A Johannesburg teenager who hanged herself this week filmed her own suicide, News24 reported on Friday.
The report said the 15-year-old girl of Emmarentia used a dog leash to hang herself from a security gate on Wednesday afternoon while her mother was at home.
Police found a digital camera where she hanged herself. It was not clear how the camera was positioned to film the suicide.
Pretoria forensic criminologist Dr Pixie du Toit, who is doing research into teenage suicides, said the case appeared to be a first.
”It’s the first time I’ve heard of this. It might be associated with new technology — instead of a letter, using a camera to give a message.”
Police Superintendent Chris Wilken said the girl’s room looked out on the garden around the house.
”The security gate from which she hanged herself is in front of a sliding door opening to the garden,” said Wilken on Thursday.
The girl apparently told her mother she was going to lie down on the bed in her room. Her father was at a cafe nearby.
On his return, he and his wife found their daughter’s body in her room. – Sapa