A woman believed to have killed herself and her eight-year-old disabled child in Salford was a desperately struggling mother who was failed by the authorities and was “not a monster”, a close friend has said.
The bodies of Martina Karos, 40, and Eleni Edwards were discovered on Monday morning after emergency services were called over a concern for their welfare. Police have said they are investigating the deaths but are not looking for anyone else and there was “no wider threat in the community”.
Karos was described by her friends as a “really kind, bubbly, nice person” and a “loving and devoted mother”, who was the sole carer for her daughter Eleni, affectionately known as “Laney”, who had cerebral palsy.
Speaking to the Guardian, her close friend said Karos had struggled with her mental health and a lack of adequate support with her daughter, who he felt was failed by social services.
After meeting Karos on the dating website Plenty of Fish in April, he said he had introduced her to his parents and that his children had spent time with her, and he had also helped her look after Eleni, who needed round-the-clock care.
“Martina was only about five foot tall,” he said. “Laney was eight years old with full-limb cerebral palsy, non-verbal and literally as tall as her. I carried her from her car seat to her wheelchair and she wasn’t dead heavy but it was enough where I said to Martina: ‘Wow, you’re as strong as an ant.’”
However, she was struggling with Eleni’s care, her friend said, with neighbours describing her as being very tired. After her death, friends and neighbours questioned why authorities had failed to notice how much she was struggling.
Her friend said: “It wasn’t just the taking care of her, it was the fact that when she was alone in the house – it was just her and Laney and she was non-verbal – she was just lonely every night and she had nobody.”
Having grown up in Italy, Karos spoke five languages and had a master’s degree in vocal linguistics, he said. She was a qualified translator in Italian, French, Spanish and English. “She was really bright.”
Laney’s father was not in the picture, having wanted “nothing to do with her when he found out she was disabled, that’s what Martina told me”. Karos had a “fractious” relationship with her mother, who was in Italy when Karos died.
The friend said Karos had talked to him about suicide “dozens of times”, but he would try to talk her out of it, having made a serious attempt himself not too long before, spending five days recovering in hospital.
He had urged her to seek mental health treatment but she told him she had been to her GP and tried antidepressants and they had not worked. She was feeling “hopeless”, she told him.
“I just keep thinking about certain situations where I could have said or done something different,” he said. “She never mentioned once she was going to take Laney with her because then I would have been notifying social services.”
But he realised now that she had spoken in coded language, telling him: “If I go, I won’t leave anything I love behind.”
He said: “That’s the reason she took Laney with her. She loved Laney more than anything. And even though it’s not right what she did, people need to understand that it happens when people are under that much pressure and don’t get the help that they need.
“I just want people to understand that Martina was a great person and just got stuck in a terrible place.”
Salford council did not respond to a request for comment but told the Manchester Evening News: “There were a range of support services being provided to both Eleni and Martina. At this time our staff are now continuing to support the wider community.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
