A nineteen-year-old Florida teenage named Abraham Biggs, Jr. posted a suicide note online and invited members of a body building forum to watch him commit webcam suicide live. Read more about the tragedy below and watch a video account.
Abraham Biggs, Jr. MySpace Photo
Abraham Biggs Jr. of Pembroke Pines, Florida was just 19 years old and had relationship problems that obviously seemed way too big to handle. On Wednesday at 3:00 am, he apparently posted messages online about his plan to kill himself. After telling those online that they could watch a live footage of his death, he then intentionally overdosed on a lethal mixture of prescription drugs while streaming his own webcam suicide.
As Abraham lay dying on his bed - webcam streaming - bloggers apparently spent the next 12 hours trying to figure out whether to call authorities. Sadly, there are reports bloggers cheered him on. Eventually, somebody notified a monitor of the site, and they then contacted the local authorities.
The reality of what happened came to a head for viewers after police entered the video frame at about 3:30 p.m. and were seen hovering over his body. But by the time they arrived it was too late. Some say upwards of 1,500 viewers watched Abraham commit webcam suicide.
Biggs’ family is furious that no one acted sooner to save him, neither the viewers nor the Web site that hosted the live video feed. It seems the Web site shows a video image, with a space alongside where computer users can instantly post comments but only when police arrived 12 hours later did the Web feed stop.
Apparently, Abraham Biggs suffered from mental illness. His family released this statement today:
“Please do not feel sorry for us, we lost a beautiful but troubled soul. Instead, please use that energy to ’see’ with your heart. Mental illnesses, like depression and bipolar disease, are not temporary situations. It is something that victims live with and battle with privately.”
They posted this message on Abraham’s MySpace page. You can watch a news report of the tragedy below.
Abraham Biggs, Jr. News Report Video
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
yes for free and with almost no effort people can televise their mental illness world wide which for those with drama games in mind can then deputize the whole world to be their keeper. Its maniipulative and mean and not just a cry for help because they know it will leave a lot of people feeling guilty and bad and they won’t be around to have to answer for it. Best policy is take any threat of suicide or death seriously and notify the site and isp right away.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I think the police should check the boys phone…. Someone spoke with him before. From what I hear.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 am
“Apparently, Abraham Biggs suffered from mental illness.”
You make me sick. Suicide is a frame of mind that anyone can get into, provided the right circumstances.
So this is the modern equivalent of the crowd of people cheering the person on who is threatening to jump off a building, I guess.
So what is the point here? I don’t know. Why would you put this up? I will have to think about it.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
Ed so sorry i make you sick. go get help for that condition.
but to answer your question about the mental illness comment in the post - it was in reference to his own families comments on the situation - for context.
get a grip. no one takes joy in such a sad, sad story.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:51 am
Then his parents make me sick too. I used to work with mental patients.
The first thing we need to do is, throw terms like “mental illness” and “bipolar syndrome” out.
They are us, we are them.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
well my theory is that at least some suicides are really a very mean thing to do to those left behind, kind of the ultimate rejection and guilting of those close to you. I knew a person who definitely did it with his fathers gun to punish his father over their long standing differences where his father put him down constnatly, so his dad was a red neck and very smart and the son was kind of a long haired hippie who was also very smart. But at his funeral he had a ton of normal and nice friends a very pretty girlfriend with her head on right and I was just struck by this. Was he mentally ill? I don’t recall him ever saying anything crazy at all and he was a nice person with a good sense of humor and wisdom. At the funeral his dad really carried on like it was all about him, and I saw the dynamic playing itself out. I think suicide done for attention is indescribable and it may or may not occur with a mental illness. There are a lot of functional but confused or depressed people who commit suicide who really don’t fit any category. I have never heard of presecription pain killers being used to treat bipolar as those are not mood stabilizers and valium type drugs are for short term anxiety only so the medications involved sound odd and would not be helpful as is evident. Edward P. is right in more ways than some would want to admit. The diagnosis is only as good as the careful work of the doctor and with 15 minute visits mandated by insurance, or even with a lucky full 50 minutes, most of the diagnosis’s are provsional guesstimates filled with bias and with what amounts to arm chair low budget voodoo and then various medications are thrown at it to see what happens. It doesn’t mean the patient is that. Many psychiatric residencies doen’t even require analysis and these ill prepared people are then supposed to decipher their parents, many of whom are total enigma’s to their families who live with them 24 7.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
erm… Ed, he was diagnosed with depression and meant to be on medication for it… as far as I was aware depression is a mental illness, no?
