Grandma Deanna and Grandpa Ray Laurito were married for many years (8 if I remember correctly) and were not able to have children.
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| Ralph Unger Davis & Dorothy Davis with David |
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| David, Ray & Deanna Laurito & Shelly |
David Eric Laurito was born Jun 25, 1968. He was adopted by Ray and Deanna within a week of his birth. As he developed he was a very tiny baby and couldn't gain weight. They believe he may have been a fetal alcohol syndrome baby or something. Shortly after adopting David mom became pregnant with me. I was born May 10, 1969. The adoption agency actually asked if she wanted to give her baby back. Which of course she didn't. She said she actually knew of 4 adoptions the same time as theirs and some of the other mother's did give babies back for whatever reason. I can't imagine that!
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| David and Shelly |
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| David, Grandpa Davis and Shelly |
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David and Shelly at 336 Orchard Ave,
Somerdale basement |
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| David and Shelly |
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| David, Becky and Shelly |
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| David and Shelly |
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| Shelly and David |
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| Shelly and David |
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| David and Shelly |
Anyway David was a difficult baby - didn't gain weight, cried a lot. He was very busy and mischievous. He definitely had addiction problems from a very early age. I find this so hard to believe now but this is how I remember things. We had an older cousin Danny (Uncle Joe (Dad's brother) and Aunt Gracie's kid). When David was 5 years old Danny shared his cigarettes with David. And he started smoking - stealing cigarettes from other people or whatever. I still can't imagine how this all happened because my parents didn't smoke. Somehow he transitioned to marijuana and alcohol and who knows what else.
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| Shelly, Deanna, Ray, David |
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David, Shelly and Becky
Ruth in the baby seat |
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| David, Becky, Shelly and Ruth |
He started stealing and acting out and being a real terror in our home and the community. If memory serves correctly he was put into rehab center by the age of 10. He was in and out of treatment facilities from then on.
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Becky, Ray, Deanna
David, Shelly and Becky |
He was an absolute nightmare to live with when he was home. He had a dr jeckle and mr. hyde personality thing going. Sometimes he was really sweet and nice to be around and then the switch would flip and he was violent, nasty, mean and hateful. And scary. I was very fearful of him. He was not very big -- maybe 5'6" tall and 130 lbs as a full grown teenager but he packed a powerful punch. And he was very verbal and scary.
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| Shelly, Becky, David and Deanna |
The police were called many times during my childhood to help contain his outbursts.
It seemed like he would lay in wait for my parents to go out (they would sometimes leave me home to babysit Becky and Ruth) and then he would come to the house and try to get in. (He was often times locked out and not allowed in when my parents weren't home). He would bang on the doors and windows and yell obscenities at us and tell us he could see us and he was coming in and he would kill us or hurt us. Of course this was before the days of cell phones so we could do nothing until our parents returned. It was very frightening.
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| 1st Grade David |
He continued to be pretty rotten as long as I remember. At about 17 years old he came to my parents and said he was scared for his life because he owed $ for drugs and some people wanted to kill him. He was very paranoid. He said he needed to go far away. My mom said what is it you want me to do? He said buy me a ticket to Hawaii and I'll go live there. So my mom bought him a ticket to Hawaii (seems like he may have had a little money too, but not much). He lived over there for a little while and met a gal. They had a baby together. I believe her name is Stacy. I have never met either of them. They have stayed in contact with Grandpa Laurito a little but not much.
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| Becky, David, Ruth and Shelly |
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| David, Becky, Shelly |
David eventually robbed a bank and ran to the local library to change clothes. He was immediately captured. He even tried to escape while in handcuffs but didn't get far. Since that is a federal offense he was sent back to the mainland to serve out his sentence. I believe he was in a mental penitentiary in Missouri or something. He spent awhile there and then was let out to a halfway house in California. He must have gotten some other offenses somehow because he ended up in another mental penitentiary in Massachusetts. He died September 27, 2010. He was buried in an unmarked grave because they could not locate next of kin.
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| Grandpa and Grandma Davis with David and Shelly |
We found out about David's death January 12, 2011
I found some correspondence that went on back then:
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| David and Shelly at Grandma Davis' house |
I just got off the phone after talking to a lady for 25 minutes who knew David a little bit and was the floor case manager for the mental health unit he was on.
She said he had skitso affective disorder (spelling??) and was dillusional, heard voices, etc. He was in a secure mental health unit that brought him medications every day and allowed him very limited movement. He did go to "chow" every day but I got the feeling he was in a restrictive unit with lots of supervision.
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| Shelly, Beck & David |
She said they have had him in their custody since 1992 (Springfield,MO facitility) and he was very volatile back in the day. The most recent incidents was a 2003 assault, 2005 assault on an inmate and 2006 assault on a police officer with bodily injury (he punched him in the face). There have been no disciplinary problems since that time.
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| David, Monica (Uncle Gary's Daughter), Shelly |
She said he was a small skinny guy with big eyes who since she has known him (2008) has not been a problem. She said when he was on his medications he was pretty mellow.
He had cardio distress on 9/26 and was transported to the hospital where he died at 1:25 a.m. from cardiopulmonary arrest (heart attack) on 9/27. He was buried in a paupers grave because after 2 days searching no next of kin could be located.
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| David and Shelly |
She said they have the name Rebecca Laurito and a wife Mary Laurito but were unable to locate either. They had his mother's name. They didn't know about Ruth or Rachelle to even try to find us.
She was really nice and said if you have any questions you can call her, Miss Kelly -- case manager at the mental health unit at 978-796-1000. He was at FMC (Federal Mental Center) Devens, 42 Patton Road, Ayers MA 01432.
I requested a death certificate which she will mail to dad's address. I told her to include any other information she was allowed to but she didn't think there would be anything else.
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| Shelly and David |
I think that is all I have.
federal registry #:
| 1. | DAVID LAURITO | 83761-022 | 30-White-M | DECEASED | N/A |
Note back from Ruth:
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| not sure, David and Shelly |
Wow, thanks for doing the research and for the update. His diagnosis was schizoaffective disorder (correct spelling), and that seems like a very appropriate diagnosis from what I remember of him. Schizoaffective disorder is quite genetically linked (it's a type of schizophrenia that includes severe mood swings or affective dysregulation as well as delusions, hallucinations, etc)--he really didn't stand much of a chance with the severity of his illness. That's the sad part. Some people, even with adequate medication and treatment, just cannot be stabilized and must live their lives in institutions due to their potential danger to themselves and others.
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| Grandma and Grandpa Davis with David |
I am not surprised he died of cardiac arrest if he was in a very restricted unit. He likely was not allowed to do any physical exercise because he was under such strict supervision and could not be trusted. Furthermore, all of the medications he was given to keep him "mellow" or stabilized can be very hard on the body and cause major side effects; many of them are related to cardiac dysrhythmia. And I'm guessing the food in the prisons is probably not the healthiest either. I feel bad for him that he was never able to live a normal life.
Another weird thought: I wonder if mom and he have found each other in the after life...wonder how that went. Something tells me they are probably at peace with each other, but I wish mom could tell us about it.
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