Hotel Prom Death

[Pea-n-Me]

Appalling on the part of boyfriend's mom, if true.

Mom: Teen was not supposed to stay at hotel after prom

HOUSTON — The mother of a teenager found dead after prom night in Houston feels like she was mislead by her daughter's prom date and his mother.

"I said you look beautiful," said Juana Barron, Jacqueline Gomez's mother, as she looked at the last photo she snapped of her 17-year-old daughter.

"She was so happy," Barron said. "You should have seen her big smile on her face when she left."

Gomez was off to her senior prom at the Hyatt North Houston Hotel on Friday. Her mother, who was too distraught to show her face on camera, said she expected to see her daughter back at home later that night.

However, prom took a tragic turn.

"I do want to know, and I want to know who's responsible for all that," Barron said.

Her daughter spent the night in room 821 along with her date. He admitted they were drinking before they went to bed. The next morning, he told police she would not wake up.

Police said they found alcohol and prescription painkillers inside the room.

"She was underage," her mother said. "She couldn't get that stuff all by herself."

Barron said Gomez's date's mother picked the couple up from her home. She also picked them up from the hotel later that night. That's when she last spoke to her daughter on the phone.

She was underage. She couldn't get that stuff all by herself.

Juana Barron, Jacqueline Gomez’s mother "I just spoke to them after prom, a couple words, told me she was going to get something to eat," Barron said.

That's when the boy's mother got on the phone and asked whether Gomez could spend the night at their house.

"I said no bring her back home," Barron said. "I gave them a couple hours, and I never heard back."

The next call she got was from a homicide detective with the Houston Police Department. She said detectives told her the room was booked by the boyfriend's mother.

The police continue to investigate, but they do not believe the boyfriend played a role in the girl's death.

Police are investigating the death of a female high school student after her body was found in a room at a Hyatt Hotel on Saturday, May, 17, 2014, in Houston.(Photo: KHOU-TV, Houston)

For now her close friends can only rally around each other.

"It was hard to walk to school today," said Bibiana Gomez, Gomez's close friend. "I just cried all day."

They said they are learning to live without Gomez, while they wait for the answers everyone so desperately wants.

"My baby was my whole world," Barron said. "She was smart, funny, everything. No words to describe her. She was just everything to me."

Houston police confirmed late Monday that the room was booked by the teenage boy's mother, under his name. Autopsy results are still pending in this case. Toxicology results could take several weeks.

Meanwhile, Gomez's mother has set up an online donation fund to help with her daughter's funeral costs.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/19/teen-dead-hotel-prom-houston/9303627/

Maybe local folks know - was there a search going on during the night?

 

[Hannathy]

I feel incredibly sorry for the mother and I"m sure she is going thru inconsolable grief but I think she needs to face facts that who is to blame is her Daughter.

Her daughter chose to drink, to stay the night and to lie to her Mother. No one wants to think that their own child could make a terrible decision but it happens and they do. She was in a hotel at any point she could have went to the desk and asked to go home.

How sad for everyone involved.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I'm sorry but I don't agree to put the blame solely on her daughter. If they didn't have access to the alcohol then she would still be alive today. I think there are a few that contributed to her untimely death.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I feel incredibly sorry for the mother and I"m sure she is going thru inconsolable grief

No you don't or you'd have stopped right there. But you didn't. You just had to get a dig in.

but I think she needs to face facts that who is to blame is her Daughter.
Her daughter chose to drink, to stay the night and to lie to her Mother. No one wants to think that their own child could make a terrible decision but it happens and they do. She was in a hotel at any point she could have went to the desk and asked to go home.

 

[Robinrs]

No you don't or you'd have stopped right there. But you didn't. You just had to get a dig in.

 

[Art 1]

I feel incredibly sorry for the mother and I"m sure she is going thru inconsolable grief but I think she needs to face facts that who is to blame is her Daughter.

Her daughter chose to drink, to stay the night and to lie to her Mother. No one wants to think that their own child could make a terrible decision but it happens and they do. She was in a hotel at any point she could have went to the desk and asked to go home.

How sad for everyone involved.

Very true.

 

[Art 1]

I'm sorry but I don't agree to put the blame solely on her daughter. If they didn't have access to the alcohol then she would still be alive today. I think there are a few that contributed to her untimely death.

Only if they held a gun to her head and made her drink. Maybe they did. I doubt it though.

 

[RitaZ.]

The Houston PD has no need to continue with their investigation. Some DIS posters have the case all figured out with minimal information.

Poor mother. I can't even imagine the agony she must be going through. You send your daughter off to prom and you never see her again. Just horrible.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Terrible.

Mixing prescription painkillers and alcohol? Recipe for death. I wonder whose prescription it was?

 

[rigs32]

Why do people insist that if someone dies or is injured their behavior cannot be examined? It's not as if the girls mom is reading this forum. It would be heartless and cruel to say such things to her family, but on a message board?

