Dateline Story

I was watching a dateline story about a college student who committed suicide at a University in Canada. Turns out while she already had her mind made up, she stumbled on an issue I cant believe exists. She got online to talk about here issue and then--present motive, uncovering a series of people who were depressed and wanted to commit suicide as well. She stumbled upon one person online who claimed to feel her pain and wanted to create a pack for both of them to die together. This person began to influence the troubled young woman to hang herself while recording it on the live web cam for others to see. She claimed she would do it too. Either way the young woman took her own life, but not the way she was persuaded to by the online accomplice.

Meanwhile, across the ocean this old lady who lost her parents, got online to find a relief for the pain she felt. During her quest to find others like her to talk about her problems, she learned of a large number of suicidal chat rooms where people gathered to talk about their common goal—topics on suicide. Eventually she stumbled upon the same person who tried to convince the student of the Canadian university to hang herself. This old lady single handedly investigated and found this predator, who was persuading thousands of people online to hang themselves. She took her finding to the police, who did nothing about it for several years. This man (predator) was taken to court, but because the law to persecute anyone who help others commit suicide has never been put in effect, they are still struggling to persecute in this case.

The irony here is: how many people would have to die before issue is taken seriously, with affirmative action. I do understand that as in the case with the student in Canada, she was already convinced and didn’t quite need compelling, but what about the others who need someone to talk them out of the nightmare they are living with. A suicide predator should be stopped, and we don’t need a law that tells this is wrong because we can see it clearly. 

To the old lady who spent several years finding this predator, Bravo!!! I think this issue gave her a reason to carry on in her initial time of pain. It gave her something meaningful to do with her time, which benefited the some solution to the issue. I applaud her work and help in this issue.