And Then There Were None

[dotinthesky]

With the news that another teenager has killed herself in the Bridgend area (bringing the total number of deaths to 17), I'm struck by how these events are starting to resemble a horror movie. I'm thinking of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, where teenagers are attacked by Freddy Krueger in their dreams, and their deaths are then explained as suicides. The chilling fact, for myself, is that 16 out of the 17 young people hanged themselves.

Because they nearly all died in the same manner, there's this lingering impression that they shared a secret we are not aware of (yet). Is there a website which they all went to for suicide tips (such as the initially suggested Bebo)? Is there one person which can be linked to all of them (even if it's one of the first who died?) Or is there some sick desire in each suicide to emulate the previous one, by choosing the same manner of death?

Like some commentators said, it's very likely that a combination of fame-hunger with isolation/depression has sparked the suicides. Kevin told me that when he was in high school, there was a strange spate of suicides amongst twins in his school (only one out of each pair of twin killing himself/herself). While growing up (in Brasil, Singapore and Hong Kong), I never knew of anyone who killed themselves. The few deaths that happened around me were from kids who had crashed their cars while drunk. If I had grown up in a small community (like these Welsh kids, like Kevin) my experience might have been different.

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

It uncannily resembles a very strange Japanese film called "Suicide Circle" (aka "Suicide Club").

It does seem REALLY, REALLY weird though. I'm sure there's a far more interesting story behind it than bloody Bebo.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Is "Suicide Circle" the one where a whole group of them jump infront of a train? I haven't seen it yet, but now that you mention it I think you are spot on. It is some kind of strange Welsh Suicide Club.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

That's the one. I can't say I entirely understood the outcome of the film, but the train jumping is one of the most weird, shocking and powerful opening scenes I can remember.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

A depressed region with low prospects for young people. That's about it.

The media comparing different sets of figures, confusing figures for the town of Bridgend with the entire Bridgend county borough (pop. 140k and comprising lots of towns), where the suicide rate hasn't actually gone up at all. It's still a bad situation, but it's only just become a national story

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Yes, from the link supplied below by Sarah, it seems quite clear that the national sheets are trying to build something more out of a sad statistic the region is used to.

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

I read something on this the other day that said they're not all from "Bridgend", but the surrounding areas, so it might not be as creepy as it sounds.

Then again, it might be.

I grew up in a small community and didn't know anyone who killed themselves, for what it's worth.

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, this is what I was thinking of.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Many of them seem to have known each other, or even be related. So eventhough they may have lived in the next village, there's this sense that it's an incredibly high number of suicides for such an area.

I was just thinking of my mom's village in Brasil, and how there have been some suicides there - but almost everyone of them because of the person being dumped by their partner.

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

I don't know, off the top of my head, what a "normal" suicide rate for an area that size/population of that size would be, though. The fact that they all knew each other makes it a bit weirder, I guess.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I can see from that article in the Guardian (which you linked) that it's not that surprising for the area to have such a high suicide rate. Which is really quite depressing!

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

Ever been to Bridgend? ;)

No, I'm being glib and horrible, but there are parts of Wales which are horribly depressing and scary.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I believe you, if they are like some of the horribly depressing and scary bits I've been to in England.

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

I guess it's like anywhere in the world, really; I'm just more disillusioned with Wales because I've lived there.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/19/7

Apparently the average figure for 130,000 population is 16 per annum. And that's excluding areas of high deprivation.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see you link to this as well.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hopefully some good will come out of this with the whole country now paying attention. :-/

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

D'you think, if you knew/were related to one or more of the people who killed themselves, that this media attention would make it better or worse? I'm not sure whether it'd be worse for it to turn out that this is "normal" (or at least average) in terms of suicide, or if there really was some kind of online cult thing going on. On the one hand, feeling like you could have done something to stop it happening would be dreadful; but if there's nothing to direct your rage against, that's got to hurt, too. Nothing average about it if it's your son/daughter/friend who's hanged themselves.

Urgh.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I just mean in the sense of the government re-directing funds for these areas, trying to instill some hope into their lives. The father of one of the kids thought his daughter had killer herself in a quest for fame and the impression I got from him was that if any good could come after the fact, all the better.

[mirple.livejournal.com]

I can't believe the police say they're not connected. I can't see how they're not! I have only skimmed over the other comments you received, but maybe it is a case of them not being connected in terms of the victims knowing eachother (or have i got that wrong??), but more like a kind of domino effect. I don't know how suicide rates differ between urban and country settings, but I grew up in a village and knew of two suicides. One by hanging and one when a teenage boy lay in the road on a dark stretch between villages and was hit by a car. What strikes me more, and what my twisted mind makes me imagine that they were given some kind of signal, is that in the cases i've read about they were behaving normally hours beforehand.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

From the links provided above, it seems like this rate of suicide is perfectly normal for the area, which makes it all the more tragic. I think the national press is trying to paint a "suicide cult" scenario (which I swallowed at first) but the truth is that this average of young suicides is typical for the area in the past couple of years.

[vyxle.livejournal.com]

There's a really interesting chapter in Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point about a suicide "epidemic" that affected teens in Micronesia in the 70's and 80's. I wish I could find an excerpt from it online...

[rag-and-bone.livejournal.com]

i was just about to reference that! i couldn't remember where it was, though.

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

My best friend Alan's cousin is one of the suicide victim's (another girl)l older brothers. He phoned Alan at my place when it happened, and said he was looking at her hanging in a tree at the bottom of the garden. He was in shock of course--she must've been cut down hours before.
There was no behavioural indication that she was depressed or even unhappy. She spent a lot of time online.
I remember thinking at the time that there seemed to be a more sinister, underlying reason as there had been other, similar suicides in the area already, and asking why a common link or cause was not being sought.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's just terrible for your friend's cousin. I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with something like that, to try to answer questions that are, well, unanswerable sometimes.

I've read stories where some of the others were also perfectly "normal" until taking their lives, but when you take into question that they are all living in a depressed area, perhaps everyone's "normal" over there is not our idea of "normal".

[brokenhaze.livejournal.com]

yes i was going to make the exact same comparison except i thought more like a weird horror novel, there's something not quite right.

[psyfi.livejournal.com]

Have you watched a Jap movie called Noroi the Curse? There are scenes where a group of youngsters who met online gathered in a park and committed suicide, by hanging themselves....pretty disturbing.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

No I havent. Is this the same film where a group of them jump infront of a train? Someone else mentioned it in this post.

[psyfi.livejournal.com]

No it's not. The movie is told like a documentary made by a tv reporter who was trying to connect the events that occurred (the youngsters who killed themselves in a group, a psychic girl who went missing, etc)with a ritual done in the past in a village which was already submerged underwater to appease a demon called Kagutaba. It's a bit like Blair Witch Project Japanese version.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Nope, never heard of it. Would you recommend it?

[psyfi.livejournal.com]

I think you'd like the movie. It's kinda eerie. I find movies like this (witchcraft or black magic) are scarier than ghost movies really.