Woman in web suicide pact with a stranger :

[Al-khiyal]

Industrial units in Braintree evacuated as bodies found

September 20, 2010 -- A man and a woman have been found dead in a car at an industrial estate in Essex. Emergency services went to Braintree Enterprise Centre at 0825 BST. Police said a "noxious substance" was found inside the car and nearby industrial units were evacuated. Ray Skinner, of Essex Fire and Rescue Service, said there was no risk to the public since the car was in a remote location of the industrial estate. Essex Police said the deaths were being treated as unexplained. A spokesman for the centre added that a sign had been put inside the car, a Vauxhall Astra, warning people that the vehicle contained toxic chemicals and "not to open the door".

[Al-khiyal]

Pair found dead in car in Braintree named

September 21, 2010 -- A man and a woman found dead in a car on an industrial estate in Essex have been named by police. Emergency services went to Braintree Enterprise Centre on Monday after a substance was found in the car. Essex Police said the occupants of the car were Stephen Lumb, 35, of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, and Joanne Lee, 34, of Great Notley, near Braintree. Police are treating the deaths as unexplained, but not suspicious.

[Al-khiyal]

Woman in web suicide pact with a stranger was encouraged to kill herself by internet forum users

September 22, 2010 -- A woman who died in a suicide pact with a stranger she met online received advice and encouragement on internet forums in the days leading up to her death. Joanne Lee, 34, and truck driver Steve Lumb, 35, were found dead in a Vauxhall Astra parked alongside an area of overgrown wasteland on an industrial estate in Braintree, Essex on Monday. They had gassed themselves after meeting just hours earlier after making contact on the internet. Firefighters had to wear gas-tight suits to remove the bodies from the car and up to 40 emergency services personnel worked to make the area safe.

The pair first made contact on an internet suicide forum. Mr Lumb then drove 200 miles to Braintree to meet Ms Lee. She is understood to have posted a message pleading for a partner to end her life with and told of her repeated failed bids to kill herself. Miss Lee, who had an eating disorder, wrote on the forum: 'I haven't the strength do this alone. I'm not a cop, a cannibal or a murderer, just desperate. I ... want to do it ASAP. You should... be willing to pick me up when it is time to (kill myself). If you are "very" serious, please email me'.

Cyber 'friends' responded by giving her tips on how to successfully kill herself and expressed their sorrow that she had failed to end her life. Mr Lumb is believed to have then contacted Miss Lee under his username. On Sunday afternoon he wrote a 'goodbye' message on an internet forum revealing his plans to kill himself. He wrote: 'I'm just saying goodbye... take care everyone'. Miss Lee lived alone in Great Notley, near Braintree, where she is believed to have carried out several botched suicide attempts. The bodies were found in the fume-filled car, which had notes placed on the windows warning of the toxic material inside. A source close to the investigation said: 'We believe they met a few hours before this tragedy.' The bodies were found on Monday morning by a warehouse worker behind two rows of offices. However sources said it is possible the car had been parked on the site over the weekend, when the area is largely deserted. Essex Police are treating the deaths as unexplained and the vehicle has been taken to a secure compound.

Miss Lee's parents, Jill and Brian, said they had no clue what their daughter was planning and described her as 'lovely' and 'very caring'. Her mother, Jill Chappell, said: 'We have no idea what happened. Police have taken away her computer but we have no idea what websites she was using or that she was on any kind of websites.' She added that she had no 'nice' photos of her daughter as 'she didn't like having her photo taken'. The family yesterday made an emotional visit to the industrial estate to lay flowers at the scene. Mr Lumb's father Melvyn, who shared a home with his son, said he has no idea who the woman was: 'Police suggested it might be someone he met through the internet. He spent quite a lot of time on the computer. 'There was no depression and he never talked about taking his own life. He was a lovely lad.' He added: 'I thought the world of him. I couldn't have had a better son. He used it quite a bit, he played computer games. He liked a beer and football, normal lad. It is a complete shock, I never expected anything like this. It is the last thing I would have expected. He was easy going. He seemed happy. There didn't seem anything wrong. He lost his mother two-and-a-half years ago. I thought he had got over that, everything seemed all right.' Commenting on a possible suicide pact, he added: 'It is just too early. I haven't had time to think about that.'

The tragic case raises serious questions about the monitoring of websites where users openly discuss suicide. Miss Lee's MP today called on the Government to campaign against suicide websites. Brooks Newmark, Conservative MP for Braintree, Essex, said: 'We need to do far more to deal with these suicide websites which unfortunately lead to tragedies like this. It’s not a question of more regulation but of better regulation and also figuring out how we can close down websites such as these. Suicide pacts such as these are a trend that has come over from America on the internet - it’s a viral communication in a very negative sense. Having internet sites out there explaining how to commit suicide ... is wrong. We as a Government need to think of mechanisms within the European Union to try to close them down. It’s difficult to control the internet but we need to try.'

