UK's First Cyber Suicide - Live on Webcam

With all the death and particularly, video of death, that has started to crop up in our society we start to become somewhat more tolerable and less disgusted by gore & death portrayed in Hollywood films. However; this most recent case forces us to remember that things like real, actual death are not as tolerable as a movie at the theater. Especially when the death is live on webcam.

Kevin Whitrick was a 42 year old man who, March 23rd, became the UK's first cyber suicide today. He was participating in a chatroom, webcam'ing the entire event of him typing a cord around a hook and tying it around his neck. Some users of the chatroom that watched it described it in various ways. Some saying that they pleaded with him to not do it; others say they heard people egging him on. Then when he committed the act, the tone changed and the people in the chatroom realized it was no joke and several called the authorities.

Police rushed over and broke in the door in an attempt to get to the man in time. They were unsuccessful. Kevin was a father of 2, both 12 years old. Those close to him say he became depressed ever since a car accident. The divorce between him and his wife and the recent death of his father also weighed heavily on his mind.

This story is in some ways similar to the story of a Phoenix Arizona boy named Brandon Vedas, more commonly known on IRC Chat's as "Ripper". At the age of 21, committed suicide, though not believed to be intentional, by ingesting pills and drinking alcohol while been cheered for on webcam.

In Ripper's case the police were not alerted nearly as quickly. The suicide-watchers in this case were paralyzed with shock and failed to act.
The family of Brandon Vedas (which runs a website, Brandonvedas.com) believes that he could have been saved had someone in the chatroom given all the information available to the authorities. Apparently, the his website (whom everyone in the chatroom knew) has a fake cell phone number, which held up finding him. However; his family argues the addresss given on the site was real and that with the information on what he ingested could have saved his life. No one was allocated blame but it was clear that there were people who could have done a better job of trying to get the boy help.