In this blog we have followed many of the aspects of suicide, as it is a heightened risk for those suffering from a brain injury. Many people who have suicidal ideation can have actual physical problems present in their brains which affect their ability to function “normally” or to exert good judgment when monitoring their own mental state.
In the past there have been movies depicting characters who live their lives in front of a movie camera, knowingly or unknowingly. The increased presence of the internet in our lives and the increased ability to share our lives with the public has fulfilled the plot writers’ prophetic views of our morbid desire to search ever deeper into the human condition. It becomes a dark union when the ability to probe into each other’s private lives and suicide overlap. A cry for help? Or a desire for public attention? Either way, this news story is a disturbing look into today’s culture in which teens are already at high risk.
Date: 11/21/2008
By RASHA MADKOUR
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) _ The message OMG popped up next to the live webcam broadcast of Abraham Biggs laying motionless on his bed, followed by LOL and “hahahah.”
But Biggs wasn’t joking.
The 19-year-old Broward College student really did commit suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live Internet audience, as some computer users egged him on and others tried to talk him out of it.
Some watchers ultimately contacted the Web site to notify police, but by the time officers entered Abraham Biggs’ home, it was too late. The reality of what happened came to a head for these viewers after police entered the video frame and were seen hovering over Biggs’ body.
Biggs, who suffered from what his family said was bipolar disorder, or manic depression, lay dead on his bed in his father’s Pembroke Pines house Wednesday afternoon, the camera still running 12 hours after Biggs announced his intentions online around 3 a.m.
It was unclear how many people watched it unfold.
Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama — and the reaction of those watching — was seen as an extreme example of young people’s penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.
Biggs’ family was infuriated that no one acted sooner to save him, neither the viewers nor the Web site that hosted the live video, Justin.tv. The Web site shows a video image, with a space alongside where computer users can instantly post comments.
Only when police arrived did the Web feed stop, “so that’s 12 hours of watching,” said the victim’s sister, Rosalind Bigg. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.”
She added: “It didn’t have to be.”
An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.
Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. But some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner’s office.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
Someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs’ location and called police, Crane said.
An online video purportedly from Biggs’ webcam shows a gun-wielding officer entering a bedroom, where a man is lying on a bed, his face turned away from the camera. The officer begins to examine him, as the camera lens is covered. Authorities could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video, though it matched their description of what occurred.
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs’ very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
“If it’s not recorded or documented then it doesn’t even seem worthwhile,” she said. “For today’s generation it might seem, ‘What’s the point of doing it if everyone isn’t going to see it?'”
She likened Biggs’ death to other public ways of committing suicide, like jumping off a bridge.
Crane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn’t know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.
In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: “We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time.”
The Web site would not say how many people were watching the broadcast. The site as a whole had 672,000 unique visitors in October, according to Nielsen.
Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn’t seem to be much of a case for negligence.
“There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn’t take action,” said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But “I think it would be a stretch.”
Condolences poured into Biggs’ MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On the bodybuilding Web site, Biggs used the screen name CandyJunkie. His Justin.tv alias was “feels_like_ecstacy.”
Rosalind Bigg described her brother as an outgoing person who struck up conversations with Starbucks baristas and enjoyed taking his young nieces to Chuck E. Cheese. He was health-conscious and exercised but was not a bodybuilder, she said.
“This is very, very sudden and unexpected for us,” the sister said. “It boggles the mind. We don’t understand.”
___
Associated Press Writers Jessica Gresko and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and researcher Lynn Dombek contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Human drama fills case called landmark on Internet
Date: 11/17/2008
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The case of U.S. vs. Lori Drew is viewed in legal circles as landmark Internet law, but as outlined in government documents with its neighborhood feuds and a teen’s suicide, it reads more like a plotline for a made-for-TV drama.
In fact, as the judge has noted, the case of the 49-year-old Missouri woman accused of taunting a 13-year-old girl on the Internet to the point where she committed suicide has already inspired an episode of “Law & Order.”
U.S. District Judge George Wu said he considered a defense motion to exclude evidence of the suicide from the trial that begins Tuesday. But he finally decided it would be futile since people being called for jury duty most likely know about it.
Instead, he said he would instruct the jurors that the case is about whether Drew violated the terms of service of the MySpace social networking site, not about whether she caused the suicide of Megan Meier.
Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.
Drew’s lawyer, Dean Steward, argued that no matter what the judge tells the jury, once they hear the story, they will not see it as a case about violating rules in cyberspace.
“They will conclude it’s about the tragic death of a young girl,” he said. “The jury is going to end up thinking that Lori Drew is being tried for the death of Megan Meier.”
Not so, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause, but his memorandum presents a compelling narrative of discord and death in the town of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
The saga began years ago when the Drew and Meier families were friends in the St. Louis suburb. Their daughters were the same age, attended school together and were friends.
Megan, who is referred to in court documents as M.T.M. because she was a minor, spent time with the Drews and traveled with them, the prosecutor said.
“However, their relationship was, at times, rocky,” the document notes. “On … occasions, M.T.M. feuded with defendant’s daughter.”
Megan’s mother, Christina Meier, confided in Drew that she was concerned for her daughter’s mental health and felt she was “particularly vulnerable,” Krause said.
Eventually, the girls drifted apart and in 2005, Megan transferred to a new school.
