Woman Rams Car Into Tower, Killing Self, 3 Children

An emotionally troubled woman packed her three young children into the family station wagon and slammed into a high-voltage electric tower in what investigators are calling a murder-suicide.

“At this point there’s no other reasonable explanation,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Hoig said Friday.

The fiery crash occurred early Thursday. Investigators theorize that the car was going about 50 mph when it hit the tower in an unincorporated area near Hayward, a suburb in the east San Francisco Bay Area.

The tower was off the main road, and there were no skid marks indicating that the driver had tried to brake.

The crash rammed the engine into the passenger compartment and touched off a fire so intense it melted parts of the 1989 Toyota wagon.

The crash killed the mother, 37-year-old Maureen Barbieri, and her three children, Christopher, 8, Melinda, 6, and Matthew, 2.

Hoig said a note was found that indicated the woman had “written that this is our last night.”

The tragedy appears to have begun early Thursday when Barbieri, who had been treated for depression, got into a fight with her husband, Thomas, at their home in San Ramon, Hoig said.

She called San Ramon police, but when they arrived they only found her husband, who told them his wife had already left with the children.

The deaths stunned neighbors.

“I can’t believe it, because she was a sweet lady,” said Angela Muller, who had known the family for three years.

“Some people think that I’m in denial, that these are the facts. But I still don’t believe she would do it, no matter what problems she had,” said another neighbor, Karen Homan. “She was always really good with her kids.”