I still can’t believe that out of all the people watching, not one, not a single one thought, hang on a second what if this is real, what if he’d being serious.
They must of thought he was a sick sort of person to be pretending to kill himself?
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 am
http://www.lohad.com/?p=1865
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Loz I think we as a country are taught to think of ourselves as one way but in reality we are very different. I was just thinking why on some of our biggest holidays surrounding big spirtual renewal themes we as a nation salivate to watch huge arena football games of young men running full speed into each other using a little ball as an excuse.
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
People kill themselves every day, many times after being ridiculed and even mocked by their loved ones who don’t take them seriously and given a cold shoulder by everyone else. This case is only different because the strangers happened to be online.
The world isn’t worse off than it was 10 or 50 years ago. The only thing that has changed is the means. The people are exactly the same.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
The kid made his own choice, and nobody was under any obligation to try to make him change his mind or otherwise “help” him. I don’t see why this story is getting as much coverage as it is. Individuals ought to have every right to end their life if that is really what they want to do, and other people *shouldn’t* be trying to stand in their way once they’ve come to their decision. They didn’t necessarily need to cheer him on, but calling the cops to try and forcibly stop him from killing himself would have been just as wrong.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
oh great ethical advice aroth? who brought you up? depressed people make lots of bad bad choices and suicide is one of them. If they try and connect to you through the net, glom onto you its awkward, but its still a good policy to inform the site right away. Once someone is undepressed they may thank you. If they are really determined they will go off alone somewhere else and clealy not ask for any help because you won’t even know it. As a nation of people we need to have some empathy to at least steady a wavering one till they get professional help. Be life affirming. Where there is life, there is always still hope.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I agree that empathy is important. As I said, it wasn’t right for people to have been cheering him on. However, it would not have been any more right for people to have been calling the police over to his house so that they could throw him into a padded room to prevent him from hurting himself. The correct, or at least, empathetic, thing to do would have been to talk to the guy, and try to understand his reasons for wanting to kill himself. And if his reasons seem justified, then there’s no grounds for standing in his way. And if they don’t, then it’s time to try to convince the other person of this. But even in that case, in the end the decision is still theirs to make, and if you fail at convincing them, you still have no grounds for standing in their way.
To say that this issue is about being “life affirming” misses the point. Life isn’t what needs to be affirmed, nor is death, or anything in between. Those are just choices, and outcomes. The thing that needs to be affirmed is the individual, and their absolute right to do whatever they choose to do with their life. If an individual chooses life, that is their right. If they choose death, that is their right too, even if other people view that choise as a “mistake”. Individuals are entitled to make mistakes and poor decisions, and while others are entitled (and even encouraged) to try to convince people to not make bad decisions, that entitlement stops short of actually forcing/restraining them from acting upon their decision.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I understand that these folks are distraught, but it is MY solid belief that the whole bunch of them is either loony toons, or simply looking for any venue that they may be able to attach blame. For crying out loud, the mother is using MySpace as a place to explain herself? Going online to talk about the death of a family member, immediately following that death, may be a strange new way of dealing with ones grief but it’s NOT what I would do or what I believe to be appropriate.
The viewers of Justin.tv had NO WAY of knowing whether this was real or a stunt. They had NO WAY of determining the mental health of Biggs Jr., and it was NOT their responsibility to care for him.
The responsibility for Biggs Jr. and his care fell to his family, his mother referred to his “mental illness of bipolarity and depression�, and if the death of Biggs Jr. is ANY indication, the family failed him miserably.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I want to apologize for the situation.No mother should lose a child,no matter what the situation may be.Like the say everything happens for a reason!
