By now I’m sure you’ve heard the devastating news out of Florida about the college student who committed suicide in front of a live web cam. His death by drug overdose was watched by thousands of Internet subscribers, and that’s not the most disturbing part of the horrific ordeal. According to news reports, the teenage boy was actually egged on by some computer users to end his life while he sat in his father’s home. By the time someone notified authorities of what was going on it was too late.
By the way, that someone was not 19-year-old Abraham Biggs’ father or mother or sister or other family member. Reports say during the entire 12-hour live webcast not one single relative of the teen entered his room to check on him. Rather, tens of thousands of Internet users sat by as the Broward College student (who reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder) swallowed large doses of opiates and benzodiazepine then lay dead on his bed in his father’s Pembroke Pines house Wednesday afternoon. Authorities say Biggs’ web camera remained on from the time he announced his intentions to kill himself online around 3 a.m. until police entered the room and found the teen’s body more than 12 hours later.
I should mention that records show that there were a few computer users who tried to talk Biggs out of ending his life, though police say the majority of the web watchers posted comments such as “lol” and “hahaha” when the college student began swallowing pill after pill after pill.
Police say Biggs announced his plans to kill himself on a website for bodybuilders, though his sister told authorities that her brother didn’t lift weights. However, some users told investigators they did not take the 19-year-old seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
That is little consolation to Biggs’ family who is reportedly infuriated that no one acted sooner to save him. According to Biggs’ sister, who spoke publicly about her brother’s tragic death yesterday, neither the viewers nor the website that hosted the live video notified authorities when they saw Abraham taking the pills.
“So that’s 12 hours of watching,” said the victim’s sister. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours. It didn’t have to be.”
Biggs’ parents have yet to speak publicly about their son’s death, though police say neither Abraham’s mother nor father tried to contact him during the live webcast. In fact, authorities say if it were not for the fact that someone finally notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site (who then traced Biggs’ location and called police) they cannot say for certain when the teen’s body would have been discovered.
Some in Biggs’ neighborhood are now asking where the teen’s father was while this tragedy was taking place under his roof. Someone’s child is dead while tens of thousands of virtual audience members watched his death unfold in real time. Personally, I’m not sure if now is the time to be pointing fingers at anyone… or everyone.
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