Bipolar Daughter Needed Help; Her Parents, Answers

"Our daughter was incredibly tortured because of their disregard," Kathy Paine said.

Police declined to comment.

The first sign of Eilman's bipolar disorder came in February 2005. She lost control of her car and struck a utility pole, her mother said, but walked away from the wreck.

A friend called her parents the next day, saying Eilman was behaving erratically.

"She was very different. Very irate. Aggressive. Loud. Out of control," Rick Paine said. "We were going to pick her up and take her home, but we realized, 'This isn't going to work.' ... So we called 911."

Eilman spent 37 days in a psychiatric hospital, diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Upon her release, she was prescribed pills, but stopped taking them after a few days, her mother said.

Although worried, her parents thought she was stable.

When she enrolled at UCLA, her parents grew more confident that she was better.

But after some time, Eilman was faltering. Without telling her parents, she dropped out.

Late on Saturday, May 6, a distraught Eilman called her parents from a rental-car counter at Midway Airport in Chicago and said she was stranded.

Rick Paine arranged a room for her near the airport and booked her a return flight for the next day.

In the morning, he spoke with her several times. "She said: 'I feel really good. I got a good night's sleep,' and she sounded really calm versus the way she was the night before," he said.

When he left for work Sunday, he was confident his daughter was headed to Midway on a hotel shuttle and would soon be home.

In the afternoon, though, a Chicago police officer left messages on both Paines' cellphones. Eilman had been arrested for creating a disturbance.

Rick Paine called back immediately. He said he explained to an officer that Eilman was bipolar. The officer "was very supportive. She seemed like she was getting what I was saying."

He asked whether it was possible for the police to help his daughter board her flight. The officer said she would have to check and call back, he said.

But he missed the return call. About 10 minutes passed before he noticed the voice mail and called Chicago.

This time he spoke to a different officer, who told him the first officer had left and Eilman was on her way to lockup.

At this point, Kathy Paine took over calling the police. Redirected to the district where Eilman was held, the tone of conversations changed, she said.