Dorothy Spourdalakis

Case information

• Defendant: Dorothy Spourdalakis (age 50)
• Defendant: Jolanta Agata Skrodzka (age 44)
• Victim: Alex Spourdalakis (age 14; severely autistic)
• Place referenced: River Grove, Illinois; apartment described as on West Grand Avenue; family residence in a two-story brick building with a plumbing business on the first floor
• Care setting referenced: Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital; Gottlieb Memorial Hospital; Lutheran General Hospital

Status

Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka were ordered held without bail on June 12, 2013, after being charged with first-degree murder.

Timeline

• June 8-9, 2013 (weekend) — Alex Spourdalakis was found dead in his apartment.
• Friday evening (prior to June 12, 2013) — Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka initially tried to kill Alex Spourdalakis with an overdose of prescribed sleeping pills.
• Sunday afternoon (prior to June 12, 2013) — Alex Spourdalakis was discovered in his bed in the second-story apartment on West Grand Avenue, River Grove.
• Tuesday (prior to June 12, 2013) — Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka were released from the hospital; they were charged with murder the day they were charged.
• June 12, 2013 — Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka were ordered held without bail.
• May (prior to June 12, 2013) — Alex Spourdalakis was sent back to the hospital and was facing long term psychiatric commitment.
• March (prior to June 12, 2013) — Dorothy Spourdalakis publicly campaigned for better care for Alex.
• January (prior to June 12, 2013) — the Department of Children and Family Services received an abuse allegation regarding the youth; the allegation was determined to be unfounded.
• Past spring (prior to June 12, 2013) — Alex Spourdalakis was removed from Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital and brought to live with Dorothy Spourdalakis in River Grove.
• Three months before Alex’s death (prior to June 12, 2013) — Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital was cited for wrongly keeping the teenager restrained without doctor’s orders.
• June 12, 2013 (morning) — the no-bail order was issued by Cook County Judge Thomas Tucker (as described).

Background

• Alex Spourdalakis was described as a severely autistic 14-year-old boy.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka cared for Alex 24 hours a day.
• Police said authorities were frequently called to Alex’s apartment to help restrain him.
• Alex was sent to the hospital the previous year after developing uncontrollable fits of violence.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis said that while Alex was at the hospital, he was left in four-point restraints for 12 days.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis said she removed Alex from Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in the past spring and brought him to live with her in River Grove, Illinois.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis campaigned for Alex to be removed from the hospital so he could receive better care.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis alleged that Alex was mistreated and neglected at Loyola University Medical Center and described being left in four-point restraints without doctor’s orders.
• A gastric specialist in New York diagnosed a condition where Alex had a myriad of small lesions in his stomach that caused severe pain.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis said her son was experiencing severe pain and that doctors did not provide a diagnosis in time.
• Authorities said the women had “issues” including “frustration” with the condition and care of Alex, including dealing with his autism.
• A TV news report stated that Dorothy accused a local hospital of neglecting and mistreating her son; this was described as happening three months before Alex’s death.
• The Department of Children and Family Services received an abuse allegation regarding the youth in January and determined the accusation to be unfounded.
• Dave Clarkin, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, said the agency offered support services, but the offer was not accepted.
• The family residence was described as a two-story brick building with a plumbing business on the first floor.

The offence

• Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka were charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Alex Spourdalakis.
• Prosecutors said the women initially tried to kill Alex on Friday evening with an overdose of prescribed sleeping pills because they believed his “emotional condition had deteriorated” after a recent prolonged illness and because they believed he was receiving subpar medical treatment.
• When the drugs failed to kill Alex, prosecutors said Dorothy stabbed Alex four times in the chest with a kitchen knife, including twice in the heart.
• Prosecutors said Dorothy then slit Alex’s wrist, almost severing his hand.
• Prosecutors said Dorothy gave the knife to Jolanta Agata Skrodzka, who then killed the family cat.
• Authorities said the women said in their letter they did not want the cat sent to a pound after their deaths.
• Prosecutors said the women cleaned the bloody knife and returned it to the butcher’s block in the kitchen.
• Prosecutors said that once the women were assured Alex was dead, they took several pills in an attempt to kill themselves, went into Alex’s bedroom, and locked the door.

