Maddie Kiefer Letter

Peggy Weber, the girlfriend of Michael Kiefer, Maddie's father, wrote a letter to dispel rumors circulating about Maddie's death.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

[P]olice suspect Kiefer took drugs before she died and, in a letter widely distributed over the Internet on Tuesday, the girlfriend of Kiefer's father said the family had been trying to place her in an inpatient treatment facility.

...In the letter circulated widely through e-mail, Mike Kiefer's girlfriend, Peggy Weber, said Madison had been in outpatient treatment for drug abuse since November and had recently agreed to enter inpatient treatment, but that the family could not arrange it quickly enough.

In recent weeks, the letter said, "Maddie had been off drugs, going to school, actually working on her homework and was caring about her life."

But everything fell apart last Wednesday, Weber wrote, when Madison smoked marijuana that morning and again that night.

Weber said she and Mike Kiefer then called Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital about admitting Madison, but were told that they would not take her involuntarily unless she was an immediate danger to herself or others. The couple also took her to visit treatment centers in Green Bay and in Rockford, Ill.

The letter continues with what happened beginning Sunday morning after a friend of Maddie's called saying she "didn't look good."

Weber and Kiefer rushed to the house, arriving before paramedics. The friend's mother, who is a nurse, was doing CPR, but neither she nor five EMTs were able to save her.

The letter continues:

There is so much more to tell but here's what I want you to know first and foremost: She was loved. We were doing everything we could within the law in a voluntary-commitment state.

She had a normal last day surrounded by friends and family who loved her.

She left in the night without permission.

We do not know where she was, who she was with or what she took. The police are investigating. We are heartbroken.

The letter concludes:

The rumors are running wild. Feel free to share the truth with people. And hug your kids and implore them to make good choices about what they put in their body and who they hang out with.

But mostly the message is: life is about emotions. Some good, some very bad. But if we do not feel them, we are not alive. Help your kids feel their feelings and not look to medicate everything away.

News stories can be very dehumanizing and gossip can be very hurtful.

When private grief plays out in public, there's an added dimension of pain.

People can be so cruel and insensitive. It's so wrong to pass judgment on others at a time of loss, especially without knowing all the facts of a situation.

The Kiefer family needs time to grieve and to come to terms with what's happened. They need prayers and support. They certainly don't need to be dealing with rumors and untruths.

Imagine being in their position. How would you want to be treated?