A 31-year-old woman, who has mental illness, was reported missing last week and her car, along with a suicide note, was found at a forest preserve in Waukegan, her family said.
Jennifer I. Schneider, 31, was last seen on September 13 around 7:15 a.m. when she left her parent’s home in Waukegan for a meeting in Aurora.
Her father’s 9mm pistol also went missing when she disappeared and her phone is turned off, the woman’s family said, adding that a missing persons report has been filed with the Waukegan Police Department.
Schneider’s car, a black Honda CR-V with Colorado plates, was found in the main parking lot of Lyons Woods Forest Preserve, 10200 Blanchard Road in Waukegan, when the park was closing for the night.
A 13-page letter, along with a power of attorney and living will, was found in her car. The letter, addressed to her family, detailed Schneider’s struggle with mental illness, the mental health system in the United States, the world, corporations and other topics.
“We are here. This is happening, and I am sorry. However, I needed to make this decision. Essentially, borderline personality disorder—along with my many other mental illnesses, which include clinical depression, treatment resistant depression, dysthymia (yes, that’s three varieties of depression), generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and avoidant/dependent personality disorder—has had and will continue to have a large, negative impact on my life,” Schneider said in the opening of the letter.
“I have made the decision to no longer live with a brain ravaged by borderline personality disorder and my long list of additional mental illnesses. Simply put, it is too painful for me to exist with all of these mental illnesses,” Schneider said in the letter.
“I understand that there are treatments for borderline personality disorder and all of my other mental illnesses, but I’ve already been through over six years of treatment. For years and years, I was in treatment with little to no results, just suffering. Like with some forms of cancer, treatment for some mental illnesses can only do so much. I want the suffering to end,” Schneider said.
Police and numerous canines have searched the Lyons Woods Forest Preserve with no results so far.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Waukegan Police Department at 847-599-2608.