maybe she’s like that woman they found in the 90s, living in suburbia under an alias because she used to be in the Weather Underground. she look familiar to you, @Antinous?
Perhaps she is some sort of Anna-Chapman-esque sleeper agent.
She looks a little young for the (original) Weather Underground.
In the article you link to the writer does not make a ver convincing argument for not using “committed suicide.” She merely states that it “feels offensive.” In the end replacing “committed suicide” with “died by suicide” seems like very fine parsing.
I hear you, it does seem like a very minor distinction but in my experience of dealing with people who have been bereaved my suicide (a recent career change has made this increasingly frequent) it has an impact far beyond what you might expect. Here is the recommended phraseology from the Samaritans, a UK-based crisis support charity which is also official policy for the BBC.
In my experience of survivors of suicide, the connotations of committing a crime or a sin are not particularly welcome with people who are already vulnerable and don’t need guilt-inducing words, however slight you may feel the difference is.
Because some people who loved her want to feel at peace, to find some answers or to complete the final puzzle of her life.
Answers, that it is why it is important: Answers.
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Connie MacLeod of the clan MacLeod? Every so often she pretends to croak, then assumes the name of a baby that has been long dead… Where have I seen this plot before?
Hey guys, thanks for pointing out that the ill-advised joke I made about the Internet’s sleuthing powers here was ill-advised, given the circumstances. I’ve removed it.
As for why I chose to post this, it’s because the family was asking for assistance. If this had been my wife, I would have liked to have known who she was. If she were my mother, I would want to know even more, especially because that information could someday help the little girl get some closure on her mother’s death. (And I imagine the reality probably isn’t nearly as scandalous as what some of her father’s relatives are going to speculate it as being.)
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Freelancer… she had to get Cascadia Protective Services off her tail.
Well, the woman is dead. What happens here cannot touch her now. (Though your theological mileage may vary on that I guess.) But her husband and child are still here, and still have questions. What brings people peace varies as well. I don’t think we can judge them for wanting to find out as much as they can.
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Well, she certainly was a person, but is no longer. All that remains now is the mystery. Or a ‘puzzle’, you might say.
If a sample of her DNA is available, analysis would reveal something about her probable ancestry and possible relatives.
I think the article said she was cremated. The private detective was, originally, going to try to track her down based on the serial numbers in her breast implants.
Also, aren’t most of the DNA ancestry things a lot more vague than what’s really needed here? I mean, it could be valuable for her daughter to know if she has elevated risks for certain health conditions or comes from an ethnic background that might lead her to get certain genetic tests done if she chooses to have children … but just knowing, “Okay, your ancestors come from roughly this part of Europe” or whatever, doesn’t seem terribly useful.
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It seems like the more recent DNA tests actually can show you some information about specific relatives and family tree branches, not just your racial background. It seems to depend on whether those potential relatives have also done the testing, of course. http://www.familytreedna.com/faq/answers.aspx?id=17#798
Helps if I read the article! Looks like they already got her DNA samples and entered them into various databases, including these online genealogy ones. No hits. :-/
Reading the full article I now see that “Velling obtained samples of her DNA and had it compared to the genetic material in other databases. No match. More recently, he entered it into a nationwide archive of missing and unidentified persons, called NAMUS. He also made an entry on ancestry.com, a genealogy website, hoping that, at some point, her DNA would find a family match.”
DNA analysis sites propose possible relatives, and those relatives may have provided information about their family surnames and origins and might even be open to discussing whether there’s a missing person in their family history. Not much of a hope, admittedly, but conceivably useful.
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I get your drift. Language - and not just English - is riddled with subtle implications that the victim was to blame, or an event was directed by some higher force.
“I was attacked” excludes the truer indication that “a person attacked me”, and “this organism evolved in this manner” invokes some kind of self-direction, whereas “the passive process of evolution led to this organism” is more accurate.
“Committed suicide” is a common phrase, and drags up historical associations about not being allowed go through the Pearly Gates etc.
Agreed. Sure, it’s ridiculous that suicide would be considered a crime, but there are things other than a crime that one might “commit,” and “commit to.” In that sense, suicide is a very strong commitment.
I don’t expect that they’ll get a satisfying answer. The way Lori spent the last months of her life rambling and stressed suggests to me that maybe whatever she was running from is in her mind. OTOH, big, dramatic life events are good at stressing people out, too. Poor soul!
Also, as much as the young child will want answers one day, I doubt the media attention is doing her any favors. I can’t imagine how bad it must be to grow up with a parent who ended their own life–how much worse would it be to grow up in a Nancy Drew novel that all the kids at school have read?
I could see it providing some important closure or information for people who might have been close to her before she took on her final new identity,too. At this point, no one knows who she was or why she felt she needed a fresh start. She may have left others behind who have spent years worried about her,too. Just because she doesn’t show up in any official missing persons databases doesn’t mean she’s not missed. Being that at least one of her new identities was assumed as an adult (old enough to pass for 18 at least), her disappearance from her old life may have not been reported as a missing persons case in a police sense. But she might still have someone out there that still wonders what happened to her.
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You make a good point, but I will be taking it in the opposite direction. I will be more likely to use “committed suicide” in the future precisely because of those connotations.
