“Assisted Suicide Goes Digital: When Is a Chat-Room Post a Crime?”

A man in Faribault, MN, received an e-mail with a subject line that read, “Melissa goodbye to Li Dao.” It was a suicide note, scribbled digitally, sent by a woman to her online pen pal who had actively encouraged her to embrace death. The only catch: Li Dao was not a real person, and, according to authorities, the virtual advice was not an act of empathy but an attempt to manipulate Melissa into taking her own life — all for what the man told the police was the “thrill of the chase.”  Li Dao was one of the several aliases used by 48-year-old William Melchert-Dinkel.

Time
“Assisted Suicide Goes Digital: When Is a Chat-Room Post a Crime?”
May 11, 2011
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