In the summer of 2006, Drew became concerned that Megan was spreading malicious rumors on MySpace about her daughter. The mother discussed the matter with her daughter and her 18-year-old assistant, Ashley Grills, the document said.
The three plotted to invent “an attractive male teenager” on MySpace and approach Megan using the false identity. They allegedly planned to find out what she was saying about Drew’s daughter.
Grills, who is expected to testify as the government’s star witness, has said she warned they would get in trouble if unmasked. But she said Drew assured her that “many people created fake identities on the Internet.”
Prosecutors declined to comment on whether Grills has been given immunity in exchange for her testimony.
“Josh Evans” was born on MySpace on Sept. 20, 2006, and was introduced as a new boy in town who was homeschooled and lonely.
The document said “he” contacted Megan, who quickly became smitten. After some innocent messages, Drew encouraged her co-conspirators to have him “flirt” with Megan.
Complications arose when another neighborhood girl obtained the password for the “Josh Evans” account and sent messages to Megan saying Josh no longer wanted to be friends with her. A dispute erupted and on Oct. 16, 2006, Grills typed a message telling Megan “that the world would be a better place without (her) in it.”
Megan ran upstairs and her mother found her about 20 minutes later hanging in her closet. She died the next day in the hospital.
Steward said outside court that part of Drew’s defense would be that she was not at home when the message was sent.
Grills said during an interview with the ABC’s “Good Morning America” last spring that she wrote the message to Megan in an effort to end the online relationship with “Josh” because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
When she learned of the suicide, Drew told her “co-schemers” to delete the MySpace account, Krause wrote. She called the other girl who had become part of the MySpace conversation and told her to “keep her mouth shut” and to “stay off the MySpace.”
Megan’s death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case. But in California, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien, noting that MySpace was headquartered in Los Angeles, found a statute that seemed to apply.
O’Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It had been used in the past to address computer hacking.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The case of U.S. vs. Lori Drew is viewed in legal circles as landmark Internet law, but as outlined in government documents with its neighborhood feuds and a teen’s suicide, it reads more like a plotline for a made-for-TV drama.
In fact, as the judge has noted, the case of the 49-year-old Missouri woman accused of taunting a 13-year-old girl on the Internet to the point where she committed suicide has already inspired an episode of “Law & Order.”
U.S. District Judge George Wu said he considered a defense motion to exclude evidence of the suicide from the trial that begins Tuesday. But he finally decided it would be futile since people being called for jury duty most likely know about it.
Instead, he said he would instruct the jurors that the case is about whether Drew violated the terms of service of the MySpace social networking site, not about whether she caused the suicide of Megan Meier.
Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.
Drew’s lawyer, Dean Steward, argued that no matter what the judge tells the jury, once they hear the story, they will not see it as a case about violating rules in cyberspace.
“They will conclude it’s about the tragic death of a young girl,” he said. “The jury is going to end up thinking that Lori Drew is being tried for the death of Megan Meier.”
Not so, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause, but his memorandum presents a compelling narrative of discord and death in the town of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
The saga began years ago when the Drew and Meier families were friends in the St. Louis suburb. Their daughters were the same age, attended school together and were friends.
Megan, who is referred to in court documents as M.T.M. because she was a minor, spent time with the Drews and traveled with them, the prosecutor said.
“However, their relationship was, at times, rocky,” the document notes. “On … occasions, M.T.M. feuded with defendant’s daughter.”
Megan’s mother, Christina Meier, confided in Drew that she was concerned for her daughter’s mental health and felt she was “particularly vulnerable,” Krause said.
Eventually, the girls drifted apart and in 2005, Megan transferred to a new school.
In the summer of 2006, Drew became concerned that Megan was spreading malicious rumors on MySpace about her daughter. The mother discussed the matter with her daughter and her 18-year-old assistant, Ashley Grills, the document said.
The three plotted to invent “an attractive male teenager” on MySpace and approach Megan using the false identity. They allegedly planned to find out what she was saying about Drew’s daughter.
Grills, who is expected to testify as the government’s star witness, has said she warned they would get in trouble if unmasked. But she said Drew assured her that “many people created fake identities on the Internet.”
Prosecutors declined to comment on whether Grills has been given immunity in exchange for her testimony.
“Josh Evans” was born on MySpace on Sept. 20, 2006, and was introduced as a new boy in town who was homeschooled and lonely.
The document said “he” contacted Megan, who quickly became smitten. After some innocent messages, Drew encouraged her co-conspirators to have him “flirt” with Megan.
Complications arose when another neighborhood girl obtained the password for the “Josh Evans” account and sent messages to Megan saying Josh no longer wanted to be friends with her. A dispute erupted and on Oct. 16, 2006, Grills typed a message telling Megan “that the world would be a better place without (her) in it.”
Megan ran upstairs and her mother found her about 20 minutes later hanging in her closet. She died the next day in the hospital.
Steward said outside court that part of Drew’s defense would be that she was not at home when the message was sent.
Grills said during an interview with the ABC’s “Good Morning America” last spring that she wrote the message to Megan in an effort to end the online relationship with “Josh” because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
When she learned of the suicide, Drew told her “co-schemers” to delete the MySpace account, Krause wrote. She called the other girl who had become part of the MySpace conversation and told her to “keep her mouth shut” and to “stay off the MySpace.”
Megan’s death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case. But in California, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien, noting that MySpace was headquartered in Los Angeles, found a statute that seemed to apply.
O’Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It had been used in the past to address computer hacking.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
