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It must have been like a macabre scene from a horror film: a man in the U.K. reported to police that his wife had committed suicide by hanging. The circumstances surrounding his wife’s death were unusual: police claim that the man stated that he and his wife had entered a suicide pact and that after his wife hanged herself the husband “changed” his mind. He then left his wife’s body hanging from a frame above an upstairs doorway for a period of “eight weeks”.

Neighbors hardly knew the couple, who purportedly lived in a “tidy-detached house” for the past ten years. The couple were painted by neighbors as “quiet” and “very private”. So for two months, the husband left his dead wife hanging in the hallway while he apparently vacillated contacting the authorities.

An investigation by the police has yet to reveal whether the woman, did indeed, commit suicide.

There are other stories of suicide pacts and the “desire to die together”.

The Japanese are having a spate of “detergent” related suicides: three men were the latest to “off” themselves in an apparent suicide pact. The three men were found in their car, their deaths caused by mixing detergent and “other chemicals” then inhaling the resulting hydrogen peroxide fumes. According to CNN, even before the recent suicides of over 60 people in the last month, Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon have publicly announced that they have a suicide pact plan in case a “mentally degenerative disease” should affect either of the two. They purportedly told their children of their plans, and also instructed their attorney to make sure “their wishes are respected”. Rather than a “let’s hang ourselves from a doorway in our home”, the couple plan to fly to Switzerland and rent out an “assisted suicide flat” where suicides are, apparently, an industry which draws foreign tourists from around the globe who wish to end their lives.

According to the Calicut Medical Journal, a world health report estimated that worldwide one million people commit suicide in pacts while another 10-20 million attempt suicide. Most suicide pacts are made between people who know each other while a new phenomenon has emerged related to the internet: strangers who met on the web at a “suicide pact” site.

In 2005, British police claim two people, a 25-yr-old man and a 42-yr-old woman, “met” on a suicide-pact website. They then killed themselves in a car by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes from a tray of burning charcoal. Their deaths were purportedly the first such incidence of internet related suicide pacts while in 2004, seven Japanese young people apparently “met” online at a suicide-pact website. They died by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes while inside a van.

Two lesbians, who were highlighted on the series, America’s Most Wanted, allegedly decided to carry out a suicide pact inside a Dodge Durango northwest of Tucson on November 16th.

The two women were suspects in the death of a Spokane, Washington, area woman who was murdered in her hot tub ten years ago. Police believe Tina R. Loesch, 37, and Skye M. Hanson, 41, carried out a suicide pact, shooting themselves less than three hours after the show aired. A “multi-page” suicide note was found at the scene. The murder victim was the mother of Tina Loesch, who died when hitman Bradley Steckman testified that Tina Loesch paid him $10,000 to murder her mother. Steckman stated he tossed a TV, still plugged in, into a hot tub occupied by Loesch’s mother.

Perhaps one of the strangest incidents of a suicide pact involved the comet, Halle-Bopp, and aliens from outer space, occurred in 1997 in Rancho Sante Fe, California.

Thirty-nine members of the cult, Heaven’s Gate, purportedly killed themselves over a period of several days “in shifts”. They consumed a “lethal cocktail” mixture of phenobarbital and vodka in attempt to reach a “higher plane of existence”. Halle-Bopp was the sign they had waited for, they believed a spaceship traveled just beyond the comet and that they needed to shed their “container” (bodies).

What was even more bizarre is that many of the male members of the group, including their leader, Marshall Applewhite, had undergone voluntary castrations. Ironically, the news article we linked to regarding this story reported that the group’s suicide-pact raised the issue of the internet being used to recruit new members to cults. No mention was made regarding the ability to meet online to find others willing to get together for the sole purpose of ending their lives. These types of suicide pacts give new meaning to the old adage, misery loves company.

Two psychiatrists in Turkey wrote a paper on a suicide pact involving three young sisters. Studies found that suicide pacts are infrequent, occurring in less than .6% of suicides. Suicide pacts are generally made up of married couples, aged 50-60, who are “socially isolated” and suffer from “mental or medical illness”. The two psychiatrists interviewed two of the sisters who survived their brush with death.

The girls were ages 17, 19, and 22, and had ingested a pesticide. They were taken to a hospital by their two brothers where the youngest girl died.

The circumstances surrounding the girl’s attempted suicide and the subsequent death of the youngest girl were investigated. There were seven siblings raised in a family where the parents frequently fought. Purportedly the father shot at the mother but missed his mark during one dispute. The parents divorced and the sisters were forced to live with their father, who was described as “suspicious”, “distrustful”, and “cold” by the two sisters who survived the suicide pact. He also frequently beat his wife and children and enjoyed humiliating the girls. The father, apparently “heartbroken” over the death of one his daughters, tried to commit suicide three months later by jumping into a well.

It was the youngest sister who wanted to commit suicide and who purportedly “instigated” the suicide-pact. She had been “depressed”, “nervous”, “irritable”, and had impaired sleep one month prior to her suicide. The 19-yr-old had a history of severe depressive episodes and had previously attempted to kill herself. Not surprisingly, she was diagnosed as severely depressed. The third sister suffered from bouts of depression, diminished appetite, and impaired sleep for a few months before she entered into the suicide pact. She was diagnosed with borderline personality and depression. She also performed self-mutilation and once tried to kill herself by cutting her wrist with broken glass.

The psychiatrists cited several studies which found mental disorders in 61% of members of 18 suicide pacts. Another study found a “lifetime history of depression in 40 pact members of 20 consecutive pacts” which occurred between 1957 and 1981. The psychiatrists found several risk factors pertaining to the girl’s suicide-pact: the violence in the family and the inability to move away from their father. They also shared “genetic” factors: all three had a history of depression, two had previously attempted suicide, and the father attempted suicide after the girls attempted to take their lives.

In an individual suicide, loved ones left behind are “lucky” if the now deceased leave a note which may yield “clues”, while suicide pact participants might actually share with one another their death wish secrets and then take them to their collective graves.

I’ve posted a few “last words” from famous people who took their own lives. It’s up to the reader to see if the notes “yield” any clues:

I must end it. There’s no hope left. I’ll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally.
Freddie Prinze, American actor, 1977

Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck.
George Sanders, British Actor, 1972

I don’t believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time.
Wendy O Williams, punk rock performer, 1998

By LBG

Source - Corsinet.com
Source - Daily Mail
Image - Suicide poster