Vic: Cyberspace suicide poems posted before deaths

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2007
Vic: Cyberspace suicide poems posted before deaths

By Kellee Nolan, Jamie Duncan and Catherine Best

MELBOURNE, April 23 AAP - One of the two teenage girls who died in a suspected joint
suicide pact posted a series of suicidal poems on the internet in the months before her
death.

Jodie Gater and Stephanie Gestier, both 16-year-old students at Melbourne's Upwey High
School, were missing for a week before their bodies were found yesterday, hanging from
a tree in the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

From last December to February, on one of her websites, Jodie posted three odes to
suicide, the second one titled Suicide in the Night.

It reads: "It's over for me, I can't take it! I hear it over and over again, It feels
like it always rains."

Another of Jodie's Myspace websites reads: "Let Steph n me b free."

Meanwhile, Stephanie also posted a series of photos on a website on March 28 and 29,
just over three weeks before she was found dead.

Her website profile said: "i dont wanna know how many friends you have cuz i dont have
any anymore (sic)."

Stephanie's grieving mother is also believed to have used the internet early today
to post a letter of farewell to her daughter.

The author of the note, identified by Southern Cross Broadcasting as Stephanie's mother
Juli, (Juli) a transit police officer, says her daughter, her only child, "was found with
her friend hanging from a tree".

"Stephanie, why didn't you tell me you were so upset? Why didn't you just come home?"

the note asked.

"You had only just turned 16. You were always such a quiet girl who spent time listening
to music and surfing the internet.

"There is nothing that couldn't have been sorted out. You were my only child and can
never be replaced. Bye bye, my little girl."

The teenagers also appear in footage on a YouTube website, dancing with two other girls
in what appears to be a school hall.

The girls were in a four-member, all-girl band called Bitchy.

Upwey High School principal Greg Holman said today the school community was "devastated"

by the girls' deaths and that counsellors were working with students and staff.

Adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Greg said a joint suicide pact between girls was rare.

"It's very, very unusual to have girls kill themselves and particularly kill themselves
in this way," he said.

Meanwhile he warned friends of the girls should be monitored.

"Yes, this puts all their friends at huge risk," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"We know that having someone close to you commit suicide is a risk factor in and of
itself... I'm sure there's people working out there with the young people to make sure
they understand that suicide is not a solution."

Cyber friends left tributes on Jodie's website.

One contributor, Matt, said: "R.I.P girl. Gonna miss you lots. I love you and i'll
never forget you".

Another said: "if it's true R.I.P. ill miss you and all the memories from primary skool. xoxo".

Jodie's final website update was on April 14, a day before she and Stephanie went missing.

Her final message was to her boyfriend, Allan, next to a picture of them kissing.

"I luv you sooo soo much Allan, Miss u heaps and heaps xoxoxo I will always remember
u," she wrote.



(Counselling for troubled young people is available on the following numbers:

- Lifeline - 131 114 (cost of a local call)

- Kids Help Line - 1800 55 1800 (free call)

- Suicide Prevention Crisis Line - (02) 9331 2000.)



AAP kn/sjm/sp

KEYWORD: BODIES NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.