Clayton Osteen and Victoria Pacheco: The tragic story of a real-life Romeo and Juliet
The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office on January 3, 2022, confirmed the tragic death of two deputies - Clayton Osteen and Victoria Pacheco. As we reported at the time, the couple died by suicide within days of each other, orphaning their one-month-old infant. At the time, Sheriff Ken Mascara did not detail what exactly happened but did not cite "mental well-being" as a factor. On January 6, we learned more about the couple as their families mourned their loss.
Osteen and Pacheco are the latest cops to die by suicide, an alarming trend that has been growing since the start of the pandemic. After the January 6 insurrection, four responders - Kyle DeFreytag, Gunther Hashida, Jeffrey Smith, and Howard Liebengood - took their own lives. It prompted an urgent review of the Capitol Police, but over a year later, many of the recommendations are yet to be implemented.
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A 2020 Department of Justice review noted that the number of police suicides between 2017-2019 "exceeds the number of line-of-duty deaths." The tragedy in St Lucie County has not gone unnoticed, especially since Osteen and Pacheco have left behind their infant, who is now in the care of Osteen's brother.
'A Romeo-Juliet story'
As we reported earlier, Osteen was a former US Marine who left the corps to join the Sheriff's Office in November 2019. While it's unclear how he met Pacheco, who joined in February 2020, the couple was compared to Romeo and Juliet by Bernice Bartolini, Pacheco's grandmother. Taking to Facebook on January 6, Bartolini posted, "My heart is so sad I thought I was hurting before I lost my beautiful granddaughter tragic Romeo and Juliet story they are now together forever." She went on to add, "Victoria and I were very close when I lived in Florida she was there for me I wish I could have been there for her."
On a GoFundMe page, a family friend revealed more about the couple. "Clayton and Victoria were joy-filled, first-time parents excited about their growing family, enamored with their baby Jayce, and so in love with each other." It went on to note, "Tragically, for reasons completely unknown and totally out of character, Clayton took his own life." The page is attempting to raise $10,000 to provide for the care of baby Jayce, and at the time of reporting went well past the goal and has raised over $38,000.
More tributes continue to pour in for the families from friends and the community. "The grief is deep and painful. Parents shouldn’t have to bury their children" one person wrote on Facebook, while another said, "I struggle with finding the words to write that even remotely does him justice."
