Jessica’s pleas in vain

By Melissa Donchi
A 24 year-old woman found dead inside her Chum Creek home had put out a desperate plea for help just months earlier.
Jessica Ling was found lying on her couch, not breathing, by a visiting priest at 10.30am on Tuesday 4 September.
While she is believed to have died from health complications, the coroner has been advised of her death.
Ms Ling was believed to have suffered from a mild intellectual disorder which she had sought treatment for at various health facilities.
She was a regular visitor to mental health programs at Rivendell in Healesville and Shiralee House in Yarra Junction and was described as outgoing, cheerful and talkative by her peers.
But Ms Ling told a different story to the Mail when she approached the paper at the beginning of the year.
Over a period of two months she would contact the newspaper agitated and in tears as she pleaded for help to treat her mental illness.
Ms Ling believed she had a borderline personality disorder but said she wasn’t able to access any treatment because she had not been officially diagnosed.
“I need to talk to someone who understands what I’m going through,” Ms Ling told the Mail in March.
“Someone needs to come out and assess my situation and give [me] medication.”
Desperate and alone, Ms Ling began contacting emergency services to take her to hospital but she was always released within a few hours.
She spoke of ‘self harming’ and overdosing on valium and other pills earlier in the year.
In March, Lilydale police confirmed that they forcibly took her to the emergency department of Maroondah Hospital because of her ‘suicidal tendancies.’
“Since about the 15th of February I’ve felt really really down, worse than usual,” Ms Ling told the Mail earlier in the year.
“When I’m sick [I’m] not good.”
Ms Ling said she had sought treatment at Maroondah Hospital but had been unsuccessful.
When the Mail contacted Maroondah Hospital for comment, they refused to release any information about Ms Ling but confirmed that she had been removed from the hospital for “spitting and using bad language”.
Six months later the Mail received a phonecall from Maroondah Hospital offering to release the information with the consent of Ms Ling.
But, Jessica Ling was already dead.