’s house insisting she take back her children.
• Alma Grason said she pleaded with her sister to let the niece and nephew stay, and that Abby replied: "They're my kids, not yours."
• Alma Grason asked: "She could go and tell the neighbor to call 911 for the fire, but she couldn't go and call me so I could try and help her before she did this?"
• Alma Grason said: "Tomorrow's the burial. And they're gone.''