‘How is that possible’: Mom questions how daughter escaped Mercy’s mental health facility

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A mother is calling for answers after she says her daughter escaped from Mercy’s Hyland Behavioral Health Center on Saturday.

Lolian Badeaux says she thought her 24-year-old daughter was safe there, on a 96-hour hold, only to find out her daughter escaped.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Badeaux said. “How is that possible? What were the employees doing? They did not watch my child or other patients, right? Crying, crying. Freaking out, saying, ‘How is this so?’ She’s there to get help and supposed to be secure and safe.”

Badeaux says the 96-hour hold meant she wasn’t supposed to leave, and she was supposed to have a tighter level of watch. She says her daughter has postpartum depression, psychosis and is suicidal.

She says Saturday, July 20 she got a call that her daughter escaped while having dinner in the facility’s cafeteria.

“I stayed up all night searching the roads for my child. People’s lives are in their hands,” said Badeaux.

She says her daughter was eventually found the next day with scratches in the emergency room on Mercy’s South campus.

Badeaux’s concern is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mentally ill in Missouri.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice found that Missouri is breaking the law when it comes to housing the mentally ill in nursing homes.

The 45-page report was based on the DOJ’s 18-month investigation. It determined individuals suffering from mental illness were “subjected to unnecessary stays in nursing facilities, generally because of a series of systemic failures by the state.”

The report also reveals the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily institutionalizing adults with mental health disabilities in nursing homes and found the state is failing to provide community-based services for the mentally ill.

“There’s some issues here at a mental health facility,” said Badeaux. “Someone can seriously get hurt, either by killing themselves or the community.

In September 2023, Tommy Boyd, who was serving a 30-year sentence for statutory sodomy, escaped from Mercy South after being transported for treatment. Boyd was in the custody of the Department of Corrections when he was able to walk out.

Hyland Behavior Health Center is on Mercy’s South campus.

As far as the Hyland escape, Mercy sent First Alert 4 this statement: “Patient privacy laws prevent us from providing patient-related information to anyone not authorized by a patient, including whether someone is or was a patient.”

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says the incident is under review.

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