Tag Archives: Human Interest

Reading the comments on this website, I had no idea that Victoria Hope was concealing her pregnancy. How can anyone not notice the weight gain of a woman carrying triplets? Are her parents the dumbest humans on earth? What the hell is going on up there in Connecticut? Geez.

SHELTON — Victoria Hope bled to death Tuesday while delivering three stillborn babies, according to autopsy results from the state’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, never picking up the phone to call for help.

Instead, it was Hope’s mother, Frances — who returned to their Redwood Circle home unaware of her daughter’s pregnancy — who grabbed the phone and called 911.

Victoria Hope, who was known as Tori, apparently told no one she was pregnant, police said Wednesday as friends and family continued to come to grips with the death of the 26-year-old and her triplet sons.

When officers arrived, they found her on her bedroom floor bleeding, Detective Sgt. Kevin Ahern said. While they were tending to her, officers found two of the babies on the bedroom floor and the third on the bathroom floor, he said, adding none could be revived.

Detective Ben Trabka said police believe even the children’s father didn’t know she was pregnant. “But we believe she knew she was pregnant.” They suspect that, he said, because she had made up a false medical condition to explain why she was gaining weight.

It wasn’t clear whether the woman knew she was carrying triplets before giving birth early Tuesday afternoon. Her father, William Hope, acknowledged Wednesday that his daughter was “big” and said he doesn’t know why she hid her pregnancy.

“That’s going to be the question we’ll never have an answer for,” he said.

Hope was the mother of two children, a 6-year-old son, Devin, and a 2-year-old daughter, Gabriella, with long-time boyfriend Ricky Miller Jr. He is assumed to be the father of the triplets, but only DNA testing can determine that, Trabka said.

Hope’s tragic death sent shock waves through her circle of friends.

“She was cool. I wasn’t like real great friends with her,” John Cude informed friends on his Facebook wall. “But when I (and) she hung out she was always super nice. I read the story (about her death). This is awful and unfortunate to the fullest.”

Her devotion to children was also evident in the community. In December, she showed up to speak out against budget cuts to the Shelton school system that would have resulted in teacher layoffs.

At the Wonder Years Learning Center in Shelton, which Devin attended until he started kindergarten two years ago, Hope is remembered as a “thoughtful,” “kind-hearted” and “involved mom.”

“When her son left our preschool to start kindergarten, she called to let us know she had gotten a lot of compliments on how well he was doing, how smart he was and how social,” Laura Lipinsky, co-owner of Wonder Years Learning Center, said. “Then she bought a pizza lunch for the whole staff and everybody. She thought we deserved some of the credit for how well her son was doing, and she appreciated us and that she wanted us to know that.”

Hope had recently been laid off from her job, Trabka said.

Her mother, Frances Hope, found her daughter and the newborn babies dead in their Redwood Circle home when she returned home around 1 p.m., he said.

Hope had been home all day, Trabka said, and her 2-year-old daughter also was in the house at the time of her mother’s death.

Frances Hope called police when she found her daughter, Trabka said, but emergency officials received no calls before that from Hope.

“There were no calls that came into the Police Department from the home before that,” he said, and police have not been able to find a record of her contacting anyone else that day.

The mother declined to comment on her daughter’s death Wednesday, only saying that the family is devastated.

She said funeral arrangements would be announced Thursday.