Police hunt Valentine's Day suicide pact group (zz，单身者多保重)

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Police hunt Valentine's Day suicide pact group

February 14, 2005

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New York: A worldwide search was under way for 31 members of a Valentine's Day mass suicide pact after US police arrested the man accused of masterminding the plan on the internet.

Detectives said on Saturday "time is running out" in the hunt for a mother-of-two in New England who has promised to kill herself and her children. So far those identified in the pact are in North America but others may be scattered across the globe.

Gerald Krien has been charged with solicitation to commit murder after he allegedly launched an internet chatroom, Suicide Ideology, to attract "lonely hearts" to a mass suicide on Valentine's Day.

Krien, 26, is alleged to have told participants to travel to his home in Klamath Falls, just north of the California border with Oregon, or co-ordinate suicides via web cameras.

Timothy Evinger, the Klamath County Sheriff, said that 32 people, including Krien, had been identified as likely to go through with the plan.

"Our goal here is to move quickly to try to keep people safe," the sheriff said. "The clock's ticking here; Valentine's Day is on Monday. We could just be scratching the surface since the internet is worldwide."

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AdvertisementNeighbours said police, who seized Krien's computer, had to kick down the door of his mobile home to arrest him.

The raid followed a tip from a Canadian woman who visited the chatroom and alerted police when one woman posted her plan to kill her two small children.

Valentine's Day, with New Year's Eve, is viewed as a time of high suicide risk. The emotional overtones of the occasion can act as a psychological trigger for the lonely and depressed.

The Telegraph, London

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