Recently in suicide Category

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say man who killed himself as deputies served an eviction notice at a Northridge home had a history of psychological problems and a house full of guns.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Guillermina Saldana says deputies heard gunshots when they knocked on 54-year-old David Smith's door Friday.
Neighbors were evacuated and a strategic weapons and tactics team was called. When Los Angeles police officers entered the residence, they found Smith dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Smith was alone in the home and no one else was wounded during the incident.

Whale watchers on a boat a quarter-mile off Redondo Beach on Wednesday spotted a woman's body floating in the water.

I received this in an email from a New York paramedic concerned that a new trend is suicides could affect police and fire fighters. Here's the story. I've edited out the chemical names.

Person Down in Auto/New way to commit suicide

Recently a new way to commit suicide has been discovered by mixing two chemicals that can be bought over the counter at local stores. They are (REDACTED). Once mixed, the chemicals produce heat and a flammable, noxious gas that causes the subject to pass out and the heart stop within minutes. The process appears to be quick and painless. Two recent cases, one in Pasadena , California and the other at Lake Allatoona in Bartow County , Georgia , involved young men in their early 20's. Both were found locked inside their cars with the chemicals. Each left a note on the car warning anyone around of danger. The car at Lake Allatoona had been taped to prevent gas from escaping.

A suicide may have claimed more than one life Sunday, as a woman was killed in a crash after a man jumped from a freeway overpass in Claremont. Here's the story from City News Service

CLAREMONT -- A man jumped to his death early Sunday from a 210 Freeway overpass, and a 68-year-old woman was killed when her car plowed under a truck that had slowed because of the suicide, the California Highway Patrol reported.
As a result, a two-mile stretch of the 210 freeway at the eastern end of Los Angeles County was closed for more than two hours, from Fruit Street east nearly to the San Bernardino County line.
At about 5:50 a.m., a man described only as in his 40s climbed over the perimeter fence of the overpass above the 210 Freeway at Towne Avenue and jumped into the fast lane of the freeway below, according to CHP Officer P. Busch. The driver of a Toyota van heading east was unable to avoid hitting the man, who died at the scene, Busch said.
The driver of the van was not injured.
About an hour later, a 68-year old woman driving east in a 2000 Chevy Impala crashed into a passenger car, and then a truck that had slowed to 10 miles an hour in the ensuing backup.
Her car wedged under the truck, and the woman, who was not wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene, officers said.
Her name was not released, and no one else was injured, CHP officers said.

Over the weekend there were five homicides and one suicide recorded in local cities. The first incident involved a man who shot and killed his girlfriend before killing himself on the 605 near Telegraph Road Saturday afternoon.

Later on, four San Gabriel Valley homicides occurred within a six-hour window.

Here's a timeline and brief description of each:

VIOLENCE TIMELINE:

*Here's what Coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said regarding the Ernesto Frayre case.

*This is a transcription of my notes from a phone conversation with Corral on Monday afternoon:

The victim suffered a "gunshot wound to the head." The coroner's investigator wrote his report and assigned a double mode to the case. "Suicide vs. homicide," Corral said.

What this means Corral said is that the homicide detectives think one thing may have happened while the coroner's investigator think it was something else.

Homicide dets are leading toward homicide, coroner's investigator is leaning toward suicide.

Corral would not say if a gun was recovered at the scene. He also wouldn't say if there was a note of some sort.

The discovery of a missing Pasadena police lieutenant’s decomposed body is one of those head scratchers that come along every now and again on the police beat.

David Henry Richter, 55, of Arcadia was reported missing just after Christmas by his father, a Palm Springs doctor. Right after that, investigators found Richter’s 2007 Lexus abandoned on Rivergrade Road in Irwindale.

From there, bloodhounds led police to a chalky, deep pond at the bottom of a nearby gravel pit. Divers searched the pit and the Coast Guard brought in sonar equipment, all in hopes of finding Richter’s body.

He wasn’t found, and the case remained unsolved until late last week.

On Thursday a Caltrans worker picking up trash underneath an overpass where the 605 crosses Rivergrade Road discovered Richter’s body. By then it was so badly decomposed that determining how he died apparently isn’t a slam dunk.

We have learned that he was clothed. There was no note at the scene and “he had a weapon with him,” according to Ed Winter, assistant chief of the coroner’s department.

“It’s a probable suicide, but we’ve deferred the ruling pending additional stuff,” Winter said.

Among the “additional stuff” is likely an interview with Richter’s friends, particularly girlfriend Noah Beltran, a one-time assistant to interim Pasadena police Chief Chris Vicino.

Following Richter’s disappearance, Beltran was placed on paid administrative leave by the department for allegedly giving false information to Arcadia police investigators searching for her boyfriend.

No one will say what that false information was, or how long Beltran will remain on leave.

It has been reported that a second car belonging to Richter, originally thought missing, turned up in the garage of an acquaintance, Arcadia police told us in January. They did not identify the acquaintance.

As for Richter, he was born in Pasadena, grew up here, graduated from John Muir High School and pretty much went to work for the Pasadena PD right after that, according to his father, Dr. Henry Richter of Palm Springs. Investigators notified Dr. Henry Richter that his son’s body had been found, but there was no surprise.

“We didn’t expect a different outcome,” Henry said. “We emotionally said goodbye when his car was found in January and bloodhounds tracked him to the gravel pit. It was pretty clear to us then that he was gone.”

Henry does defend Beltran, whom he described as “delightful, but fragile.”

“I don’t know all the details,” he said. “What happened to her happened early on. I thought it was unfair.”

Richter will be laid to rest in a small, private ceremony, according to his dad.

“That’s what he wanted,” Henry said. “Beyond that we’re trying to sort things out. It’s not easy when a person doesn’t leave a note, a will or any trace.”