Wales Wrestles With Teen Suicide Trend

The body of a teenage girl was found hanging in the woods of a Welsh village Tuesday, and authorities said it was the 17th young suicide in just over a year near one town in South Wales.

Police say no evidence has been found to link the string of deaths, but suspicion is growing in the U.K. that there is a suicide pact or a cult leading the deaths of Welch youngsters.

CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports Jenna Parry, 16, was the seventeenth teenager to take her own life. She was found dead this week beneath a tree by a man out walking his dog.

The small Welsh community of Bridgend is reeling, says MacVicar, shocked, and struggling to understand why so many young men and women, aged 15 to 26 have committed suicide in the last 13 months.

"Our review is ongoing but so far there is absolutely no indication of any criminality or of any suicide pact," Assistant Chief Constable David Morris said.

"Clearly the number of suicides is statistically unusual for that area. But it is worth remembering that there may be lots of reasons for that," Joe Ferns of the Samaritans charity told MacVicar. "It might be that we are seeing a cluster effect in the sense that one suicide is having an influence on future suicides, or it may be that this is a statistical anomaly of some sort."

Morris complained about "sensational" media reporting adding to the problems facing the Bridgend area and called for more accurate coverage of the "cluster" of suicides. He singled out for his harshest criticism newspaper reports linking the deaths to some sort of Internet cult.

Police did say that a number of the victims used a social networking Web site that is popular with young Britons.

Morris was joined by the parents of Nathaniel Pritchard, a 15-year-old who took his life last week. They said their son may have been influenced by media reports they believe glamorized earlier suicides, and called for press restraint.

"We feel media coverage could trigger other young people, who are already vulnerable and feeling low, into attempting to take their own lives," Sharon Pritchard said.