The Internet Provides; “Suicide Voyeur” Arrested

By Akela Talamasca on March 22nd, 2010

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Every time I think I’m too jaded to be shocked by the world we live in, the Internet brings me another delightful morsel, just like my kitty used to bring me nasty, bloody carcasses to show me she loved me. This is no different. Police in St. Paul, Minnesota have arrested William Melchert-Dinkel, a nurse who’s been accused of posing as a young woman named Li Dao and coercing suicidally depressed people to kill themselves on webcam so he could watch.

Melchert-Dinkel has allegedly admitted to being virtually present for no fewer than five suicides, setting things up for a mutual suicide pact to be consummated at the same time, then pretending at the last second to be experiencing webcam problems that prevented “Li Dao” from broadcasting her own.

The “suicide voyeur” was exposed by 64 year old Celia Blay, who became aware of his activities through her friendship with a teenaged friend who herself was suicidal. When presenting her suspicions to local police, she was told to “look the other way”. Instead, she persisted and persuaded Minnesotan police to investigate, resulting in Melchert-Dinkel’s arrest and admission to a hospital; prosecutors have yet to charge him with a crime, though the assistance of a suicide is punishable by 15 years.

Seriously, y’all, why is the human race so screwed up? I know that’s a bigger question than we can answer on this blog, but come ON. Whenever I see movies like “2012″ and “The Day After Tomorrow”, some part of me stands aside and coldly observes that it’s nothing more than we deserve, to be wiped out for crimes against each other, against the environment … I want to believe in the potential of the species, but it’s crap like this that just make me want to curl up under a thick blanket and eat Oreos until I pass out.