Terri Schiavo Friend: She Often Had Bruises, Talked Divorce

Bioethics | Steven Ertelt | Mar 26, 2005 | 9:00AM | WASHINGTON, DC

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 26, 2005

Pinellas Park, FL (LifeNews.com) — A friend of Terri Schiavo’s says the disabled woman frequently had bruises on her arms and legs prior to her collapse in 1990. The comments lend further evidence to allegations that Terri’s estranged husband Michael abused her and that those actions caused her current condition.

"I did notice bruises on her upper arms and upper legs," Jackie Rhodes told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren.

The two worked together at an insurance company’s office.

Rhodes said she wasn’t phased at the time by Terri’s frequent bruising and attributed it to "maybe running into the desk at work or, you know, maybe she was extra-sensitive."

"But now, hindsight tells me that I did see them quite frequently and that they may have been more than just a bump into the desk," Rhodes explained told Fox News.

"They were mostly bruises where normally they would be covered up, you know, during the work day," she said on Van Susteren’s program. "They were smaller bruises, like maybe someone had grabbed her or, you know, like, squeezed her arm or leg really tight."

In her Friday interview, Rhodes revealed that Terri and her husband had a heated argument on the evening prior to February 25, 1990, when Michael supposedly woke up to find Terri unconscious in the hallway of the couple’s St. Petersburg home.

Rhodes told Fox News that Terri called her in tears after the fight and she confirmed other accounts of Terri saying she and Michael had discussed a divorce.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, Rhodes said Terri had gone the day before to get her hair done and the fight developed because Michael disapproved of Terri spending so much money.

"It sounded like she had been crying," Rhodes said. "I asked her if she was OK. She said she had a fight with Michael. He was extremely upset with her because she had spent $80 on her hair."

Rhode testified in court during a previous hearing that Michael frequently made derogatory comments about Terri, such as Telling her that her legs were too skinny.

A bone scan conducted on Terri one year after she collapsed found possibly physical trauma indicating potential abuse. After Michael and Bob and Mary Schindler began their legal battle in 1998, local authorities said the scan was too old to investigate.

The Florida Department of Children and Families hoped to half Terri’s starvation death for 60 days to look into various accusations of abuse and neglect, but Judge George Greer denied the requests.

Meanwhile, Terri’s brother Bobby Schindler told Fox News Channel’s "Hannity & Colmes" on Thursday that a doctor has testified that she might have been strangled before she was found unconscious.