No one will separate me from my babies
Final message left by mum who killed herself and two children with drugs over fears she may lose custody
A MOTHER terrified of losing custody of her two children gave them fatal overdoses of methadone, an inquest heard yesterday.
Sydnie-Blu Macfarlane, 28, left a heart-breaking message saying ‘no-one is separating me from my babies’ and then killed herself with the drug.
Despite being known to social services, she lay dead for days alongside her children Dolce-Mai, nine, and three-year-old Rhys before being found, Southwark Coroner’s Court was told.
Miss Macfarlane is thought to have sprinkled ‘holy water’ over her dying children. Investigators found a half empty 500ml bottle of fluid and two religious icons on the bed where the youngsters lay.
Nearby stood a half empty bottle of methadone – a powerful synthetic opiate normally prescribed to heroin addicts – as well as various over-thecounter medicines.
A letter found in Miss Macfarlane’s home in Greenwich, south-east London, was addressed to ‘Mum and family’ and read: ‘I guess no one will ever understand why I done what I done.’
In the days before her death she told a friend she had ‘nothing to live for’ and her former partner Sean Dada was seeking full custody of their children. She said she was facing eviction, had recently miscarried and had fallen out with a friend over an alleged infidelity.
Miss Macfarlane studied architecture for a year at college and had recently talked about becoming a paramedic.
But her life had begun to unravel, leading to multiple interventions from officials at Greenwich council.
The alarm was raised by Miss Macfarlane’s family on January 30 last year after they had not heard from her for days, the inquest was told. Paramedics gained access to the house and found the dead trio lying under a duvet in a bedroom. Notes were found scattered across the living room floor, and writing was scrawled on the wall.
Mr Dada, 31, an engineer, said the last time he saw them was on Christmas Day 2016. In a call to Miss Macfarlane on January 26, he described her as ‘calm’.
More than 30 sheets of paper, laid out individually with handwriting on them, were found in the house, the inquest heard. Parts of Miss Macfarlane’s last messages were read out. One said: ‘I have been sent what I deserve. I’m struggling with it
‘There were no injuries’
all. I have lost the family that I love. Disgusting things have been said about me, but it’s what I deserve. I am not the mistakes I have made. I have lost every bit of respect for myself. I have ruined everything for me. I am tarnished for life.’
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey said traces of both methadone and diphenhydramine – a common sedative – were found in the children’s bloodstreams.
He added that evidence suggested their bodies had lain in the bed ‘for up to a few days prior to being found’.
‘There were no injuries to suggest what is called assault or restraint,’ he told the hearing.
PC Edwin Wall said he had noticed ‘erratic and random’ writing on the walls downstairs. One message said: ‘She fears for my children. With a mother like me, I agree. I’m taking them away from the toxic [sic] around them. No-one is separating me from my babies. We are to be buried together.’
Miss Macfarlane’s mother, Angela, herself a methadone user, said she had no idea where her daughter acquired the drug. She said: ‘I had never known her to take drugs – in fact she hated them.’
She said her daughter had been overwhelmed by the break-up of the relationship with her children’s father, as well as spiralling debts. She owed money for store cards and £80 in unpaid school lunches.
Senior Coroner Dr Andrew Harris described Miss Macfarlane as a ‘talented, caring, tough woman with a depressive illness and lot of things going wrong’. The hearing continues.
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