Golden Gate Bridge Suicides

[Bit of hope]

This another picture of the amount of jumpers including later years. This still can't be totally accurate because a lot of jumpers did it unseen. 2013 was a "top" year.

 

[YaYa_521]

Here is each article of SFGate's 7-part series discussing the suicide barrier at the GG Bridge. The series was published from Sunday, October 30, 2005 through Saturday, November 5, 2005. IMO, this is a very informative, interesting read.

Lethal Beauty / The Allure: Beauty and an easy route to death have long made the Golden Gate Bridge a magnet for suicides

LETHAL BEAUTY / FAMILY GRIEF: A suicide leaves a legacy of anguish. The second in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.

Lethal Beauty / A Survivor's Story: A jumper advocates for a barrier and makes a new life. The third in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.

LETHAL BEAUTY / No easy death: Suicide by bridge is gruesome, and death is almost certain. The fourth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.

LETHAL BEAUTY / The Toronto example: How one city overcame bureaucracy. The fifth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.

LETHAL BEAUTY / THE ENGINEERING CHALLENGE: A suicide barrier must be effective and safe. The sixth in a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge barrier debate.

LETHAL BEAUTY / SAVING A LIFE: The common assumption that suicide can't be prevented is wrong.

 

[YaYa_521]

This is such a sad, yet eye-opening visual, imo.

Golden Gate Bridge marks 75th birthday with day-long celebration and magnificent fireworks display | Daily Mail Online

Poignant: These 1,558 pairs of shoes represent all the people who have committed suicide by throwing themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge

Shoes represent Golden Gate Bridge suicides

 

[Bit of hope]

This is such a sad, yet eye-opening visual, imo.

Golden Gate Bridge marks 75th birthday with day-long celebration and magnificent fireworks display | Daily Mail Online

Poignant: These 1,558 pairs of shoes represent all the people who have committed suicide by throwing themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge

Shoes represent Golden Gate Bridge suicides

Wow!!! This almost makes me cry.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Anything is possible, but I just hope there weren't cases of people assumed to have jumped so little attention was paid to their case when in fact they needed help or were victims.
But I don't mean to disrail this thread from its purpose either.

I'm glad this thread is here and we can come to it if we find a case to add.

That is a very good point. It is quite possible that some of the missing staged the scene to go off and start a new life.

There was a resent case where a sex offender did just that and was caught.

"While investigating the sex abuse charge, police found (Michael Patrick) Manning had hundreds of images of child and arrested him again in September 2015, Chico police said in a release.

A little over a year later, in October 2016, authorities in California found a rental car leased to Manning abandoned near the Golden Gate Bridge with a handwritten suicide note inside. A body was not found, and police believed that Manning had staged his own death and fled with the help of an associate."

Suspected child sex abuser faked suicide on Golden Gate Bridge, found years later in Florida

 

[Bit of hope]

That is a very good point. It is quite possible that some of the missing staged the scene to go off and start a new life.

There was a resent case where a sex offender did just that and was caught.

"While investigating the sex abuse charge, police found (Michael Patrick) Manning had hundreds of images of child and arrested him again in September 2015, Chico police said in a release.

A little over a year later, in October 2016, authorities in California found a rental car leased to Manning abandoned near the Golden Gate Bridge with a handwritten suicide note inside. A body was not found, and police believed that Manning had staged his own death and fled with the help of an associate."

Suspected child sex abuser faked suicide on Golden Gate Bridge, found years later in Florida

Thanks for posting. Good to keep this kind of situations in the back of our head. What a tremendous scary man!

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

That is a very good point. It is quite possible that some of the missing staged the scene to go off and start a new life.

There was a resent case where a sex offender did just that and was caught.

"While investigating the sex abuse charge, police found (Michael Patrick) Manning had hundreds of images of child and arrested him again in September 2015, Chico police said in a release.

