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THIS IS TOO MUCH FOR ME
DISPUTE PRECEDED SUICIDE, GROUP SAYS
Feb. 5, 2003
Kamloops Daily NewsA Kamloops man who recently committed suicide was angry and disheartened after a bitter custody dispute over his two-year-old son, says a group advocating rights for non-custodial parents.
Mark Edward Dexel, 42, was found dead in a Kamloops motel Jan. 24. It’s believed he hanged himself.
Todd Eckert, president of Parent and Child Advocacy Coalition, said a suicide note was found with Dexel. In it, he outlined his concerns with family court and “the adversarial system of justice”.
Eckert explained it had been more than a year since Dexel had seen his young son. In fact, just days before taking his own life was the one-year anniversary.
“I stand no chance of seeing (my son) ….this is too much for me,” Dexel wrote in his suicide letter.
The couple had been in and out of court for more than a year, after Dexel’s girlfriend applied for sole custody. Eckert said he ended up consenting to the court order because he was tired of the system. “He wanted to be a father all along. He wrote her letters after that asking for some access and was denied,” Eckert said, adding an application for mediation was denied.
“The stresses of the adversarial system on justice, the harassments of the courts and the absence of his child combined to form a lethal mixture of depression that enticed him to take the quick exit”, he said.
Coroner Ian McKichan is awaiting the results of toxicology tests to confirm whether alcohol also played a role in Dexel’s death.