There's a world of difference between placing blame and discussing different choices leading to different outcomes.

 

[mom2rtk]

How terribly sad.

Lots of bad decisions with plenty of blame to go around.

The girl deserves some blame unless she was forced to drink and take the pills.

I feel like the girl's mom should have done something when the girl didn't make it home. I'm not sure at what point you call the police on prom night, but at the very least I hope she tried calling her daughter or calling back the boy's mom.

The boy's mom will likely take the bulk of the blame, and rightly so. I will never understand the parents who enable risky behavior in their kids. If she provided the alcohol and/or pills, she needs to go to jail.

 

[cabanafrau]

I feel incredibly sorry for the mother and I"m sure she is going thru inconsolable grief but I think she needs to face facts that who is to blame is her Daughter.

Her daughter chose to drink, to stay the night and to lie to her Mother. No one wants to think that their own child could make a terrible decision but it happens and they do. She was in a hotel at any point she could have went to the desk and asked to go home.

How sad for everyone involved.

You don't even need a law degree from an online university to connect the dots for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and a negligence-based manslaughter conviction here. The adult's actions made the conditions leading to death possible. The hotel room is going to be the reason the mother is charged criminally and will face civil penalties as well.

 

[Colleen27]

A terrible tragedy to be sure, but the mother comes off as terribly naive. Teens can very easily get their hands on alcohol and prescription pills, even though they're underage. Parents or other adults have the pills around the house, often extras that were prescribed for "as needed" use and not needed, and teens steal them to use recreationally or to sell to their peers. And by senior year of high school just about everyone who is inclined to drink has that one older friend-of-a-friend or friend's sibling that is willing to buy the booze.

The attitudes I see in many teens I know towards prescription pills is frightening - since it comes from a doctor rather than a dealer, they think it is safe even though it wasn't prescribed for them. For some, that attitude could be deadly. For others, it could be the gateway to opiate addiction. But there is little in the way of law enforcement or educational resources addressing this specific issue.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

What a terribly sad story. One life is over and so many others changed forever.

I can't imagine the pain that the girl's mother is going through. You say goodbye to your daughter not knowing it would be the last time you saw her alive. You think of all the things you wished you had said had you known you would never be able to speak to her again. I'm sure she is wondering what she could have done differently to change the fate of that night. Just terrible and not something she will ever get over.

I also wonder what the boy's mother is feeling right now. I'm sure that she was just wanting to be the "cool" mom. I figure she had no idea of the potential consequences of her actions. We talk about how teenagers think that they are invincible and that nothing bad will ever happen to them, but if we are being honest, many adults are also that way. I'm sure she thought that everything was under control. Clearly it wasn't. Now she is dealing with knowing that she booked a hotel room for her son and his girlfriend. She took them there against the girl's mother's orders. She (I'm assuming) provided them with alcohol which is against the law. Now a teenager is dead and everyone is looking at her. Her son is likely scarred for life and will need a lot of therapy. She has to live with the fact that she contributed to events that lead to another mother losing her child. And she is likely facing criminal charges.

Then there is the boy. He set out for a fun prom night and it ended in disaster. He knows that his mother is in some trouble. The mother of his girlfriend is heartbroken. He has lost his high school sweetheart. His and his girlfriend's actions lead to her death. He's going to likely be asking himself why she died and he didn't. He will live the rest of his life knowing that his and his mother's actions contributed to the death of his girlfriend.

It's just all so sad and tragic. It makes my heart hurt to think of the pain so many are feeling.

 

[EMode]

How terribly sad.

Lots of bad decisions with plenty of blame to go around.

The girl deserves some blame unless she was forced to drink and take the pills.

I feel like the girl's mom should have done something when the girl didn't make it home. I'm not sure at what point you call the police on prom night, but at the very least I hope she tried calling her daughter or calling back the boy's mom.

The boy's mom will likely take the bulk of the blame, and rightly so. I will never understand the parents who enable risky behavior in their kids. If she provided the alcohol and/or pills, she needs to go to jail.

Has it been proven that she provided the alcohol and drugs? I don't have an issue with a parent providing a hotel room as long as the hotel staff was aware and it wasn't againts their policy.

I partied alot as a teen and I never got my stuff from anyone's parents, it was pretty easy to find someone to buy beer and we had no problem getting our own other substances on our own. I think that people (in general) are naive to think that there aren't easy ways for kids to get access to this stuff that doesn't include parents. I'm not saying there aren't parents who are more than willing to provide alcohol to their underage kids, just saying there are plenty of other ways to get it too.

Its very sad but I'm in the camp of holding the girl responsible for her death. She chose to a take drugs and drink. The person who provided them with the stuff should be held accountable for doing that, but not for the girl's death IMO. I'm sure the courts feel differently but I'm of the opinion that when you choose to do things to yourself, you are the one taking responsibility for the outcome.