A little over a year later, in October 2016, authorities in California found a rental car leased to Manning abandoned near the Golden Gate Bridge with a handwritten suicide note inside. A body was not found, and police believed that Manning had staged his own death and fled with the help of an associate."

Suspected child sex abuser faked suicide on Golden Gate Bridge, found years later in Florida

Looks like it happened as early as 1948. And there was even a book published in 1969 about analyzing the suicide notes to determine if they are real or not. Makes me wonder how often it happened early on to have a book written when the bridge itself was only around for 20 something years.

"There also have been a fair number of so-called “pseudocides,” distraught people who attempt to take a less traumatic route. The first-known case involved Chris J. Christensen, a prominent jeweler who in 1948 had recently been elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Apparently, he was unable to cope with pressures of public office."

That word pseudocides really rubs me the wrong way.
Golden Gate Bridge: Triumph, Tragedy : Suicide Rate Shadows the Span's 50th-Anniversary Celebration

My concern with this is it may be giving the families false hope that their loved one is still alive. Much more incentive to bring the unidentified home to their families.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

File:Bayarea map.png - Wikimedia Commons

I thought it would be helpful to list the surrounding counties since there are many!

Directly surrounding San Francisco county:

• San Mateo county
• Marin county (connected by Golden Gate bridge)
• Contra Costa county (across bay)
• Alameda county (across bay)

Additional counties surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo bays:
North

• Sonoma county
• Napa county
• Solano county

South

• Santa Clara county

Further counties along the Pacific Ocean:

• Mendocino county (North of Sonoma county)
• Santa Cruz county (south of San Mateo county)
• Monterey county (south of Santa Cruz county)

 

[Bit of hope]

Andrew Cardoza Fluegelman – The Charley Project

• Missing Since 07/06/1985 (41 yrs)
• Missing From Tiburon, California
• Classification Lost/Injured Missing
• Race White
• Date of Birth 11/27/1943
• Height and Weight 5'11, 170 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue t-shirt, casual blue pants and black sneakers.
• Medical Conditions Fluegelman was diagnosed with cancer shortly before his 1985 disappearance. He also suffered from colitis and was taking medication for it; side effects of the drug include depression and periods of mental confusion.
• Brown hair, brown eyes. Fluegelman may have a mustache.

Fluegelman, a publisher, photographer, programmer, and attorney, departed from his family's residence in Marin County, California during the morning hours of July 6, 1985. He arrived at his office in Tiburon, California shortly thereafter, called his wife and was never see

A week after his disappearance, his 1982 Mazda was found parked near the toll plaza on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Investigators believe Fluegelman jumped off the bridge. A suicide note was found in his vehicle. His friends and family say he was acting oddly in the days before his disappearance.

 

[YaYa_521]

Here's an article that I think brings up some very valid points on both sides of the aisle in a debate regarding whether suicides and/or attempts should get much, if any, press coverage. The core of the discussions focus on whether reporting on it leads others to consider taking their own lives. It brings up a question for me that I think is important in efforts to find MPs. As we see day in and day out around here, there are umpteen thousand MP and UID cases that have no profile in LE databases. In many cases the news report is the only report that is ever given. If MSM doesn't cover GGB suicides, wouldn't it become even more difficult than it is now to find MPs and/or match MPs with their remains? Also, this issue ties right in with @ChatteringBirds point about the potential for staged scenes. I'm kind of conflicted on which side I'd choose if I had to pick. I just wish there were more effective ways (before they get on the bridge) of reaching out to people who are contemplating suicide.

Publicizing a magnet for suicide / What if writing about it strengthens the lure?
SBBM

The siren song of the Golden Gate Bridge has long been seductive to artists, photographers, writers and yes, also to suicidal leapers, of which there have been approximately 1,300 since the bridge opened in 1937. The fascination with the bridge's role as the world's strongest suicide magnet is understandable, but what if publicity only strengthens its deadly lure?

snip

But what if reopening the barrier debate only gives more people ideas?

Snip

Publicizing suicides may indeed encourage them.

