Jayce Osteen one month old baby boy orphaned after Clayton Osteen and Victoria Pacheco Florida Sheriff’s deputy couple commit suicide days apart. Mental health cited.
A one month old infant boy has been orphaned after the child’s parents, Florida sheriff’s deputies took their own lives within days of each other.
Clayton Osteen, 24, and Victoria Pacheco both died by suicide in the past week, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday in a Facebook release.
Shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve, authorities received a call that Osteen had attempted suicide. He was transported to the hospital for his injuries.
On Jan. 2, Osteen’s family decided to remove him from life support, the sheriff’s office said.
It remained unclear what led to the officer seeking to take their own life.
Former deputy of the year
In the wake of her partner’s death, Pacheco also died by suicide, the sheriff’s department learned on Tuesday. Osteen and Pacheco shared a 1-month-old son named Jayce.
Osteen joined the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office in 2019.
In 2020, he was awarded deputy of the year, according to his obituary.
‘Clayton was one hell of a funny guy, someone you could always count on in the time of need, and loved being an uncle,’ his loved ones wrote. ‘He absolutely adored his significant other and mother of his child. But of all his accomplishments, he was most proud of being a dad.’
Mental health
Olsteen was a retired Marine, who served as a rifleman with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. He enlisted in 2015 and was even featured in a 2016 training video. It’s unclear why he left the Marine Corps, and how he met Pacheco. Little is known about Pacheco as well. According to The Daily Mail, the couple welcomed their first child Jayce Osteen in November 2021.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara issued a statement on Tuesday, writing: ‘Words cannot express the tremendous loss we all feel after losing these two members of our sheriff’s office family.’
He continued, ‘As sheriff, I saw these two deputies as young, ambitious, and a great compliment to my already amazing group of professionals. To the general public, and sometimes even myself, it’s easy to view law enforcement as superhuman…but let’s not forget that they’re human just like us.’
Mascara alluding to the ravages of mental health in taxing professions stated that law enforcement often carries the weight of ‘the stress of those whom they serve’ in addition to their own struggles.
Suicide rates among police remains a pressing reality in the US, with one 2020 study finding that more cops are likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. In many cases, mental health has been attributed as a key factor, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic began, leading cops to be overworked and underpaid.
