#dana plato
On 7 May 1999, Dana Plato appeared on the Howard Stern Show, where she recounted her life as a child star, her struggles with drugs and alcohol, and her high-profile criminal arrests (including armed robbery). While Stern was sympathetic, Plato encountered much abuse from callers (including one who called her an “ex-con lesbian drug addict with mental problems”).
After the show, Plato and her fiance, Robert Menchaca, traveled from New York to Moore, OK to visit Menchaca’s mother for Mother’s Day.
At some time on 8 May, Plato told Menchaca that she was going to lie down in the couple’s RV. A number of hours passed before Menchaca checked on her. When he did, Plato was dead from a drug overdose. Menchaca took a number of pictures of the dead 34-year-old former child star before the police arrived.
While the official conclusion was suicide, many believe that Plato’s death was accidental, that in her drugged state she forgot how many pills she had taken, and kept taking them until she reached a fatal dose.
On Mother’s Day 2010 (6 May), almost 11 years to the day of his mother’s death, Plato’s 25-year-old son, Tyler Lambert, killed himself with a gunshot to the head. A friend of the family told reporters that Lambert “wanted to be with Mom.”
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