Woman who set herself on fire in Henrico had been released from mental hospital, sent to jail

A man who stopped to help her whipped around in a circle as if grasping for an idea. He paced back to her, pointing frantically, and tried to guide her to the side of the road.

“Don’t we have a blanket or something?” a grief-stricken bystander could be heard saying in a short video clip of the June 2 incident on Nuckols Road and Concourse Boulevard in western Henrico County.

“Oh, my God,” another bystander said. “Put ’em out quickly! Roll ’em on the floor!”

The video cuts off as O’Keefe shuffled off the road, arms outstretched from her torso. Photos show passers-by dousing her with water bottles before an ambulance arrived.

She was rushed to VCU Medical Center’s burn unit, where she died the next day.

Not much was known about O’Keefe in the days following the incident. Henrico police officers declined to identify her or share many details, but they said she appeared to have set herself ablaze intentionally.

In the weeks since, a picture has emerged of a 30-year-old model who became the latest in a long line of Virginians with mental illnesses who wind up ensnared in the criminal justice system.

O’Keefe’s former attorney, Glen Allen-based David L. Carlson, said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday that she was taken to jail after doctors at a state mental hospital released her without fully treating her.

She was in a fragile state of mind to begin with, but getting locked up in jail pushed her over the edge, Carlson said.

“This is one that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “We’ve got a dead kid here who shouldn’t be dead.”

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O’Keefe, who had a history of mental health disorders, was the daughter of Sean and Sharon O’Keefe of Glen Allen. They declined to be interviewed, but permitted their daughter’s story to be shared through Carlson.

On April 28, O’Keefe started acting aggressively at the home she shared with her parents. They called 911, hoping an ambulance would take her to a hospital to get stabilized with medication.

Instead, the police department responded and charged her with misdemeanor assault in the Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Carlson said the O’Keefes did not want charges to be filed against their daughter; no one was injured during the episode.

That day, she was taken to Central State Hospital in Petersburg after an emergency hearing. The facility is one of nine state-run hospitals for people needing mental health treatment.

Hospital officials are not permitted to talk about patients because of federal privacy laws, said Maria Reppas, a spokeswoman for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. It’s unclear what doctors there diagnosed O’Keefe with or what kind of treatment she received.

Rebecca A. Vauter, director of Central State Hospital, said patients who are involuntarily committed to the hospital can leave either when doctors decide they not longer pose a threat to themselves or someone else, or when a court decides to let them go.

It’s not clear which situation applied to O’Keefe because Vauter could not discuss specific patients.

Vauter said patients are not released if trained clinicians believe they intend to commit suicide, even if the facility is at or near capacity.

Dr. Jack Barber, interim commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, recently told a legislative panel that overcrowding at state hospitals has become an issue. Some have been at or over capacity in recent months.

The day O’Keefe was released, there were five extra beds, Vauter said.

“We’re prepared to go over census if we have to,” Vauter said. “Our primary concern is the patient’s clinical condition and keeping people safe.”

In several phone calls with Carlson while she was at Central State, it became clear that O’Keefe was anxious about the possibility of going to jail when she was released from the hospital.

Carlson said he assured her numerous times that he didn’t think she would wind up behind bars because her charge was not serious, her parents wanted her to come home, she had no criminal history and she wasn’t violent.

In a hearing on May 26, the Friday before Memorial Day, Central State decided to release O’Keefe, Carlson said. Because of her misdemeanor charge in domestic relations court, she had to be released to the Henrico Division of Police.

From there, a magistrate in Henrico would have ultimate authority to decide whether O’Keefe should be granted bond and allowed to go home, Carlson said.

He and his legal assistant, Lisa Kelley, said they sprang into action knowing it would be days before they could get O’Keefe in front of a judge for a bond hearing if a magistrate decided to send her to jail.

The afternoon of May 26, Kelley went to the magistrate’s office and pleaded into a speaker box for O’Keefe’s release. But the magistrate on duty, Bonita Comer, decided not to grant her bond.

In response to a message left for Comer, Yvette Via, chief magistrate over the region that includes Henrico, said magistrates are not permitted to speak about individual cases.

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Henrico Sheriff Mike Wade said O’Keefe arrived the afternoon of May 26 without medication from Central State Hospital. He said mental health workers at the jail who screen new inmates decided to put her on suicide watch.

He said she answered all of his questions in a cooperative manner. She was distressed, but that’s typical of most people who wind up in jail, he said.

“Jails are not the place for people that have mental illnesses,” Wade said last week. “We need short-term places where people can go to get treatment and get on medication.”

Wade called the O’Keefes and assured them his staff was keeping a close eye on their daughter. Her parents met with Wade and mental health workers at the jail and crafted a plan that included a follow-up appointment for their daughter with Henrico’s public mental health clinic.

On May 30, the Tuesday following Memorial Day, Carlson filed paperwork to get O’Keefe in front of a judge. At that hearing, which was held the next day, the judge released her without requiring bond payment, as long as she promised to follow through on her plan for treatment.

Wade said the next day, Thursday, June 1, O’Keefe attended the appointment with Henrico mental health workers as promised.

He said he wasn’t sure what happened after that.

On Friday evening, June 2, several bystanders happened upon O’Keefe on Nuckols Road and tried to put out the flames that engulfed her, but it was too late to save her.

“To me it was very upsetting because here’s somebody that needs help, who went in and got help from Central State, who was released and you put her on a plan to work with mental health (officials) in the community, and this happens,” Wade said. “It’s very frustrating because you don’t know what to do.”

Carlson, Kelley and Wade all question whether they could have done more to help O’Keefe.

“I guess it went through my mind: If she stayed in jail, would she still be alive?” Wade said. “But the only reasons she was in jail was because she was mentally ill. You can’t keep people in jail just because they’re mentally ill.”

Carlson said he’s lost a lot of sleep over O’Keefe’s death.

“She wasn’t malicious,” Carlson said. “She wasn’t mean. She was sick.”