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
aroth you really don’t know what your talking about. yes its a little debate to you over what could be a moral code, but I reject your moral code on this one. I don’t think you have a clue to what life affirming means, but you do have meaning to what winning is. I don’t think anyone who commits sucide is innocent if they know what they are doing, and if its to create a drama even less so. That is why saving them to solve this problem a different way is so much better a solution. I think everyone alive should reask the question so they can affirm life and nto hurt others who care about them at the very least. Depression is a state of mind and body and its often based on mis-interpretation, and no one should die over that so show them the energy to intervene since they obviously wanted someone to know about it.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I agree with what TexasFred said. Its no ones responsibility to take care of someone. Especially in that situation. Things on the internet are almost never valid. You don’t know for a fact if it IS REAL or NOT! People frame things and make jokes out of it. Thats how our society is today. If a person really didn’t want his life anymore and was willing to take it. Why would he broadcast it?! Obviously someone wanted attention. I’m so sick of everyone using “illnesses” for an excuse. There are a lot of people in this world that have probably been through many more hardships than a mental issue, and you don’t see all of them killing themselves and broadcasting it to the world. You got people in the world that have been sexually abused, and physically abused, some got help for it, they didn’t sit there day to day using excuses for how they were, or the way they were thinking.
It’s all covered with stupid b*llsh*t excuses. The fact of the mother saying don’t feel sorry for us, shows they must not really care.
End of story.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:18 am
I am so sorry for this young man that felt he had to commit suicide on his webcam.
Since no one should accept any “suicide” attempt of joke, it should be reported immediately, not cheered on. Even a so called “joke” about dieing or suicide, would come from a very sick individual. Death is serious. Time for it to be taken as serious.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
its ridiculous that people could just sit there and watch him die… people are sick for cheering him on… 1500 people watched, and not one person could call…. everyone who watched should be ashamed of themselves… u sat back and let a young boy die! no one can say its because his bipolar illness, it could of been prevented but no one had a heart to call, instead you waited 12 hrs!!! talk about heartless!
November 24th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
This was more than the loss of one man. This is a failure of the human condition.
We lost a creature of God. My heart goes out to his parents.
Respectfully,
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
November 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
yes eric…i agree.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
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November 26th, 2008 at 1:17 am
aroth you are ignorant and insensitive. You remind me of someone I know that everyone thinks is missing a part of her brain that feels normal emotions. Don’t people get it?? That young man was reaching out for help. The fact that he published a suicide letter for all to see with an invitation to his suicide was another cry for help. I’m sure there were other cries for help to the people he knew that did not pay attention or take him seriously. HE WAS IN PAIN - MENTAL PAIN. It is serious and in serious cases uncontrollable. The humans in his life failed him. Would those same people sit back and watch a Physically injured person near death and do nothing? I think most likely there would be a different outcome. What makes people think that his pain was less significant and should be dismissed. It’s the stigma that if its mental and can’t be acknowledged with physical symptoms you can’t relate to it so it doesn’t count. You think they are just ‘crazy’ but they are HURTING TERRIBLY. Anyone who is even thinking of ending their own life is in terrible distress. The people closest to him knew of his intentions. I’m sure of it. The fact that he went to the lengths that he did was because nobody paid attention and he wanted to make sure someone did. It’s a terrible shame. That boy could have had a life with the right help. It sickens me to see all his ‘friends’ on his memorial page stating RIP that had blinders on when he was alive and needed them.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:38 am
It’s Time To Go
When the pain is more than you can take
And it starts the moment you awake
It’s Time To Go
When you can’t smile anymore
And everything is an unbearable chore
It’s Time To Go
When Life is a struggle everyday
And you can’t get a break along the way
It’s Time To Go
When you look forward to dying everyday
What’s the use in staying around anyway
It’s Time To Go
When you’re alone and hurting and no matter what you say
People ignore you anyway
It’s Time To Go
When you can’t see physical pain
it is not considered important
but
I’m bleeding from the heart and it’s fatal
and
No one cared to take it seriously.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
If someone says that their gonna commit suicide that sh*t needs to be taken seriously and like seriously if there is a death note call the cops