Teen commits suicide live on webcam
A 19-year-old man from Florida has committed suicide while appearing live on a webcam. Abraham Briggs, Jr. appears to have continued posting on a bodybuilding message board while dying from an overdose of prescription medicine.
Wendy Crane, an investigator for the medical examiner’s office in Broward County, confirmed Briggs’ death and told Fox News:
He was blogging between 3 and 4 a.m. on the 19th, Wednesday, at which time he inserted a link in the blog to a live webcam and posted a suicide note and then was seen lying down on the bed
It appears the ‘blog’ was in fact a discussion forum at bodybuilding.com. The 60-page thread concerned has now been deleted but a cached version shows a user named CandyJunkie, believed to be Briggs making three posts: a link to a webcam site, details of the type and quantity of drugs he had taken, and a suicide note.
Only the first page of the 60-page thread is still publicly available, but it’s enough to show fellow posters discussed whether Briggs was serious, and whether they should call the police. It’s reported that such discussions took 12 hours, during which the webcam showed Briggs unconscious. Eventually a forum poster reported the incident to a moderator who contacted the police after tracing Briggs location.
Police officers broke into Briggs’ room at around 3:30 p.m. and found him dead. The webcam link has been removed from its original location, Justin.tv, but a clip at LiveVideo.com appears to show the arrival of police.
Justin.TV’s CEO Michael Seibel issued a statement reading:
We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our Terms of Service.
Bodybuilding.com staff have yet to make a public comment, with forum posters speculating this is because they are assisting police with their inquiries.
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November 22nd, 2008
How very sad that in such a connected world, this guy died alone.
November 22nd, 2008
I knew this would happen on BB.com one day. I left there many months ago after it became clear it was so poorly monitored. I was able to review the entire incident via cached pages.
The monitor, Roxie, made many dismissive comments before and after it was clear the teenager was dead
Another poster, an adult woman with a child, told the teen that he “hadnt taken enough” to kill himself while she watched him die.This same poster, Staberella, aspires to become a member of the FDNY. God help us.
November 22nd, 2008
I bet the people who laughed at him feel like total assholes now.
November 23rd, 2008
I agree with Hannah. I read that people were supporting his suicide. They probably feel like jerks now.
November 23rd, 2008
I have heard of similar things happening in the last few years online. There was a famous one a few years ago where a man named Brandon Vegas took a drug overdose whilst chatting in an irc channel and webcamming. He too was egged on by some, whilst others worried but none acted upon their worries.
This sort of thing is evidence about how detached online communities can be, how easy it is to disassociate the person online from an actual living person.
November 26th, 2008
I think he really wanted to die. Don’t go blaming it on people on the internet soley. A depressed 19 year old could’ve gotten and should’ve gotten help for his problems and his parents should’ve known about his plans. I somehow think there were very good evidences and cries for help that were clearly ignored by his parents and relatives way before this even took place. This was very preventable the parents said and I totally agree with that. He was way too young to be even taking anti depressants.
Everyone says that this is just the sign of the times, but really, when should it stop?
I’ve thought about taking my own life before and I sometimes ponder it still but I just want to say that it’s not always the internets fault. People have lives beyond the internet and so if they cannot bare it anymore, this is their solution.