How Grim Was My Valley

Police are still looking into the deaths, Morris said last week. He was emphatic on one point in particular: "I would like to put to bed at this moment any suggestion that we are investigating suicide pacts or suicide Internet links." Tabloid hype aside, Professor Cassidy urges special attention to suggestions that online connection is worth a close look. He cites research demonstrating that "suicide clusters" like the one in Bridgend nearly always result from some sort of "conscious form of agreement" among the victims--even if they have only the loosest personal connections to one another, as is common on social-network sites.

Others in the prevention field agree that suicide can spread like a virus over the Internet. "These social-networking sites, especially ones that deal with young people, have a responsibility to police their sites that they're not always fulfilling," says Paul Kelly of Papyrus, a teen-suicide prevention group in the United Kingdom. "There is a danger of glorifying young people who have taken their own lives."

Still, there are Internet operators who take such fears seriously. The obituary Web site GoneTooSoon.co.uk removed all tributes to the Bridgend victims last week, replacing them with its apologies and an explanation. The site's founder, Terry George, says he wants to avoid any possibility of glamorizing the deaths. "If you commit suicide in the hope you'll be well-known afterwards, then it won't happen with us," he says. "We won't allow it. Something has to be done to stop these people taking their own lives." Bebo's approach has been less dogmatic. As recently as last Wednesday, Feb. 27, the site included memorial pages for Nathaniel Pritchard and Jenna Parry, as well as a group page called Bridgend Deaths with hundreds of members, most of them young people. Their commentary ranged from the sentimental ("Hope you're all happy up there") to the crude.

A shocking array of resources for would-be suicides is readily available on the Web. Some sites promote euthanasia for the elderly or terminally ill, while others are explicitly aimed at troubled young people. One such site, registered to an address in Amsterdam, hosts a discussion on the most effective way for a minor to commit suicide, with posts ranging from crude and humorous to instructive and practical. The site's moderator, who portrays himself as a defender of "freedom of speech on the subject of suicide," nevertheless admits he has no qualifications, medical or otherwise, for providing advice to would-be suicides. "I don't think 'psychological professionals' are the only ones who should deal with the subject," he told NEWSWEEK via e-mail.

Bridgend's people could tell him a few things about the pain and damage that suicide inflicts on the victim's survivors. Local authorities are promising to unveil a "suicide action plan" soon, and legislators in Wales have declared the goal of reducing suicides by 10 percent there this year. At this point, though, the most visible response to the Bridgend epidemic has come from volunteer groups such as the Samaritans, a British group that specializes in suicide counseling and runs hotlines at 200 branches across the country. The Bridgend chapter alone takes 30,000 calls a year. At night the group's volunteers fan out into the streets, waging a youth-oriented campaign with posters declaring I FEEL LIKE #!*%. More needs to be done, says Bridgend branch director Darren Matthews; some local schools aren't even discussing the problem with their students.

Such silence can be fatal. Early on the morning of Feb. 19 the body of the 17th victim, Jenna Parry, was found hanging from a leafless little tree at the edge of a village common, a popular gathering place for local kids who call it the Snake Pit. Several homes can be seen a couple hundred yards away, across a field. The branch she used was barely high enough to keep her feet off the ground. Last week the tree was festooned with dozens of messages, flowers and butterfly knickknacks, including a purple wind chime of glass butterflies. (Friends and family sometimes called her Butterfly). "Save me a place with you," said one unsigned note. Similar thoughts were posted on Parry's RIP page on Bebo. "Your In A Better Place Now!" wrote a friend with the online name Sexyyjodi. "i'll See You Soon! LoveYouuSooMuchhh!!" Parry's friends can only wonder why their love failed to save her life and why others seem open to the same tragic fate.

© 2008