A South Florida teen committed suicide last week as a Webcam audience watched in real time. The Pembroke Pines teen died of a lethal drug overdose 12 hours after he shared his intent to kill himself on a blog, according to investigators.
A toxic combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat insomnia and depression, killed Abraham Briggs. The 19-year-old man died Wednesday, the Broward County medical examiner’s office confirmed. Briggs had a prescription for the antidepressant, but authorities are unsure how he obtained the others.
It’s not clear how many people watched the suicide, but police are investigating the Web site moderator’s role in the live video streaming of the suicide on Justin.tv. Investigators are also looking at comments on the discussion board at bodybuilding.com that linked to the streaming video.
Egging Briggs On
Police reports indicate some of the people watching Briggs at Justin.tv encouraged him to end his life, while others tried to talk the teenager out of it. Some were discussing whether or not it was a hoax, or whether he took enough pills to actually kill himself. Briggs had reportedly threatened to kill himself on the bodybuilding.com site previously.
The debate soon ended as a visitor to the forum notified the moderator about Briggs’ post and the moderator called the police. Law enforcement traced Briggs’ location to Pembroke Pines near Miami. But when they arrived at his house at 3:30 p.m., they discovered he was dead. Briggs started blogging at 3 a.m.
“There seems to be a lack of control as to what people put out on the Internet,” Abraham Biggs Sr., the young man’s father, told ABCNews.com. “There’s a lot of garbage out there that should not be, and unfortunately this was allowed to happen.”
Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel commented on the situation in a formal statement: “We regret…