July 23, 2008 Suicide connected to Taunton foreclosure? Play video

(NECN: Prat Thakkar, Taunton, Mass.) - The housing crisis could be connected to the suicide of a Massachusetts woman. The 53-year-old Taunton woman took her own life on the same day her home was to be auctioned off.

Carlene Balderrama shot her self after she sent a fax to her mortgage company, threatening suicide because of plans to auction of her home -- according to police.

Taunton Police Chief Raymond O'Berg says officers found Balderrama dead of a gunshot wound inside her 103 Duffy Drive house just over an hour after employees at the mortgage company received the fax message and called police.

"By the time you foreclose on my house I'll be dead," O'Berg said the fax read in part.

The chief also said a suicide note found next to the body urged the woman's husband and son to "take the insurance money and pay for the house."

Police say there are no signs of foul play.