Taunted girl with Huntington's disease dies
By Josh Katzenstein
The Detroit News
Wyandotte— About two years after enduring taunts from a neighbor,
9-year-old Kathleen Edward has died from her battle with Huntington's disease.
Her father, Robert Edward, said Kathleen died at 10:07 p.m. Wednesday at their Wyandotte home.
"The world remembers her smile and will never forget it," he said Thursday morning. "She would do anything for anybody. She never complained — never."
Ashley Edward, 5, has been looking at the sky since Wednesday night trying to talk to her sister, her father said. Her other sister, Maddison, is only 2 and doesn't completely understand, he said.
Kathleen received support from around the world after a neighbor taunted her by putting her picture above a set of crossbones on Facebook in September 2010, among other alleged taunts. The now former Trenton neighbor,
Jennifer Petkov, was later arrested on charges stemming from allegations that she attempted to run over another neighbor with her car, but her probation has ended.
Though Kathleen only died within the past several hours, her father said he's seen Facebook pages flooded with supportive comments.
"We don't know how to deal with this," he said. "We've been trying to prepare for this for five years, but there's just no way you can prepare."
Kathleen fell last week and had to have staples put in her head, but doctors told her father that didn't cause her death. She became ill over the past two days, and antibiotics couldn't save her.
"She just couldn't do it anymore," he said.
Kathleen had lost muscle control because of the disease, but she loved watching movies with her sisters, said longtime family friend Michelle Yerigian, 44.
"Aunt Shelly," as the girls call her, said Kathleen was surrounded by family and friends when she died, and she appeared comfortable at the end.
"There were so many people that came by just to support the family and to say goodbye to Kathleen," Yerigian said. "She just touched our lives in more ways than we could ever describe.
"She was surrounded by love."
Although Kathleen's story gained national attention because of the unfortunate taunting story, it helped teach people about genetic diseases such as Huntington's, said Fred Taubman, spokesman for Huntington's Disease Society of America.
"It certainly built a lot of awareness in the Detroit area and the region and to some extent nationally," Taubman said, though he wished it hadn't come as a result of the taunting. "This is a story that everybody could relate to because nobody wants to see anybody treated in that way."
Robert Edward is making funeral arrangements later Thursday, but said the girl's memorial will be at Michigan Memorial Funeral Home in Flat Rock. She will be buried at Mount Hope Memorial Garden in Livonia next to her mother, Laura Edward, who died of Huntington's disease in June 2009.
jkatzenstein@detnews.com
(313) 222-2019
