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Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
MIAMI – A college student committed suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live webcam as some computer users egged him on, others tried to talk him out of it, and another messaged OMG in horror when it became clear it was no joke.
Some watchers contacted the Web site to notify police, but by the time officers entered Abraham Biggs' home — a scene also captured on the Internet — it was too late.
Biggs, a 19-year-old Broward College student 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.
As police entered the room, the audience's reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: "OMFG," one wrote, meaning "Oh, my God." Others, either not knowing what they were seeing, or not caring, wrote "lol," which means "laughing out loud," and "hahahah."
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."
Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
I read about this last night.
I actually knew someone on the net who told me through IM once they were going to commit suicide. I talked to them for two hours, just reading their problems, telling them a way out of them the right way, and encourging them to go on with life, how it would get better, and talking them out of it.
Two days later she was dead.
I take this stuff seriously, and i'm stunned people thought it was a joke, lol, and all that bullshit. Kind of makes me think of GN'R doing "Ain't It Fun".
Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
How could you react? Call the cops? They'd laugh thinking it was a prank call. I can understand why people would egg it on because the net is full of jokers and you wouldn't know it was real until it was too late to stop it.
The internet needs some sort of 'hot line' for these sorts of situations. You see something unusual going on, go to some site and report it. Then the site sends the info to local authorities.
Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
this is why we try to limit the name calling and shit like that, you never know who is on the other end and how stable or unstable they may be...i think there was one time where someone who seemed very depressed posted on RoV and we didnt know what to do really. it was weird..
Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
I agree with James on that. I'm sure the people egging him on have a ton of remorse, but I can't point the finger directly at them. I was on a news site & in the somments section people were saying they should be charged with manslaughter etc..?! It's easy to say that, however I bet a few of the same posters are the same ones going onto craigslist rants & raves etc giving advice back to people saying "Go kill yourself. Do us all a favor." & stuff like that.
It's like that myspace incident a few years ago. The difference with that though was was the woman was a mother & in her 40's & should know better or at least not participate in stuff like that. But for regular gossiping teens & "Mean Girls" type chicks, I'm surprised it hasn't happened more often.
It's a total shame, I can understand how people assumed it was a joke. I hope they feel some remorse, I'm pretty sure they do. Axlin08 that's a tough story you have, eery. I don't think it's an issue for mods of that site though, it's a matter for those peoples conscious.
Re: Fla. teen commits suicide on Webcam
And that story I mentioned, I was also in a totally tough position. It was a girl I knew from high school, she was spilling her soul to me, and I listened which she appreciated. But when I tried to get her number (my plan was to give the number to the cops, trace it, and them baker act her), she immediately picked up on me asking for the number, and refused to give it to me, and then told me if I contacted the authorities, that she'd immediately do it, so don't.
What do I do? Take the chance? Do I listen to her, and just console her (because she already had her mind made up), or do I contact the authorities, and speed up the process of her death?
It felt like a fuckin' standoff. If I pull the trigger, they're dead, if I try to stop them, they're dead.
Now with this Pembroke Pines-suicide, I hear the parents are OUTRAGED that no one done anything. Done anything? Done anything?!??! You ever heard of 'Diffusion of responsibility'? That's not human nature. Never has been. If you're in a crowd, you're more likely to die, then you are with one person. It's crowd behavior. Everyone either thinks it's a joke, or passes the buck off to someone else.
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