In NYC, a tragic crossing of paths
Posted: Friday, January 19, 2007 12:00 PM by Dateline Editor
Filed Under:
Health, Investigations
by Lee Kamlet, Dateline producer
As a child growing up in Colorado, I could only imagine what it would be like to live in New York. The Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty were all magical places I could only dream about. The hustle and bustle of the city, hailing a cab or riding the subway, seemed like a foreign existence. I never thought it would become part of my everyday life. But like many people, I was drawn to the city, to its energy and its possibilities. And so it was with another transplant to the city: Kendra Webdale.
In 1997, Kendra left her hometown in upstate to move to New York City. She worked at a recording studio, and loved to spend time sitting outside, just watching people. Her warmth comes through in the many pictures and home videos her family shared with us.
Kendra Webdale
Her family said Kendra would never turn away from a stranger. That proved to be true, in the most tragic of ways. On a damp, dreary day in January 1999, Kendra crossed paths with another New Yorker, a stranger named Andrew Goldstein. Kendra had made a last-minute decision to defy the rain, and take the subway to meet some friends. Andrew was going to take the same train home. Witnesses say Andrew stepped up to Kendra and asked the time. Then, just as the train pulled into the station, he stood behind Kendra, and with what one person called impeccable timing, shoved Kendra in front of the train. She died on the tracks.
The horrific story stunned not only New Yorkers, but the entire nation. What could have prompted someone to push a total stranger in front of the fast-moving train?
To find the answer, Dateline spent 10 months investigating the story. We learned that Andrew Goldstein had quite a history. Once a student at one of New York's premier high schools, he developed schizophrenia, an incurable brain disease that can cause hallucinations, paranoia, and, in rare untreated cases, bizarre, and even violent behavior.
We obtained access to Goldstein's confidential 3,500 page medical record, which is replete with evidence that he had a long history of violence, particularly against women. It also revealed that the mental health system either could not, or would not give him the help he needed. His journey through poorly coordinated services and revolving door care would, in the end, lead to that subway platform, and Kendra Webdale.
But this is not only a story about Kendra Webdale and Andrew Goldstein. It is also about Kendra's remarkable family, particularly her parents, Pat and Ralph Webdale. Look up "salt of the earth" in the dictionary. In my book it says, "See Webdale." You need only talk to them for a short time to appreciate how much they loved their daughter, and understand why they grieve for her every day. Yet despite some very low points, and moments of extreme pain and doubt, they did not succumb to their misery, but rather followed a path which is quite surprising.
Over the years, the Webdales have not only developed compassion for mentally ill people and their families, but they have worked hard to educate the rest of us about mental illness.
This is not tilting at windmills stuff. Their efforts have lead directly to changes in the mental health system, not only in New York, but across the nation. Due in part to the Webdales' work, New York state says it has taken steps to streamline, coordinate, and better monitor mental health services for people with serious mental illness. It has also made more community services available, giving the highest priority to treating the people who are most in need. And 41 states have passed "Kendra's Law," which would, under certain circumstances, force someone like Goldstein to take medication, compel the state to monitor him, and briefly hospitalize him if he refuses to comply.
Pat Webdale is surely right when she says, "It's not an ego trip to have a law named after your child." But Kendra's Law stands as the legacy of a young woman's family, and their determination to not let her death be in vain.
Dateline's report on "Deadly Encounter," the life-shattering crime and the seven-year search for justice, airs Jan. 20 Saturday, 8 p.m. on NBC.