Catherine Johnstone, Chief Executive of Samaritans, said that offering advice on how to commit suicide is illegal. She said: 'The internet can be a place to find friendship and like-minded people to chat to, but sometimes it can also be harmful, as seen in these tragic suicides. A distressed person can meet another person online and, instead of finding help and support, they end up encouraging each other to do something they might not have done alone. It is illegal to encourage or assist people to take their own lives - be it on the internet or in any other space - but it is unclear how this recently-amended legislation will be applied and policed. We at Samaritans know that sometimes people can feel as though life just doesn't seem worth living and it can become impossible for them to imagine their situation getting any better. We must remind people though that terrible times can and do pass.' A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman confirmed that anyone who promotes or encourages suicide on a website could face prosecution. She added that even if no suicide attempts take place as a result of the information, author could still be found guilty of an offence. The law was amended last year to deal with cases such as these. It reads: 'Under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 (as amended by section 59 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009) it is an offence to do an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person with the intention to so encourage or assist. The person committing the offence need not know the other person or even be able to identify them.'

[Al-khiyal]

Suicide discussion forums should be banned, says grieving father

September 22, 2010 -- The grieving father of a truck driver who killed himself in a gas-filled car in a pact with a woman he met on the internet has called on the government to ban online suicide discussion forums. Melvyn Lumb, 63, from Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, spoke out today after his son Stephen, 35, was found dead in a car on Monday morning, 200 miles from home on an industrial estate in Braintree. Alongside him was Joanne Lee, 34, who lived close to the Essex town, and who a couple of weeks earlier had pleaded on the internet for a partner with whom to kill herself. The pair had stuck notes on the vehicle's windows warning of the lethal gas inside. Police believe they met in person only hours before ending their lives in Lumb's black Vauxhall Astra. The pair are thought to have met using an internet newsgroup focusing on suicide methods and finding partners with whom people could kill themselves. She had been given advice and encouragement on suicide in the days leading up to her death.

"They should be banned," said Lumb, who shared a house with his son. "Why do they have such things? How can people talk other people into how to take their lives? These websites are terrible. I think they should be illegal because they are very dangerous for people. I had no idea he was using this website." He said his son did not suffer from depression and seemed to have recovered from the grief of losing his mother two and a half years ago. "It was like any other weekend," he said, reflecting on the hours before his son drove to Essex. "In fact he didn't seem to have a care in the world. On Saturday night we had a few cans of beer and watched Match of the Day."

The fatal pact began on 13 September when Lee, using the username Heavens Little Girl, posted: "I'm desperately seeking a pact in the UK. I'm 34, female, and live in the Essex area." She then explained her preferred method was gas and asked for a partner with a car who could pick her up. "My time frame is As Soon As Possible," she said. "If you are very serious, please email me." The previous month she had posted about planning to kill herself in a cupboard or bathroom and other users shared tips about how to overcome practical problems she had encountered. By 9 September she reported she was "looking into partners right now, hopefully I have found the right one," and last Sunday afternoon, Lumb, using the username Endthis, wrote: "I'm just saying goodbye … and to all you people suffering I hope you find what your looking for." Eight fellow forum members wished him luck and bade him farewell, but none tried to dissuade him.

Essex police today closed their investigation and, treating the deaths as unexplained, passed the case file to the coroner. Lee's parents said they had no clue what their daughter was planning and described her as "lovely" and "very caring". Her mother, Jill Chappell, said: "Police have taken away her computer but we have no idea what websites she was using or that she was on any kind of websites. It was devastating for family and friends to discover that she had delved into the darker side of the internet."

Helping others kill themselves is illegal under British law. Following growing concern about misuse of the internet to promote suicide methods, it is now an offence to undertake an act "capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person with the intention to so encourage or assist". The person committing the offence does not need to know the other person.

Users of suicide forums are encouraged to employ pseudonyms and the source of the discussion forums is difficult to trace. The threads relating to Lumb and Lee are aggregated on numerous websites which gather discussions on the topic of suicide, one of which is hosted in Germany, but the original forums are hosted elsewhere. The German site's owner, Garlof Langenbeck, said he was saddened by news of the deaths but stressed the impossibility of checking the huge volumes of posts that his site aggregates. Thomas Strohe, the founder of the site's internet service provider, Intergenia, said he would ask Langenbeck to remove the suicide threads, but stressed there was no way ISPs could police this area because the discussion forums are hosted on multiple servers across the internet. "We are fighting a war we have no way of winning," he said. "But why should people not be able to discuss suicide? I think some of this stuff is disgusting, but it comes down to a different point of view." Under European law, a site is not liable until it is made aware of illegal material, said Clive Gringras, a partner at law firm Olswang. It then must delete or disable access to the information.