A young man had suffered from depression and attempted suicide. On vacation in Florida, he met a girl who was also from Massachusetts, but lived about 50 miles away from his home. They had a “relationship” on the phone and through texts and emails for abot a year. He got depressed again and she encouraged him to kill himself. On the night he took his life in a parking lot by running exhaust into his truck, he got scared and got out of the truck. She texted him to get back in and just do it.
After his death she more or less appointed herself "mourner in chief, " garnering quite a bit of attention in the local media. She worked on a fundraiser for suicide prevention as a memorial to him.
Then the text messages were found.
Massachusetts doesn’t have a law against assisted suicide. She’s being prosecuted for manslaughter.
Part of me thinks it’s overreaching to charge her with manslaughter. On the other hand, I don’t think you should be able to manipulate someone into killing himself and get away with it.
I am having difficulty pulling my thoughts together after reading this story. I’m pretty sure there is not a charge for being a just awful, horrid, nasty person. But if there were …: she’d deserve it.
I had heard about this case but don’t know much about it.
I hope the family of the young man who committed suicide will file a tort claim against this young woman, in case she someday parlays her notoriety into something that paid well (book deal, reality tv, etc.).
The more I read about this case the more I think that the manslaughter charge is justified. All those texts from her insisting that he go ahead and commit suicide are like the equivalent of pushing him off the window ledge.
The difference is that texting someone encouraging them to kill themselves doesn’t cause their death while pushing someone off a tall building does. Hope that helps.
She’s evil, pure evil. If she’s not convicted for this, she’ll likely do something else that fits the legal description of a felony in the future, and then get her due. Sad that would mean another victim.
She sure took horrible advantage of an incredibly vulnerable human being. Legal culpability aside, the fact that she kept this from his parents and others who could have intervened is despicable. Her claims of being helpless to stop him are absurd.
I’m left wondering if this young woman is a sociopath or has a personality disorder.
I don’t know if what this girl did was illegal. But the way most of us understand “cause,” her texts were a cause of this boy’s death. If she hadn’t texted him the way he did, he probably would still be alive today.
Suicides are incredibly impulsive and in-the-moment. If he’d stepped away from the car, chances are he would not have killed himself later.
Sounds like the mom does not want her D to “miss out” by being unable to be on social media and is her D"s agent in keeping her social media active–wonder if she will keep that up if the D ends up in jail for her heinous actions. Scary family!
If my daughter had done this, I would be HEARTBROKEN. I’d be trying to get her psychological help. I’d probably be trying to view it in a context of her having poor coping skills or pathologic need for drama, attention, or control. I get that. But the last thing I’d be doing is defending her actions or advancing her on social media.