 

[cabanafrau]

A terrible tragedy to be sure, but the mother comes off as terribly naive. Teens can very easily get their hands on alcohol and prescription pills, even though they're underage. Parents or other adults have the pills around the house, often extras that were prescribed for "as needed" use and not needed, and teens steal them to use recreationally or to sell to their peers. And by senior year of high school just about everyone who is inclined to drink has that one older friend-of-a-friend or friend's sibling that is willing to buy the booze.

The attitudes I see in many teens I know towards prescription pills is frightening - since it comes from a doctor rather than a dealer, they think it is safe even though it wasn't prescribed for them. For some, that attitude could be deadly. For others, it could be the gateway to opiate addiction. But there is little in the way of law enforcement or educational resources addressing this specific issue.

It's not simply teens who have that attitude towards the prescription drugs. Prescription drugs is where the real drug problem is at, across all age categories. It is unbelievable to see how many long-term addicts who have been in and out of the criminal justice system for years who stand before the court for parole or probation violations and are still in possession of multiple narcotic prescriptions for back pain, etc. The most common in the teen set are Vicodin and Xanax because they are the lower levels & possible to be prescribed for wisdom teeth extraction & anxiety issues in teens, and among the most prescribed to adults that teens have access to.

 

[Colleen27]

Has it been proven that she provided the alcohol and drugs? I don't have an issue with a parent providing a hotel room as long as the hotel staff was aware and it wasn't againts their policy.

I agree. Absolutely any adult that can be proven to have given the teens alcohol or drugs should be prosecuted, but getting a room for the kids isn't in itself criminal. We had hotel parties after prom but the parents who rented the room didn't buy us alcohol. They just got us a place to hang out after prom where we wouldn't be violating any curfew laws or driving around (drinking or otherwise, because even sober a bunch of hyped-up teens on the road in the middle of the night isn't safe!).

 

[Colleen27]

It's not simply teens who have that attitude towards the prescription drugs. Prescription drugs is where the real drug problem is at, across all age categories. It is unbelievable to see how many long-term addicts who have been in and out of the criminal justice system for years who stand before the court for parole or probation violations and are still in possession of multiple narcotic prescriptions for back pain, etc. The most common in the teen set are Vicodin and Xanax because they are the lower levels & possible to be prescribed for wisdom teeth extraction & anxiety issues in teens, and among the most prescribed to adults that teens have access to.

I know. My brother is an addict who started with legally prescribed pills, in his case oxyconton (sp?) following a car accident. And doctors still try to prescribe vicodin for him, even knowing his history.

I can't imagine how our medical system got here - when my grandfather was dying of cancer and wanted to spend his last weeks at home we had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get appropriate pain meds for him, because of the great reluctance at the time to prescribe powerful opiates outside of a hospital setting. Now docs hand out prescriptions for vicodin and oxy like it is Tylenol or Advil. Heck, when my middle child was born I was offered a prescription for darvoset for pain... following a natural and uncomplicated delivery. But when the medical establishment treats these pills like they're no big deal, it is no wonder that the general public does as well.

 

[luvsJack]

My problem with the mother getting the hotel room is that it was against the other mother's wishes. She should not have gotten the room for them, period. The girl's mother said for her to come home and that is what should have happened. If the boy's mom wanted to get them a room, she should have cleared it with the girl's mom first.

Before blame gets thrown around, the investigation would first need to figure out where the alcohol and the pain pills came from. From the sounds of the boy's mother, I would guess that she bought the alcohol, but I wouldn't assume that the pills were her's. Those could have come from anywhere.

Peer pressure can be a powerful thing, if the boy was one who did party and the girl was one that did not (and we do not know either of these things, just saying IF); I can see how she would feel pressured just as the simple fact of getting a hotel room may have made her feel pressured to have sex.

If the girl's mother is naive, then it is very possible the girl was too. Not saying the boy was the big bad wolf or anything but that it is possible that the girl was convinced that her mom was in the wrong and she just went along with what the boy and his mom did.

Sounds like a lot of wrongs--by everyone involved, all ended up in a tragedy that no one wanted or expected.

 

[Hannathy]

No you don't or you'd have stopped right there. But you didn't. You just had to get a dig in.

how is that a dig? The daughter unless she was forced is the one who decided to take all the stuff and to stay out all night. Doesn't mean I don't feel sorry for the Mother, I do . Just like I feel sorry for a Mother who would loose their child because they chose to drive drunk or to rob a store with a gun and get shot and killed. They are not exclusive.


She could have been sitting in a room with alcohol and drugs and still be alive, it is only when she chose to take the drugs and to drink that she died. She ultimately has blame in the incident. Doesn't mean I don't feel bad for what the Mother is going through.
I feel bad for Natalie H's. Mother doesn't mean I don't think Natalie made some very poor choices that night that contributed to her death.

And this is a discussion board it isn't a sympathy board. When an article is put up the idea is to discuss it from all different perspectives not just yours.