Family Outraged Over Teen's Online Suicide
Says Viewers Of Live Webcam Overdose Should Have Acted More Quickly To Save Him
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Suicide, Webcasted
A troubled teen committed suicide live on the internet as viewers watched. Michelle Miller reports.
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Only after police arrived to find Abraham Biggs dead in his father's bed did the Web feed stop Wednesday - 12 hours after the 19-year-old Broward College student first declared on a Web site that he hated himself and planned to die.
"It didn't have to be," said the victim's sister, Rosalind Bigg. "They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours."
Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. He posted a link from there to Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner's office.
Some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
Eventually, someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs' location and called police, Crane said. The drama unfolded live on Justin.tv, which allows viewers to post comments alongside the video images.
As police entered the room, the audience's reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: "OMFG," one wrote, meaning "Oh, my God." Others, either not knowing what they were seeing, or not caring, wrote "lol," which means "laughing out loud," and "hahahah."
His father, Abraham Biggs Sr., told The Miami Herald he didn't want to watch the video.
"We were very good friends," he said. "It's wrong that it was allowed to happen."
An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.
"Abe, i still wish this was all a joke," a friend wrote on the teenager's MySpace page, on which he described himself as a goodhearted guy who would always be available for his pals, no matter what time of day.

It is unclear how many people watched it happen. The Web site would not say how many people were watching the broadcast. The site as a whole had 672,000 unique visitors in October, according to Nielsen.
Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama - and the reaction of those watching - was seen as an extreme example of young people's penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs' very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
"If it's not recorded or documented then it doesn't even seem worthwhile," she said. "For today's generation it might seem, `What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?"'
It didn't have to be. They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours.
Rosalind Bigg, victim's sisterCrane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn't know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.
Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn't seem to be much of a case for negligence.
"There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn't take action," said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But "I think it would be a stretch."
Condolences poured into Biggs' MySpace page, where the mostly unsmiling teen is seen posing in a series of pictures with various young women. On the bodybuilding Web site, Biggs used the screen name CandyJunkie. His Justin.tv alias was "feels-like-ecstacy."
Bigg described her brother as an outgoing person who struck up conversations with coffee shop workers and enjoyed taking his young nieces to a pizza parlor. He was health-conscious and exercised, but was not a bodybuilder, she said.
"This is very, very sudden and unexpected for us," the sister said. "It boggles the mind. We don't understand."
By Associated Press Writer Rasha Madkour; AP Writers Jessica Gresko and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 56 CommentsPosted by PCreversed
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The kid was suffering, reaching out in some way. Who''s the loser here, PCreversed? Seems to me that, with this attitude, you''re the sort of person who makes suffering people feel worse than they already do. In my book, your sort of expressed hatred is very sad. I know that all you want when you post stupidity like this is some attention, so you have it. If disgust satisfies you, then you can bask in it.
My heart goes out to this kid. Like most of those who announce their plans for suicide, they''re only hoping that SOMEONE will care enough to intervene. Nobody did, and I''m ashamed and sickened by the people who feel that this was entertainment.
PCreversed, although your comment is sickening, I hope you NEVER feel the depth of despair that puts you in the position of wanting to take your own life. And if you ever do, I hope that someone cares enough, despite your hatefulness, to intervene and try to make things better for you. Even YOU deserve that.
I second this notion. And I recommend those commentators who go beyond the call of cruelty in their statements about this tragedy, to ask yourself: "Do I really feel?"
Yeah, another LOSER decides to take pills and suddenly it''s the PLANET"S fault for not finding him in time!
Gezus, this is lame, like how would anyone who views anonymously posted webcams on some site going to know WHO and WHERE that person''s CITY is let alone where they live??!! Even if there''s an address in a profile or name there''s NO guarantee it''s even real, too many idiots play games and fake chit, so he took some "pills" and lays down on bed, how does anyone know they weren''t M&M''s???
WHat''s more, who gives a chit either? I mean, he hated himself and wanted to die- so adios amigo we got plenty of people who DO want to live and many who do and can''t- cancer for example.
On the other hand we have viwers who put their entertainment and American Idol like stuff at a higher priority than being productive accountable members of a responsible society.
This doesn''t surprise me as we have a culture where celebrity usurps every thing else.
Watch the video of the family''s response to this. The family is heartbroken, perhaps this will give you a dose of humanity.
liselle3....you really have to think about the level of dementedness in people who would get off on watching something like this happen. These sick people don''t have souls, or a conscience, and they certainly don''t believe in any type of church God. They could just as easily get off on watching someone kill themselves in person as they could over the internet.
Posted by brianwwb at 01:19 PM : Nov 22, 2008
My thoughts exactly.
liselle3
Yawn, well your ''god'' is the one who knew this was going to happen in advance and HE stood by and LET IT happen anyway, so dont blame his audience- US for watching his mistakes take form!
It''s not the internets fault that this guy took his own life. It was someone watching that did call it in. I wonder with this kid so upset and suicidal, where was the family during this twelve hours he was alone with medication. They could have been a little more switched on to his condition; rather than blaming the web site and others.
It''s a sad case, but be careful where you lay blame.
Posted by Rick_Phlaire at 06:24 AM
Many times?? And you still can''''t get it right?? Talk about a waste of DNA.
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Posted by pirmin3 at 07:17 AM : Nov 23, 2008
-Rick_Phlaire, I guess you needed psychological support and some medical attention! How did you manage that?
Posted by pirmin3 at 07:17 AM : Nov 23, 2008
Pirim3 you are a moron. I really really wonder what kind of low life could possibly make a comment like yours.
There also was a HUGE likelihood that the young man was a prankster and the fact that most people don''t want to get involved and look like a fool. Some people jump off a bridge, some jump off a building to sensationalize their demise, this young man just chose another modern forum in which to do himself in. Sad, but a reality.
Not going to get into a "God" discussion with you... but take God out of it, and call it whatever you will... Karma - whatever. Do you honestly think it''s kind, humane, respectful of your fellow man/woman to behave in a cruel and disrespectful manner? I honestly think that people shouldn''t post comments that they aren''t willing to say directly to other people - or perhaps the family that is grieving this young man. Would you be willing to say directly to his dad that his son was a waste of DNA for instance?
Certainly much less than those who were egging him on. I think they should be charged with complicicity. They DO have a responsibility to bear.
Posted by cutetinia at 01:57 PM : Nov 23, 2008
Show me heaven, hell, and your God right now, this minute.
Posted by shanev137 at 03:19 PM : Nov 23, 2008
Heaven = Hot Fudge Sundae
Hell = life on Earth...
God = Figment of somebodies imagination..
Or as Carlin has put it,,,"The Big Guy in the Sky"
Posted by ConfedDunces at 03:55 PM : Nov 23, 2008
Probably indicative as the same group who watched, and egged on the kid that commited suicide.
Compassion is dead in America...
Where''s that poem from?
And so true too..
It is the last song from Pink Floyd''s "The Wall".
LOL,,Yup...I remember now, vaguely.
The name Waters thru me off a bit though.It shouldn''t have, but it did...
They were much more than a "band"
They were Rock Opra at it''s finest. With the writings of Roger Waters, and the music coming from David Gilmore.
One of the best writing and music teams since Simon and Garfunkle..
Well, yes, I would agree that they were more than "just a band".
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