Ashlie Bunch
Victim of Attachment Therapy
Seattle, Washington
Suicide at age 15, January 2008
The following account has been prepared from press reports, personal interviews, trial transcripts, and other public records.
Ashlie Bunch, 15, hanged herself with a shoelace one winter night at a suicide prevention facility in Seattle. She was a adopted child who had been diagnosed with "Attachment Disorder," as well as bipolar disorder, fetal alcohol effects, attention deficit disorder and defiance disorder. 
Steve and Ann Marie Bunch,
Ashlie Bunch's father and stepmother,
with a photograph of Ashlie when
she was 13 years old.
[Photo: Mike Siegel, The Seattle Times]
Ashlie had been adopted at age four by Steve Bunch. Mr Bunch then divorced and remarried to Ann Marie Bunch. Ashlie was said to have had worsening problems with attention span, separation anxiety, self-abuse and hallucinations. After some troubles at school, a judge ordered her to be hospitalized at McGraw Residential Center. During her six-month stay at McGraw, Ashlie attempted suicide eight times. Mr. Bunch is suing the McGraw for failing to make checks on Ashlie during the night; he claims she was unattended for eleven hours. He characterizes Ashlie as “a typical 15-year-old child 80 percent of the time.”
The Ashlie Bunch Foundation has been established by the family to help prevent teen suicide.
Webography
- “Father plans to sue over daughter's death at psychiatric facility,” Seattle Times, 7 May 2009.
- “Seattle home for suicidal children sued over death,” by Tim Klass, Associated Press Writer, The Seattle Times, 7 May 2009.
- Ashlie Bunch Foundation News
- "Facility let teen kill herself, lawsuit says," KOMO News, 7 May 2009.