Investigation

• River Grove police Chief Rodger Loni said Alex was big and strong and unwilling to go to the doctor, and that officers “had to restrain and hold him down.”
• Police described Alex as “severely autistic.”
• River Grove police Chief Roger Loni was quoted saying: “It took six to eight paramedics to subdue him.”
• River Grove police Chief Rodger Loni was quoted saying: “He was big and strong and unwilling to go to the doctor.”
• River Grove police Chief Rodger Loni was quoted saying: “We had to restrain and hold him down.”
• Prosecutors said the women described their actions in a suicide note.
• Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Maureen O’Brien stated: “The murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner,”
• Prosecutors said Dorothy Spourdalakis initially discussed the plan with Skrodzka, who also was Alex’s godmother, and Skrodzka agreed to help.
• Prosecutors said Skrodzka had received medical training in Poland.
• Police said the women were found in a semiconscious state and locked in Alex’s bedroom with his body.
• Authorities said Alex had multiple wounds when he was discovered in his bed.

Arrest and detention

• Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka were taken to the hospital after police found them semiconscious and locked in Alex’s bedroom.
• Officials said they were released Tuesday.
• Both women appeared in court in blue scrub-like outfits and were not wearing shoes.
• Cook County Judge Thomas Tucker issued the no-bail order.
• Each woman was ordered held without bail on June 12, 2013.

Trial

No trial proceedings were described.

Sentencing

No sentencing was described.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Dorothy Spourdalakis was ordered held without bail on June 12, 2013, after being charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Alex Spourdalakis.

Aftermath

• Authorities and prosecutors described a suicide attempt by Dorothy Spourdalakis and Jolanta Agata Skrodzka involving sleeping pills and locking themselves in Alex’s bedroom.
• A handwritten suicide note was described as written before the women tried to end their lives.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis’s attorney, Michael Botti, said he was considering an insanity defense.
• Michael Botti was quoted saying:

  “Every door closed, she had nowhere to go. She had nowhere to take her son, there's no help for him.”

• A suicide note described what Dorothy wrote, including:

  “Alex will no longer be treated like and animal,” she wrote, “or subjected to restraints.” “Alex will not suffer under the system ” “and “will not be neglected and abused by the medical community any more.” “retarded or less than human” “that made him crazy.”

• A separate email quote described Dorothy writing:

  “Alex has been forgotten... I don't have a safety net so I could help him recover.”

• Andrew Wakefield became involved and was described as having recorded a YouTube request for help to find a home for Alex.
• Wakefield made an appeal video statement requesting a home for Alex and said that if supporters did not act, Alex would be taken away from his mother.
• Andrew Wakefield was described as stricken from the British medical register and as an autism researcher who claimed to have found a link between the measles vaccine and autism, though his research was later discredited.
• Andrew Wakefield’s statement was quoted verbatim:

  “On Sunday May 26, members of the Autism Media Channel (AMC) went to the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. There we visited the late Alex Spourdalakis, his mother Dorothy, and his Godmother. Alex was in four-point restraint and apparently refusing to eat or drink. His mother was beyond exhaustion and despair. The main reason for her despair was the prospect of Alex being sent to a long-stay psychiatric hospital and heavily medicated with behavior-altering drugs drugs without any treatment of his underlying medical problems. AMC issued an appeal on Alex’s behalf to protect him from this fate. We did not, at any stage, advocate for his release from the Lutheran General Hospital. The following day Dorothy informed us that the hospital could find nowhere that would take Alex and that his insurance carrier had refused to pay for any further inpatient care at the Lutheran General Hospital. It appears that, as a consequence, he was discharged from that hospital despite his precarious position and that of his carers. It is our opinion that Alex’s tragic death reflects the abject failings of a medical system that has no effective answer to the autism crisis.”

• Wakefield was quoted as saying Alex needed someone to provide a place where he could “be on the necessary diet” and “complete the treatment” for his autism.
• Dorothy Spourdalakis was quoted in a May interview with Autism Media Channel saying:

  “He needs something simple in the country where he can run around and get the treatment that he needs so he can get better,”

Other details

• The victim’s father was described as separated from Dorothy Spourdalakis.
• Alex was found when his father and uncle went to the apartment after failing to reach anyone by phone.
• Prosecutors said both women signed statements admitting their roles in the killing.
• Prosecutors said the women were charged Tuesday after being charged following police discovery of the body and their condition.