Teen commits suicide on webcam.

[npk]

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- With his webcam trained on him, a Florida teenager died in his bed of a drug overdose while others watched over the Internet, officials said Friday.

Some of those watching urged him to take more drugs while others debated whether he had taken enough to kill himself. Hours passed before someone finally notified authorities that he appeared lifeless, officials said.

The teenager was pronounced dead Wednesday afternoon in Pembroke Pines, Florida, said Wendy Crane, investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.

The cause of death was found to be an overdose of benzodiazepine, an antidepressant, as well as other opiate drugs used to treat depression, Crane said. CNN is not reporting the teenager's name.

The youth's body was found in his apartment behind a locked door, which police broke down. Police turned off the webcam and computer, Crane said.

She said he did not take anything on camera, according to footage she reviewed, but he blogged between 3 and 4 a.m. Wednesday that he had taken an overdose of drugs. He also posted a suicide note.

He was seen lying on his bed on the streaming video, posted on the Web site Justin.tv. On the site, a person can stream video from a Web camera while "viewers" chat with each other in a box next to the video, Crane said. The comments and video have since been removed from the Web site.

Crane read the comments posted during the 10 hours the youth could be seen lying on his bed.

As the teenager was lying on his bed, she said, people were typing things like, "Oh, that's not enough to kill you." Others, she said, were egging him on, saying things like "Go ahead and do it." Still others thought it wasn't real, Crane said.

About 11 a.m. Wednesday, Crane said, some viewers began to get concerned, writing things like, "He's not moving" and "He's not breathing."

One contacted the site's moderator to get the youth's contact information, she said, and the police were notified.

The teen "has made threats in the past regarding suicide and possibly had previous attempts," she said.

Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said in a statement, "we regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time."

Pembroke Pines police Sgt. John Gazzano said the case is under investigation.

Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Perper said the teen may have stood a chance of surviving had someone notified authorities right away.
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Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/21/webcam.suicide/index.html

What a sad thing to happen and not one person bothered to call the police or alert the moderator of the website until after he was dead.

[davidinalameda]

1. I thought people did contact 911

guess not

[npk]

3. Only after he was not moving, or some ten hours later

Then somebody called. It was sick that so many were posting on that site for him to take more pills, and basically egging him on.

[IndianaJones]

2. the people egging him on should go to jail. nt.

[snot]

4. what do we know about those who watched:

how many, how old, etc.

[Ken Burch]

7. We know, or can surmise, that they're divorced at some basic level from reality.

(at least the ones who told the kid to take more drugs).

To them, this was a video game or some sort of live-action movie. It just doesn't register to them that an actual human life was ended and in ending served as their entertainment.

It's a sign of how people have been stripped of some basic levels of humanity by the changes in this country, are deficient in what Jennifer Aniston referred to as "the empathy chip."

Some of these kids may have a future in the corporate world. The ability to have no concern for the consequences your choices have for others is highly valued in some of those circles.

[readmoreoften]

15. I think it's probably a mix of nihilists and sociopaths. The nihilists feel powerless to do anything

and are "shocked and awed" (i.e.: whatever, people die every day, commentary on the world we live in, troubling but nothing I can do, etc.) while the sociopaths are, well, members of the Young Republicans. You're right about their future in the corporate world. Personally I find this kind of spectacle and reaction to be very depressing. I can't think of anything indicating a more detached public than this.

[flvegan]

5. Hell of a reflection of what we are now.

Sad, what we are compared to what we used to be.

[emilyg]

6. Yes.

[EFerrari]

13. I literally do not understand how this could happen.

[anigbrowl]

19. That's probably because you don't hang out in the right parts of the internet

There's multiple subcultures on the net and many of them are not as serious-minded as DU, and if you approach them seriously they'll just make fun of you. A lot of cam websites and forums exist just for people to BS each other for lulz.

[EFerrari]

21. Subcultures of sociopaths? We had a person who was suicidal

in one of my groups. We sent the police out to his house for a welfare check and we didn't wait hours to do it.

[anigbrowl]

25. Not in the least

If you have a group where people take each other seriously and have serious discussions, then that's entirely appropriate. There are other, and equally legitimate, communities and sites where people go to prank and make fun of each other and there's an understanding that one is not supposed to take the content seriously or at face value. You don't switch on Saturday Night Live to get educated or increase your culture level, you don't visit a site like www.encyclopediadramatica.com to get quality sociology references, you don't go to stickam.com if you're not prepared to deal with people suggesting you put your shoes on your head. That doesn't mean the people who enjoy these various sorts of comedy are being sociopathic, any more than telling someone to go jump in the lake is meant to be taken as a literal instruction.

Go watch some Emo Phillips on YouTube. He's funny precisely because his comic persona would be too dysfunctional to live in the real world.

[EFerrari]

28. I worked in comedy for a long time. While there was plenty of

sociopathy, none of it involved ignoring suicidal gestures in any context.

