Custody issues at center of father-daughter deaths on West Slope
By Stephen Magagnini and Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee
Mourad “Moni” Samaan killed himself and his 2-year-old daughter, Madeleine Layla Samaan-Fay following a bitter custody battle that began even before the child was born, Samaan’s father said Monday.
In an exclusive interview with the Bee, Dr. Makram Samaan said his son and granddaughter – found inside his son’s sport-utility vehicle on Saturday evening in El Dorado County – died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust pipe. (Authorities haven’t confirmed the cause of death.)
The girl’s mother, California Deputy Attorney General Marcia Ann Fay, 46, has declined to comment after several requests by The Bee.
Makram Samaan – a psychologist who helps couples mediate disputes and divorces – held his hands to the heavens and cried: “I’ve helped thousands of people and saved a lot of families, but I failed my son – I did not see it. I did not see it! Why should it not be me?”
Samaan, who wrote his master’s thesis on suicide, said he knew his son Moni was in distress, but had no inkling how much.
He blamed the courts for driving his son over the edge.
“We need to take marriage and divorce out of the courts,” said a sobbing Samaan at his Fair Oaks home overlooking Lake Natoma.
What a bummer…
Men are treated like garbage in the courts.
That is the underlying problem here.
The immoral way that women get favored in this “Equal” society. What a bunch of hueee. (sp?)
The women equality movement of my generation is and always has been a LIE and the negative treatment of men by the courts MUST be brought out! Must be stopped.
The mother should be investigated for aggravated badgering.
I am starting to hear of more and more guys acing themselves because they are driven by women to the edge.
Society is getting $itched to death…
just like so many failed societies in humans past…
funny how they cleaned it up for the history books.
Progressives lie, societies die.
Over and over…
I feel bad for the Father and grandfather.
The evil from many of the females today causes so much damage to families and society it is time to stop being polite and call a $itch a $itch.
My goodness Pub.
Emotions run high in divorce and custody issues, on both sides. How could you say that women are evil and that this woman is the cause of her daughter and ex-husband’s death? That is just sick.
There are better ways to solve problems that to kill your family, and many times yourself. That child was innocent and only one parent here decided she didn’t have any rights to live, and that was the dad. he had to have some screws loose to commit this act.
Of course, the courts should always look at the whole situation, with an unbiased look at what is the best solution. But whatever the solution, it doesn’t give you the right to murder.
Interview the grandfather’s former employer CSUS, this appeal (denied) dates to 1983:
Samann v. Trustees of Cal. State University & Colleges (1983) 150 Cal.App.3d 646 [197 Cal.Rptr. 856] {{note: last name mis-spelled here,….}}
An investigation into appellant’s practice developed evidence of three questionable activities.
First, appellant had submitted billing to Medi-Cal for 119 services which his wife rather than he had performed. Appellant’s wife does not hold a license which qualifies her to render services compensable under the Medi-Cal program and she is not licensed as a Medi-Cal provider. Appellant signed billing forms for these services in which he attested that he had personally performed the services, although he had not done so.
Second, an auditor came to the conclusion that appellant had submitted bills to Medi-Cal for work performed at Serene Homes in excess of the number of hours he had been there.
Third, on two different occasions appellant had performed services for Medi-Cal mothers and had submitted billing forms for the mothers and their children, although he had never seen the children.
In May 1979 the Attorney General’s office filed a 17-count criminal information against appellant and his wife. Ultimately, pursuant to a plea bargain, appellant entered a plea of guilty to one count of grand theft in violation of Penal Code section 487, subdivision 1, in return for dismissal [150 Cal.App.3d 651] of the charges against his wife and dismissal of all other charges against himself. Appellant was placed on probation for three years with conditions including the reimbursement of the Medi-Cal program of $5,431.50, payment of a fine of $1,000 plus penalty assessment, and that he perform 120 hours of community service
However, it’s OK for this type of criminal behavior in someone’s past to continue to “help” divorcing couples and families, along with his wife.
These are Moni’s parents (at least his father). Another article shows that the couple met over the internet; they were both in their 40s (mid-to-late) and it seems to me that producing a child was probably part of the expectation? Or am I reading into that. We talk about bitter custody battles (all the time) on-line, some end with dead toddlers. But this one was a short, short marriage, and do we know what happened to cause the quick breakup?
Anyhow, I know some of the people / groups getting press on this one, so blogged it.