More than 700 people in the UK have posted on a pro-suicide website looking for someone to die with, a BBC investigation has found.
The site, which we are not naming, has a members-only section where users can look for a suicide partner.
We have connected several double suicides to the “partners thread”.
Our investigation also found that predators have used the site to target vulnerable women.
In December 2019, Angela Stevens’ 28-year-old son, Brett, travelled from his home in the Midlands to Scotland to meet a woman he had made contact with on the partners thread.
The pair rented an Airbnb and took their lives together.
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Since her son’s death, she has spent years researching the pro-suicide site - in particular, the partners thread.
“It's a very dangerous place,” Angela says.
She compares it to a dark version of a dating app.
“Where else would you go to find a partner to take your own life with?” she says. “It’s just absolutely vile.”
The thread encourages users to end their own lives - and offers instructions on how to do it.
Of course the government's answer is to try and ban it, rather than solve the underlying cause of people wanting to use it in the first place.
This isn't anything new, it's been happening since the days of usenet being popular.
Prepare for the most boomer comment ever...
"Looking for a suicide partner, we used to call that marriage."
Helen Kite’s sister, Linda, advertised for a partner in 2023.
Linda contacted a man through the partners thread and met him at a hotel in Romford, East London.
They consumed a toxic chemical and died together on 1 July 2023.
But there was worse to come.
In September 2023, Helen’s other sister Sarah - devastated by losing Linda - also went on the forum, ingested the same toxic chemical and died.
What the fuck. This is dark.
I suspect I’ve got a bad read on this, but I mean… if you’re going to do it, wouldn’t you want someone to do it with too? Companionship in those final moments?
Maybe ‘The Seventh Continent’ had the wrong impression on me.
I suspect I’ve got a bad read on this, but I mean… if you’re going to do it, wouldn’t you want someone to do it with too? Companionship in those final moments?
I'd have thought that the least worst answer is to legalise assisted dying. It won't be easy getting the balance right, and I know disability campaigners are especially concerned about it, but it has to be better than having a "suicide buddy" website that is wide open to abuse.
Yeah. Got to be better. Also rather than banning this website, wouldn’t it be better to look into what is driving people to suicide? I’m guessing a lot of it is social, health and economic conditions that could be addressed by government if they truly cared and weren’t just moralising.
