March 1st, 2008
Suzanne Pagella is dead
Former TV news anchor, Suzanne Pagella, was found hanged by her mother in her Detroit home last weekend in an apparent suicide.
She was admired by friends, and had apparently succeeded in life. According to Tom Dowlin:
“She made it big in Detroit. She was born for that,” and “That’s just how we thought about her. She was the first to go out and do what she said she would do.”
Her personal life seemed to be no longer different; she was married with a former college quarterback and had four children.
But at some point, Wangler’s life went into free fall, with a divorce, debt and several arrests, including one last week on an embezzlement charge.
Carl Marlinga, her defense attorney, said he was concerned when they spoke at her arraignment.
“I said `Are you depressed? Are you suicidal?’” Marlinga said. “She just kind of laughed it off and said `Don’t be silly.’”
It ended with a crash last weekend when Wangler’s mother found her hanging from a beam in the basement of her Royal Oak home, just north of Detroit.
“When I read about all of the bad, it’s so sad because people don’t know her. She had such a huge heart,” former classmate Jenni Wilson said.
“She was fantastic, absolutely the life of the party. She was so full of joy, funny and smart and so ambitious, one of those people who was going to make it in life.”
“She told me her world came apart on Dec. 9, 1999, when she knew there was likely to be a divorce,” said Marlinga, who had known Suzanne Wangler from her early days as a reporter. “She told me she never really got over it.”
“She was making a comeback,” Marlinga said. “She was getting her foot in the door.”
Marlinga said he last spoke with Wangler on the night of Feb. 22.
“She said she was going to a job fair on Saturday and that she would give me a call,” he said. “I thought that was great news and I took it as a hopeful sign.
“I told her to draw on her Catholic faith. `Forgive yourself and you’ll come out of this feeling great.’ That was the last pep talk I gave her.”
RIP, Suzanne
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