Mental Health
Suicide Warning Signs: What To Look Out For Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

A woman in Tennessee leaped to her death early Monday while cradling her baby boy. Madison County Sheriff John Mehr said the woman, identified as 26-year-old Tonisha Barker seemed distraught and appeared determined to end her life and her 21-month old son Johnathan Jones.

Authorities said it was around 12:30 Monday morning when deputies responded to a call about a crash at the Shell Station on Law Road just south of exit 93 on Interstate 40 east of Jackson. While en route, police said they received additional calls from a female driver who was hellbent at attempting to hit the fuel tanks and managed to ram her car into one.

Witnesses at the scene said the mom got out of her car carrying her baby boy and walked away towards the I-40 highway overpass where they disappeared.

CBS-TV affiliate WREG reported that within just minutes later, police got a call from a truck driver who reported that a “large object” had fallen from a nearby overpass and hit his rig while he was traveling westbound on I-40.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the bodies of Barker and her child on the roadway.

“It’s heartbreaking to have that situation this morning, especially when someone loses their life,” said Mehr in an interview with ABC-TV affiliate WBBJ

“It’s hard on everybody, especially the driver of the vehicle. It’s just a bad situation that we hate to ever receive.”

According to reports, Barker’s grandmother told local media that her young granddaughter was suffering from depression after she had lost her job at a coronavirus test site last month.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Tom Maples said deputies are now trying to determine what might have motivated Barker to end her and her son's lives.

Barker's death is being classified as a suicide and the child's death is under investigation, Maples said while authorities are investigating motives, details into the situation and the intent behind the woman's tragic decision to end her life.

Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Madison County Fire Department both assisted in the investigations.

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