Snip

Authors of the ethics guidelines point to a raft of research studies showing that the more intense and dramatic the newspaper and television coverage of suicide, the more deaths are likely.

Snip

What should newspapers do?

Snip

Too much of the wrong kind of attention to suicide will not help the cause of suicide prevention. But there are also costs of silence.

Snip

Nowadays, to get your name in The Chronicle for jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, you need to be already famous or take someone with you, or at least tie up traffic for a while.

 

[Bit of hope]

Here's an article that I think brings up some very valid points on both sides of the aisle in a debate regarding whether suicides and/or attempts should get much, if any, press coverage. The core of the discussions focus on whether reporting on it leads others to consider taking their own lives. It brings up a question for me that I think is important in efforts to find MPs. As we see day in and day out around here, there are umpteen thousand MP and UID cases that have no profile in LE databases. In many cases the news report is the only report that is ever given. If MSM doesn't cover GGB suicides, wouldn't it become even more difficult than it is now to find MPs and/or match MPs with their remains? Also, this issue ties right in with @ChatteringBirds point about the potential for staged scenes. I'm kind of conflicted on which side I'd choose if I had to pick. I just wish there were more effective ways (before they get on the bridge) of reaching out to people who are contemplating suicide.

Publicizing a magnet for suicide / What if writing about it strengthens the lure?
SBBM

The siren song of the Golden Gate Bridge has long been seductive to artists, photographers, writers and yes, also to suicidal leapers, of which there have been approximately 1,300 since the bridge opened in 1937. The fascination with the bridge's role as the world's strongest suicide magnet is understandable, but what if publicity only strengthens its deadly lure?

snip

But what if reopening the barrier debate only gives more people ideas?

Snip

Publicizing suicides may indeed encourage them.

Snip

Authors of the ethics guidelines point to a raft of research studies showing that the more intense and dramatic the newspaper and television coverage of suicide, the more deaths are likely.

Snip

What should newspapers do?

Snip

Too much of the wrong kind of attention to suicide will not help the cause of suicide prevention. But there are also costs of silence.

Snip

Nowadays, to get your name in The Chronicle for jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, you need to be already famous or take someone with you, or at least tie up traffic for a while.

I think it's an interesting dilemma. The initial thought that comes up (very black and white at this stage, maybe if I feel like it I will put in the grays).....let's skip all the news about deaths, crimes...people might get ideas......It's of course not the solution at all. I think silence (meaning denial of the problem and swiping the dark site of life under the carpet) is killing too. How can we solve problems our society lays upon us if we aren't made aware of it? I think to prevent suicide (in some cases you "just" can't and it's nobody's fault) it should be pulled out of the dark.....if only it was a subject people could talk about freely, without shame, blame-free and we break down the taboos surrounding a mental crises.

 

[Bit of hope]

Was my last post too intense? Since August (my last post) nobody posted here anymore. If it is I'm sorry if I offended people or hurt somebody's feelings. I'm so intensely sad for everybody who feels "the need" to take his/her own life, because every other option seems not a solution. Brick wall. And for the families that are left behind...with thousand questions, doubts and often the feeling of quilt...... I have to push myself away from this hurtful thoughts....In this strange Covid-19 times depression is rising and there is even a bigger need to listen to each other and don't shut the door for people who are in their darkest hours. Love and light for everybody.

 

[Bit of hope]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Found in Marin County, Sausalito, California August 8, 2020
No stats.
A foot was located on the shore of Rodeo Beach. The foot was in a grey (or dirty white) sock and a Navy blue Sketchers Performance Go Walk Evolution Ultra-Impeccable tennis shoe (Size 11).

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
July 23, 2020
Male, Asian
Sausalito, California, Marin County
50-60 Years
5' 7"(67 inches) , Measured
160-170 lbs, Estimated

Decedent was witnessed to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge to the bay waters below. A United States Coast Guard vessel recovered the subject and transported him to U.S. Coast Guard Station Golden Gate where he was subsequently pronounced deceased.