[anigbrowl]

32. Sure it does

there was a sketch on SNL last Saturday about a guy throwing himself off a building and the two cops on the ground being too into their partner relationship to pay him proper attention. Drama queens are ten a penny in some contexts, and 99 times out of 100 someone saying 'I'm gonna kill myself' is a tactic to get or manipulate attention. When it turns out not to be that's tragic, but it's not like this guy was getting mocked by people at suicide-prevention.com or somesuch. I don't think the people watching his chat channel had any particular reason to think that he was any more serious than previous talk which amounted to nothing, and calls for their arrest or suchlike are the worst kind of Nancy Grace style sanctimony.

[readmoreoften]

17. Indeed it is.

[ZombieHorde]

29. What point in our history are you comparing us to?

[Triana]

8. ANYONE who teases, eggs someone on, mocks, etc. a person who is suicidal...

...is an accomplice when that person dies of suicide, IMO.

People don't talk about suicide to be 'dramatic' or because they are emo or a 'drama queen/king' - if they're talking about it - esp repeatedly - then that is a cry for HELP. It should be taken seriously and NOT mocked. When a person is depressed enough to be suicidal, the mockery and teasing only adds to the problem and makes it more likely that the person will proceed with attempts at suicide.

And that makes the shithead smartasses who think that someone who is suicidal is a "drama queen/king" and teases them about it - AN ACCOMPLICE to this. It's NOT funny.

And it's not only teenagers or kids who do it. As an adult, I've seen other adults mock and cajole someone who was severely depressed or contemplating suicide. And in the past, I've been a subject of such mockery myself. By someone who supposedly "cared" about me. A royal jackass, I might add, and an abuser.

It's NOT funny. It's stupid, and dangerous, and if/when the depressed, suicidal person dies, then the ones doing the mocking are GUILTY of helping them die.

How entertaining is THAT? Quite, apparently.

WHAT does that say about the society we live in?

[anigbrowl]

20. don't agree

and I have at least as much first-hand experience of depression as you do, I have scars to prove it. If you post somewhere serious and express deep depression or suicidal thoughts, you can expect a serious response and some advice, even if it's misplaced. If you post on mycrazeeinternet.com then probably not.

[ben_meyers]

9. Oh big deal, at least it wasn't a turkey!

If you know what I mean.

[aikoaiko]

10. In NYC, people line up on the sidewalks when someone crawls out on a ledge

and they shout jump.

Same thing.

[Genevieve]

12. Really? We do?

[Sirveri]

16. It's not just NYC, happened a few years back in Seattle.

Some guy got up on a bridge during rush hour, pissed off ALL the commutters, so they drove past screaming at him to just jump already.

[aikoaiko]

23. Yes, I've seen it.

I even remember that it was on 23rd street. He got back in. Maybe he wasn't even suicidal, but I was amazed at the reaction from the street crowd.

My point its public antagonism of suicide is nothing new.

[AngryAmish]

30. See Jump by Van Halen

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Pharmacologic note:

Benzodiazepines are anti-anxiety agents, not anti-depressants.

[demokatgurrl]

33. That's what I thought- valium?

[Name removed]

14. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[anigbrowl]

18. Get a grip

kid took pills, went to bed, was a habitual troll. For all anyone knew he was just gonna take a nap and then post 'epic win you got trolled lol' - happens frequently. I saw this yesterday (no I was not on the site in question).

I'm not unsympathetic because I've landed myself in the hospital a couple of times long ago with suicide attempts...but under the circumstances there was lots of reason to think it was fake BS. You want mental/personal help, you don't go to bodybuilding.com where you're an established troll.

[Triana]

22. I disagree. The video speaks for itself.

So does years of experience. Maybe YOU were BS'ing when you tried to commit suicide (? - not sure how that works) - but MOST if not all people who talk about or attempt it are NOT kidding and if they don't succeed once, they'll try again unless they get HELP.

Mocking them DOES NO GOOD and may do MORE HARM.

As far as I'm concerned, when a suicidal person ends up DEAD - the assholes who mocked him/her are partially responsible.

"troll" or not, SOMEONE should have gotten help immediately. If the person was "BS'ing" then the person doing the BS'ing about suicide would have been rightfully in BIG trouble for wasting the time of the authorities. So be it - but SOMEONE - EVERYONE should have taken it seriously and called for help - IMMEDIATELY.

When it's LIFE or DEATH situation - you DO NOT just ASSUME it's a "troll" or "BS" - you ACT on the side of life.

[anigbrowl]

24. All the video shows is a guy lying down and going to sleep

My point is that if you are looking for help, you do in an appropriate context. Webcamming your suicide in an environment where you know in advance it's not going to get taken seriously is going to result in exactly the reaction that resulted, for the same reason you don't premiere deep emotional poetry at the comedy store on open mic night - no matter how heartfelt your emotions, your audience is there in search of amusement.

[tekisui]

26. People kill themselves everyday.

This one just happened to be on a webcam. Some people do it in public by jumping off roofs or bridges.

The question is whether those typing had any effect in his decision. That is hard to say. Perhaps if everyone of them had told him not to, but no one really knows. He went through the steps and ultimately made all the decisions for himself.

[Initech]

27. People were encouraging him? Damn this planet is cold.

[gizmo1979]

31. Humans disappoint again.

How sad nobody lifted a finger to help.