Woman Facing Foreclosure Commits Suicide

BOSTON -- A Taunton woman committed suicide Tuesday hours before her mortgage company was scheduled to auction off her home.

Carlene Balderrama, 53, sent a fax to her mortgage company threatening suicide earlier in the day. The company was planning to sell her foreclosed home at 5 p.m.

Police found Balderrama dead in her home at 103 Duffy Drive after employees at the mortgage company who received the fax called police.

Officials said that in a suicide note found next to her body, Balderrama told her husband and son to "take the insurance money and pay for the house."

Taunton Police Department Chief Raymond O'Berg said that the woman's husband may not have been aware of the family's financial problems because Balderrama "handled all of the bills."

Balderrama was granted an extension, but the police chief said that he was surprised when potential buyers showed up at the home, while Balderrama's body was still inside, expecting an auction.

In the past year, foreclosures in Massachusetts have soared 66 percent, and families are being forced out of their homes at record rates, leaving properties either on the auction block or abandoned.

Foreclosure deeds -- the final step in the process -- were up 107.5 percent in May, from 677 in May 2007 to 1,405, according to the Warren Group. Year-to-date deeds rose 139.6 percent, from 2,327 in the first five months of 2007 to 5,576 this year.