I checked MP's missing up from August 1, 2020 until today. Nobody is mentioned as suicidal in particular.

 

[Bit of hope]

On August 26, 1993, Raymond ended his life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He was last seen walking toward the bridge, and hours afterward, his body was found by the Coast Guard near the Marin County shoreline. Investigators concluded that he had jumped off the bridge.

The Tragic Story Behind Victoria's Secret | HuffPost

31 okt. 2013 — Happy ending, right? Except two years later, the company's worth $500 million and Roy Raymond jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Poor guy ...

 

[Bit of hope]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Unidentified Female, White / Caucasian
Date Body Found; February 25, 2021
Location Found; Sausalito, California, Marin County
Estimated Age Range; 45-60 Years
Hair color: Brown, medium length with some grey visible at the temples
Eye color: Brown, eyes appear light brown, almost hazel.
Tattoos:

1. Large Tribal Tattoo with blue butterfly on lower back
2. Dark black/purple horned figure with two pink/red/green flowers on left breast
3. Unknown blurry symbol on upper back
4. Yellow sun and blue moon side profiles on back of right shoulder
5. Celtic triangle with rainbow coloring on left foot

Circumstances of Recovery
Subject was witnessed to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge to the bay waters below and was subsequently recovered by a United States Coast Guard

 

[Tabirey]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Unidentified Female, White / Caucasian
Date Body Found; February 25, 2021
Location Found; Sausalito, California, Marin County
Estimated Age Range; 45-60 Years
Hair color: Brown, medium length with some grey visible at the temples
Eye color: Brown, eyes appear light brown, almost hazel.
Tattoos:

1. Large Tribal Tattoo with blue butterfly on lower back
2. Dark black/purple horned figure with two pink/red/green flowers on left breast
3. Unknown blurry symbol on upper back
4. Yellow sun and blue moon side profiles on back of right shoulder
5. Celtic triangle with rainbow coloring on left foot

Circumstances of Recovery
Subject was witnessed to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge to the bay waters below and was subsequently recovered by a United States Coast Guard

The 3rd tattoo looks to be some type of lizard/iguana.
Now, I'm not suggesting this person is Pagan, but her tattoos are definitely similar to one's that many Pagans get to represent certain things within the religion. Butterflies usually represent transformation or change, Celtic Knot Triangle, the 3 aspects of the Goddess, a lizard is self reliance or control of self and the sun and moon usually represent The God and Goddess/ Lord and Lady. Just my observations.
Does anyone know if her tattoos have been posted on the missing ink Facebook page?

 

[Bit of hope]

This music is so meaningful and so sad to me....in the whole context.....can imagine.....Totally no disrespect....I've been there so many times, standing on the edge...but I'm still here...Life is sweet and life is bitter.....to all the families who lost a child in this way....so very, very sorry....there are no words to describe the never lasting pain.

 

[Bit of hope]

Maybe I derailed this thread without knowing...my intentions were so very good...kindness...understanding. The video is about how wonderful the world is....but if you are going through a very deep depression....nothing seems beautiful any more....It's just a very black hole...not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel....Nothing gives you energy or fun, not even the fun things you liked before....nothing....and other's will never understand what is going on inside....You, keeping you smiles up, but inside you feel blank...or not feel anything at all...or sadness. Some people manage to snap out of it...but sometimes you just don't see it...there is a "solution", you end your life....

 

[ChatteringBirds]

@Bit of hope How are you doing, really? Would you like to talk? Depression makes us believe things that aren't actually true, but we must keep trying to find our way back to hope and enjoyment. For our families and for our own valuable selves. Feel free to PM me.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

On another note, today I saw a new case in NamUs of a man who was seen jumping from another bridge, on the opposite end of the country, in Rhode Island.
It just saddened me. He deserves people to care, too. I don't think we should post his name, but may you rest in peace, M.