Man Ends Life on Web Cam

A British man video streamed his hanging on a online chat room service, his body was found by police late Wednesday.

London's Times Online (also see London Lite's online story) described the course of action in their lead:

"Kevin Whitrick logged on to an internet chat room and announced that he was going to commit suicide. He then switched on his webcam, stood on a chair, smashed through his ceiling to expose a joist, tied a rope around his neck and hanged himself."


Whitrick created a chatroom group on the chatting service Paltalk.com called "kels FRIENDLY insult chat for evrbody [sic]". This type of "insult" chat room would be set up for people to join and insult each other with no hard feelings.

Whitrick, a 42-year-old electrical engineer from Wellington, England, was logged in with about 50 other chatters in room that combines people chatting via text, microphone or web cam. As Whitrick (whose Paltalk user name was shyboy_17_1 and has almost 11,000 views) revealed his suicide plan when he stood on a chair, tore into his ceiling to reveal a joist and tied the rope around his neck, some users "egged" him on while others tried to convince him to stop.

Whitrick is a father of two twin girls, but it was believed he was depressed after suffering serious injuries in a car accident in July 2006 and recently divorcing from his wife, Paula. He was also distraught from the recent death of his father.

Below is a picture leaked on LiveLeak captured by paltalk.com user puma121, whose profile lists as a 50-year-old male from Ireland. The capture shows Whitrick hanging from the rope while some disturbing comments on the left hand side show people's encouragement, concern and ignorance.


User GNAW_HER_BATTIE (no profile posted on Paltalk) comment was "Get done in ass hole" "itll help".

User KEL29 (a 41-year-old Male from the UK) said "call the police".

User angelofthenorth38_1 (a 57-year-old female widow from the UK) said "hope hes insured" "lol".

Although a chatter in the chat room did call Wellington police, who did not reach the man's house in time to resuscitate him, the lack of concern by most of the users is disturbing. Do people find online chat services act as "escape" from their real lives? Or is there a desensitization towards suicide in today's society?

Suicide rates of the men in the UK are falling according to Great Britain government statistics website. However, since 1997 the highest rates have been in the 15-44 age group.

Other Cases

This is not the first case of a live web cam-streaming suicide. The biggest case is of and has almost 11,000 views) revealed his suicide plan when he stood on a chair, tore into his ceiling to reveal a joist and tied the rope around his neck, some users "egged" him on while others tried to convince him to stop.

Brandon Vedas, who, on January 12, 2003 died of a overdose on prescription drugs while streaming his web-cam to a chat room on IRC. In this case, fellow chatters cheered him on while he overdosed on Klonopin, Restoril and a large amount of Methadone (used for the treatment of a narcotic addiction).



BradonVedas.com was set up by Bradon's brother Rich Vedas. On the site he sheds light on what happened that night by making the chat logs available to the public as well as describing how the people involved could have helped.

Rich Vedas said in an interview, "It seems like the group mentality really contributed to it. These people treat it like somehow it's not the real world. They forget it's not just words on a screen."

This incident raised concerns about the responsibility of online chatting services, but little has been done.

In Whitrick's case, chat room moderators on Paltalk closed the feed from his webcam once he was dangling from ceiling overhead.