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A 19-year-old teenager from Florida committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on Justin.tv, a site that allows users to broadcast live videos from their webcams.
According to ABCnews.com, Abraham Biggs Jr. from Pembroke Pines, Florida, first shared his intentions to kill himself in a chat room and posted a suicide note on his blog, in which he included a link to a webcam.
"I hate myself and I hate living. I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve," Biggs wrote in the posting. "I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past."
He then swallowed a number of pills, which were identified during the autopsy as a toxic combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, used to treat anxiety and insomnia, before switching on his webcam and lying down on a bed with his back to the camera. Although at first those who were watching him appeared to be skeptical about Biggs' act, since he threatened to kill himself before, they started worrying when they noticed Biggs wasn't really moving.
Eventually, someone notified the moderator of the body building site's forum, who traced the teen's location to Pembroke Pines and called police, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner's office.
"The bloggers said that Biggs had threatened to kill himself before and had faked it, so at first they didn't believe him," said Crane. "Gradually, as you read the blog further into the day the bloggers start commenting on how Biggs isn't moving."
By the time police arrived at the scene, Biggs was already dead. He had started blogging at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday and police go to his home 12 hours later.
"He was just seen laying on the bed at that point," Crane said.
Asked to comment on the incident, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said that what happened is indeed a regretful thing and pleaded for the respect of the privacy of the broadcaster and his family. He then explained the website's policies of discouraging the distribution of distressing content, as the video of Biggs suicide was removed according to the terms of service.
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