Teenager took life while three months pregnant
Inquest into girl’s fatal bridge jump hears tragic revelation
A teenager who jumped from a bridge - 15 years after surviving a seven-storey fall in her mother’s arms - was pregnant when she died, an inquest heard. Yazmina Howard, 18, from Maidstone, fell from a crossing over the M20 at Larkfield on October 1 last year.
A decade- and- a- half beforehand, in 2003, her mother, Maxine Carr, leapt to her own death from her flat, clutching threeyear-old Yazmina, who miraculously survived.
This week, an inquest heard that a month before the teenager’s death, she had been sectioned after threatening to jump from the spot where she ultimately took her life.
On that occasion she was talked down by Xander Jones, who she had broken up with that day. In the weeks that followed, friends and family insisted she showed no indication of wanting to take her life, until she posted what was effectively a suicide note on Instagram on the night of October 1. One of Yazmina’s friends described her behaviour on the day as unusual.
Upon learning she wouldn’t be able to progress to the next year of her multimedia course at Mid Kent College, the proud vegan had eaten a beef burger and was seen drinking wine from the bottle, despite rarely having alcohol. Yazmina told her pal she thought she might be carrying a child, but had not taken a test. It later emerged she was 14 weeks pregnant, but her grandparents and Mr Jones were not aware of this until after she died. A police search of her phone found Google searches relating to what she was planning to do. Assistant coroner Eileen Sproson recorded a verdict of suicide and ruled that, despite her family’s concerns, there were no problems with Yazmina’s care at the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust.
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