www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/sci_tech/woman_survives_suicide_attempt_07_07_2009 QUOTE:
Woman Hangs Self on
Webcam, Survives
Police concerned others were watching
Updated: Tuesday, 07 Jul 2009, 6:40 PM MDT
Published : Tuesday, 07 Jul 2009, 4:23 PM MDT
PHOENIX - A Phoenix woman has been rescued after attempting to hang herself live on her webcam. The 23-year-old got into a fight with her boyfriend and tried to kill herself on the internet -- and police are worried that other people may have been watching.
Web suicide happens more often than some may think, and in today's case, police say the suicide attempt was broadcast over a webcam in a chat room.
Investigators are checking the family's computer to try and figure out who may have seen it.
"He called my phone. My wife picked up the phone and said 'Your daughter is going to die right now,'" says the girl's father, Mohamed Hossain, who was in the house at the time.
Hossain ran straight into his family room after getting the call from her boyfriend, just before 9 a.m. Tuesday. He cut her down from a ceiling fan, saving her life.
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"I got the knife and cut the long clothes she tied with it, released her and laid her down on the floor."
Phoenix Police say the 23-year-old woman argued via a webcam with her boyfriend in Michigan. When he told her he was leaving the country, she threatened to take her own life.
A family friend told FOX 10, "The boyfriend tried to tell her that he's leaving from her life. She thought her life was finished."
Police say she stepped on a table and tied her neck to a ceiling fan in the family room. Her father says he was sleeping when the boyfriend called to warn him. When police arrived, the webcam was still running.
The father says he thinks the couple was dating for about a year.
Police don't think anyone else was logged into the chat room at the time, but are still investigating.
"There's a very good possibility that only the boyfriend saw this event take place. However it was done on a website, so we're worried and concerned now that this lady might be again victimized by images that might be posted out there," says Detective James Holmes. "We're going to take a look at the computer and find out where those images might have gone."
She was transported to a local hospital and is listed in stable condition.