A small town in South Wales has been shocked by a trail of copycat suicides by seven youngsters in what could be a chilling internet cult.
Bridgend is in shock over a trail of copycat suicides that could be a chilling Internet cult
LONDON: A small town in South Wales has been shocked by a trail of copycat suicides by seven youngsters in what could be a chilling internet cult.
The latest suicide was by 17-year-old Natasha Randall who hung herself in her bedroom last Thursday while her father and stepmother were in the living room downstairs.
Within 24 hours of her death, two of the teenager's friends had also attempted suicide.
One cut her wrists and was later discharged from hospital into her parent's care, and the other tried to hang herself and spent two days on life support before showing signs of recovery.
The police are so worried that since then they have visited the families of 20 of Natasha's friends urging them to keep an eye on their daughters.
In the 12 months before Natasha's death, six young men from Bridgend and the surrounding area in South Wales had committed suicide.
The police confirmed that they are investigating a possible suicide chain. The seven dead are linked in some way although they did not all know each other.
Police believe that they may have all been prompted to take their lives by messages on social networking websites such as Bebo. On Tuesday police took away computer equipment from Natasha's home for investigation.
Suspicions of a possible link to the internet grew after it emerged that Natasha knew the fifth suicide victim, 20- year-old Liam Clarke. Clarke was found hanging in a local park on 27th December, and Natasha had attended his funeral. She had also left a tribute to Clarke on her his Bebo webpage.
It also emerged that Clarke knew some of the other victims thus extending the suicide chain.
“We just don't know what all this is about, it is very strange that there have been so many suicides in Bridgend and that they all seem to know one another,” said Kevin Clarke, Liam's father.
“It's like a craze — a stupid sort of fad. They all seem to be copying each other by wanting to die,” said Melanie Davis, whose 20-year-old son Thomas killed himself in February last year after the deaths of his friends Dale Crole and David Dilling.
Several of the victims had posted personal profiles on Bebo and since their deaths friends have set memorial sites too.
This has raised new worries about the influence of the internet on young people. Police suggest that youngsters consider it fashionable to have an internet memorial site and are killing themselves for 'virtual immortality' and prestige.
Social networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook have previously been linked to incidents including online bullying and identity fraud.
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