I just watched a really fascinating and touching video on assisted suicide and the role played by Final Exit. It's a real inside exposé showing what those who chose suicide went through. And also, what those who assisted them went through.
It's a good resource for comparison with this case. I'm not saying that this case was the same as the ones in the video were, but it's certainly worth making the comparison to see if any differences might appear significant.
The people in this video contacted Final Exit and submitted a letter explaining their suffering and reason for wanting to die. A Medical reviewer would approve the case or not. He was very liberal in his approvals...if someone said they were suffering he basically approved them. No medical documentation required. So, had Jane made such a request it would likely have been approved.
Once approved, a date was set and the person wanting to die would obtain all of the necessary items themselves. Supposedly, FE guides didn't bring any "stuff", and didn't supply anything, although it seemed like they would have if the sufferer couldn't obtain them. One obtained meds from his son...another one bought all the meds she needed online. FE does provide info on how to obtain.
On the set date the sufferer would set everything up as described by FE, would eat a small meal hours before to aid in absorbtion, and then would take pills and use a hood (modified plastic bag) or buy helium tanks and use tube to feed helium into hood. Their family members would pretty much always know and be supportive -- the ones in the video anyway.
They would also usually be with them, though FE instructed them to tell police they hadn't been there at the time and to remove any tools used to cause death...I.e., helium tanks. The hood would need to remain on for at least a few hours so that they couldn't be revived if found.
If there was no family, or if the sufferer wanted an "exit guide", one or two of a number of volunteers would come to their home, talk them through everything, hold their hand, basically provide "compassionate care", and be there so that they didn't have to die alone. After death was confirmed, they would leave, taking the evidence of the method of death with them.
The exit guides had to be sort of "cloak-and-dagger" about the whole thing. They were instructed not to touch anything in the home, and to remove all paraphernalia pertaining to the death. The sufferers were instructed not to choose a day when someone would likely be stopping by, to leave a copy of the book Final Exit nearby so that the cops would understand that this was a suicide, and were also encouraged to leave a note stating that fact, to protect anyone who assisted them or may have been suspected of assisting them. Understanding this point (that there were people involved who required protection, and that FE included this in their protocol) helped me to understand the inclusion of Jane's first line.
I had, at one point, theorized the possibility that this could have been either a murder staged as a suicide or an assisted suicide. I still consider those possibilities because of several elements of the case and because it is important to keep an open mind to all possibilities...at least until I am satisfied in my own mind that I can exclude them. That first statement in Jane's suicide note is a protective measure, and it's very possible that she did have an exit guide who required protection.
It is actually my belief that this guide may have, in fact, made the call the following day, posing as SS, to create a "contact" with law enforcement. I am currently pursuing that.
But as far as differences between JD's death and those in this video...hers is much different than all of theirs.
First, most of those people died in their own homes, although one other laid in his garden, shot himself with a rifle. None of them subjected themselves to uncomfortable climate conditions. None of them died alone. I think they all left a copy of Final Exit nearby for the police to find. None of them, not even the two who didn't inform family first, signed their suicide note as John or Jane Doe -- or in any way chose to remain anonymous. They DID all make sure that they were found the next day (in one case, one of the Exit Guides pretended to be a church friend, called the sufferer's sister and said she was concerned and could the sister go and check on the sufferer. That was to make sure she was found the next day.) None were mentioned as having left behind a typewritten note and none had requested no autopsy...but this could possibly have gone unmentioned.
I think it's distinctly possible that Jane didn't die alone, and that somebody did help her. Or maybe at least got her there and helped her get set up. The headphones playing as she died sounds like a very personal thing, that she would have been alone for that.
But then again...so many possibilities for what actually happened.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/suicide-plan/