THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 28, 1995 TAG: 9509280384
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Janice M. Eastman, in jail after confessing to killing her husband and two children last year, tried to kill herself early Wednesday, authorities said.
Eastman, 33, was taken to Chesapeake General Hospital, where she remained unconscious as of late Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Eastman's vital signs were stable, and she is in the intensive-care unit, the spokeswoman said.
Sheriff's office spokesman John Downs said deputies found Eastman at 8:30 a.m. She had used bed linens to hang herself, Downs said.
Deputies were in the process of escorting female inmates into the showers when Eastman was found.
Eastman, charged with first-degree murder, had tied shut the cell door with cloth strips and had jammed the door lock, hampering efforts to help her, Downs said.
Downs said Eastman had apparently stuffed the lock with pencil erasers, cloth, orange peelings and other items from her cell.
Jail paramedics performed CPR until city rescue workers arrived.
On Dec. 23, Eastman bludgeoned her sleeping husband with a hammer and stabbed him with a kitchen knife, according to police and Eastman's confession. Then she stabbed her 11-year-old son, Kenny, and her 9-year-old daughter, Kelly, according to the confession. She drew the bed covers around her dead children and tucked them in, police said.
Eastman wrote a 10-page letter after the slayings and asked one of the officers sent to her home to proofread it for spelling mistakes, court testimony showed.
Eastman told police she felt she had failed as a person and a mother.
Police said the slayings happened sometime after visitors left the Eastmans' Blanch Court home Dec. 22. The next morning, Eastman called her sister-in-law in North Carolina to tell her about the killings. The relative called police.
Eastman was in jail awaiting her trial. A date had not yet been set.
Eastman had recently returned to the jail after competency testing, Downs said. Earlier, just after the crime, Eastman was put on suicide watch, but Downs said the watch had been lifted. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
JANICE EASTMAN
On Dec. 23, Eastman killed her husband, then stabbed her 11-year-old
son, Kenny, and her 9-year-old daughter, Kelly.
by CNB