Police looking for Web link to rash of suicides

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Police looking for Web link to rash of suicides

Eleven people whom police believe met through the Internet committed what may have been joint suicides in Gangwon Province.

The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said they died from coal briquette gas poisoning in three different occasions in April.

Police found two men and a woman dead in a Carnival van with its engine running yesterday in Inje. The police said they found a charcoal pot inside the vehicle, which was parked in front of a rest stop.

On Wednesday, four people were found dead and one person was hospitalized from a similar incident at a resort motel in Hoengseong.

Among the dead in that case were two men and two female high school students. The remaining victim, a man, was taken to a nearby hospital in serious condition.

The police found that the door and window were completely sealed with tape to prevent air from getting in and out of the room. Two burned briquettes were found in the room.

The remaining four victims - including two males and two females - appeared to have killed themselves with the use of charcoal briquettes on April 8 at a privately run lodging facility in Jeongseon.

Officers in charge of suicide cases confirmed that the dead had no apparent personal ties and lived in different parts of the country. They were also of different ages.

The police said that they are assuming the deceased met through the Internet since the suicide method and means of transportation were similar.

Meanwhile, officers at the agency said they will intensify patrols in areas with lodging facilities to watch out for suicide attempts.

Officer Yun Won-uk from the investigation division said, “Even though joint suicide cases are increasing in thinly populated places, we have no easy measures to prevent suicide attempts.”

While agreeing the Internet may be involved, other government officials said there was no Web site dedicated to suicide.

“There is no suicide Web site in Korea. We believe that the information regarding suicide attempts is exchanged secretly mostly through personal blogs and search engines,” said Min Yeong-sin, an official at the Division of Mental Health Policy in the Health Ministry.

“In early 2000, few online communities related to suicide were left in the country as they were declared illegal. Also a law banned search engines from using the term ‘suicide,’” said Kim Hui-ju, an official working at the Center for Suicide Prevention. “However, individual blogs and other online communities that cannot be logged onto without confirming identification were developed to share suicide information. It is very hard for us to find them since all the sites require passwords.”

The center, which has been funded by the Health Ministry since the second half of 2005, seeks to find and eradicate sites and information related to suicide.

According to the center, 267 postings on suicide have been erased so far this year. In 2007, 490 were erased and the number increased to 768 in 2008.

The center said the number is likely to increase further this year.


By Lee Chan-ho, Ahn Hai-ri [smartpower@joongang.co.kr]


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