Mom who triggered Amber Alert planned to inject daughter with bleach to get rid of 'parasites'
An Idaho mom who triggered an Amber Alert in Washington last week planned to inject herself and her child with bleach because of parasites, police have said.
41-year-old Brooke Helmandollar was arrested and charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment of a child for the incident involving her 10-year-old daughter, Alissa, after authorities were quickly able to locate both her and the girl after the Amber Alert was issued.
According to a press release by the Nampa Police Department, the Amber Alert for Alissa was put out on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, a day after the girl was last seen with the 41-year-old at a Nampa hotel.
Police said they were possibly headed towards the Portland, Oregon, area in a silver 2018 Nissan Sentra with an Idaho license plate and they believed the girl to be in danger "due to Brooke's recent threatening behavior towards Alissa."
The Amber Alert was canceled a day later after authorities managed to track Helmandollar and the 10-year-old to Cheney, Washington, following a tip that was called into the Cheney Police Department concerning their whereabouts.
Citing court documents, KREM reported that Helmandollar confessed to running away with her daughter because she believed they were both infested with parasites. She said she planned to have the two of them drink charcoal, receive enemas or colon cleaning, and inject bleach to kill the parasites — police found materials for all the same at the Nampa hotel they were staying in before they disappeared.
The signs that something was off was visible from as early as March 12, according to court documents. On the day, Helmandollar is said to have called Alissa's school and told them she would be picking her daughter up to treat a "parasite problem." When she picked the 10-year-old up, she told a staff member that they would be staying in a motel because their house was infested with parasites and insects.
Her husband, John Helmandollar, denied that their apartment was infested with anything and also revealed his wife suffered from mental health problems and that he had tried to get her into a rehab facility. Helmandollar, for her part, admitted the same to officers and claimed she sought medical help for her issues but that she felt doctors were not listening to her.
After her arrest, Helmandollar was taken to Sacred Heart for a mental evaluation while Alissa has been placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. The father is also being investigated for child endangerment after it emerged that he was aware of the 10-year-old's disappearance but did nothing about it — phone records showed he was in constant communication with his wife. Court documents also stated that when the child's dad found out about the Amber Alert, he exclaimed, "That's not going to make me look good."