Mike Kibalo and his wife Ann Yermak were scheduled to have a divorce hearing on February 5, 2001. They had a daughter together, and three weeks after her birth Ann Yermak filed for divorce. The two had agreed on a shared custody agreement for the time until the hearing for their daughter Samantha. Mike Kibalo brought his daughter to the police department in order to follow with the scheduled visitation exchange the day before the court hearing was supposed to take place. It was rumor that Kibalo would receive custody of Samantha during the hearing. However, the hearing did not take place because Yermak and Samantha disappeared. Yermak had shown signs of Munchausen syndrome by proxy which is "a condition where a person attributes sickness to someone else, often a child for whom they are caring, even though the child is not sick." According to Kibalo, after he would drop his daughter off, Yermak would bring her to the hospital saying that he had abused their daughter, there was never any evidence of abuse. Yermak thrived off of the attention she received for taking care of a "sick" child. Samantha was two years old when she and her mother disappeared, now she would be eleven years old. (The picture shows what she looked like at the time of disappearance and a computer generated picture of what she might look like now). There is no evidence saying where the two might have gone. They are most likely using new identities and getting help from someone- possibly from Yermak's family. Kibalo is not giving up, he wants to see his daughter again. Every time I hear of these types of stories, it just reminds me of how many weirdos and sick people are on this planet. It also puzzles me how it seems that people can simply appear to "disappear" meaning that they are still living somewhere, but no one can find them. It's hard for me to fully understand how that works. With this particular story, I find a few issues. First, if the mother (Yermak) had shown signs of the condition Munchausen syndrome by proxy, I don't understand why the visits she had with her daughter were not supervised, especially because in the article they mention that a psychiatrist had suggested that "Samantha's future visits with her mother should be supervised." So why weren't they? Also, I'm not quite sure why this is just coming out now. The two have been gone since February 4, 2001. This story came out on March 20, 2010... Why have they not mentioned this before? It is a possibility that it has been shared before, but there is no mention of that in the article. I know that bringing these stories out into the public often helps a lot with finding these people and solving cases, that's why it's important. I think that, considering that the mother had shown signs of a condition where she constantly brought her daughter to doctors/hospitals, that pictures of Samantha and her mom should be in every doctor office and hospital. Doing this could possibly bring about some answers. Also, Yermak had been living with her mother according to the article. She has been questioned but "has provided little help," I think that she, along with the rest of Yermak's family should be thoroughly questioned. I hope that soon they find some answers, it appears that the dad (Kibalo) really loves his daughter and will do whatever he can to find her.
No comments:
Post a Comment