William Francis Melchert-Dinkel

William Francis Melchert-Dinkel
Born	July 20, 1962 (1962-07-20) (age 49)
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Former nurse; currently a truck driver[1]
Known for	Charged with encouraging the suicides of a person in Britain in 2005, and another person in Canada in 2008, over the internet
Home town	Faribault, Minnesota
Criminal charge	Assisting suicide (April 23, 2010)
Spouse	yes
Children	two daughters, Mari and Molly[2]

William Francis Melchert-Dinkel (born July 20, 1962, from Faribault, Minnesota, United States) is a former LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) and convicted online predator. He was found guilty of encouraging people to commit suicide while he watched voyeuristically on a webcam.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} He allegedly told those contemplating suicide what methods worked best, that it was a decent choice to commit suicide, that they would be better in heaven, and/or falsely entered into suicide pacts with them, which he then abandoned.^[3][7] He is a married father of two.^[8][9][10]

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted of two counts of assisting suicide, for encouraging the suicides of a person in Britain in 2005, and another person in Canada in 2008.^[3]

Contents 1 Victims 1.1 Nadia Kajouji; Canada 1.2 Mark Drybrough; England 2 Investigations 3 Charges 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Victims

He allegedly met his victims in internet suicide chat rooms, where he posed as a depressed woman in her 20s.^{[11][12][13][14]} Investigators say he told them he encouraged dozens of people to kill themselves, contacting more than 100 people.^[3][6][15]

According to the police, Melchert-Dinkel, admitted to using a number of e-mail addresses to persuade five people to kill themselves.^[16] He allegedly admitted using two e-mail addresses, falcongirl507@yahoo.com and li_dao05@yahoo.com, and the alias Cami D, to advise, encourage and create suicide pacts, typically by hanging, with persons on the internet for four to five years.^{[5][13][16][17][18]}

Nadia Kajouji; Canada

He was convicted in relation to the suicide of 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji who became depressed after a miscarriage.^[19] A student at Ottawa's Carleton University, she jumped from a bridge and was found drowned in Rideau River near the Ottawa school in April 2008.CTV^{[20][21][22][23][24][25]} She had allegedly conversed online with someone posing as a young woman–now alleged to be Melchert-Dinkel–who allegedly suggested that she hang herself (allegedly advising what type of rope to buy, what length and diameter, how to tie the knots, and where to place the noose on her neck), and that she capture her final moments with a webcam so he and others could watch, as part of a joint suicide pact.^{[4][13][20][22][26][27]} St. Paul, Minnesota police said they confirmed that she "had been conversing with Melchert-Dinkel online just prior to her disappearance", including on the day of her disappearance.^[28][29][30]

Ottawa police decided not to charge Melchert-Dinkel under the Canadian assisted suicide law.^[14]

Mark Drybrough; England

He was also convicted in relation to the suicide of Mark Drybrough, a 32-year-old IT technician who in the wake of suffering a nervous breakdown and being depressed hanged himself in his Coventry, England home in July 2005, after allegedly chatting for two months with someone allegedly using the aliases Falcongirl and Li Dao.^{[4][24][24][31][32]} He is charged with counseling Drybrough how to kill himself.^[24]

Investigations

In November 2006, Celia Blay, a retired British schoolteacher living in Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, received word from a teenaged friend in South America that she had entered a suicide pact with a young nurse. Blay investigated Melchert-Dinkel's "Li Dao" identity and discovered that he had previously agreed to earlier suicide pacts. She convinced the girl to break the pact four hours before the planned suicide, saving her life. Throughout the following year, Blay posted warnings about "Li Dao" on other chat websites. She also discovered Melchert-Dinkel's "Falcongirl" and "Cami D" identities, and talked to users who entered other pacts in which he arranged to have attempted victims die in front of their webcams. After months of collecting evidence about the then-unidentified Melchert-Dinkel's activities, Blay approached the local police. They opted not to investigate.

In January 2008—around the time Melchert-Dinkel was corresponding with Kajouji—Blay and a friend, Kat Lowe, set up a sting to catch "Cami D" in the act of attempting a suicide pact. It was during this correspondence that Melchert-Dinkel described seeing a man from Birmingham, thought to be Drybrough, hang himself on his webcam. Lowe and Blay gained Melchert-Dinkel's trust and found information that traced him back to his IP address and residence in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In a stroke of luck, they also saw Melchert-Dinkel through a webcam feed, posing as "Cami D". Blay submitted an affidavit on the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but received no response. However, the Saint Paul Police Department and the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force agreed to take the case.^[33][34]

Charges

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted on March 15, 2011, in a criminal complaint filed in Rice County, Minnesota.^[6] He was charged under a rarely used state law with advising, encouraging, or assisting Kajouji and Drybrough in taking their own lives using internet correspondence.^[2][35][36] He was ordered to stay off the internet while his criminal case is pending.^[37]

While counseling to commit suicide is illegal, laws in North America and Britain have not previously been successfully used to prosecute anyone for promoting suicide over the internet.^[4] He was found guilty of aiding a suicide under Minnesota law, which provides penalties for anyone who “intentionally advises, encourages, or assists another in taking the other’s own life", punishment can be up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000.^{[7][14][21][38]} He was sentenced on May 4, 2011, to 360 days in jail.^[39]

See also

• alt.suicide.holiday, one of the newsgroups in which Melchert-Dinkel lurked.^[40]

References

External links

• Minnesota v. Melcher-Dinkel, Complaint, April 23, 2010
• "Un infirmier américain dans l'eau chaude", Le Droit (French), March 1, 2009
• "Enfermero alentaba a suicidas potenciales por Internet", Inforamador (Spanish), October 17, 2009
• Američan nabádal cez chat tínedžerov na samovraždu "Američan nabádal cez chat tínedžerov na samovraždu", TVnoviny (Slovak), March 20, 2010
• "Bu da intihar röntgencisi!", Mynet.haber (Turkish), March 21, 2010
• "Man moedigt mensen aan zelfmoord te plegen voor webcam", AD Buitenland (Dutch), March 22, 2010
• "İnternette intihar ettiriyor", Hurriyet (Turkish), March 22, 2010
• "İntihar röntgencisi 4 kişiyi öldürmüş!", Millyet.com (Turkish), March 22, 2010
• "Suicide d'une étudiante d'Ottawa; Un internaute américain est accusé", Radio-Canada (French), April 23, 2010
• americano é acusado de encorajar suicídios via web "Ex-enfermeiro americano é acusado de encorajar suicídios via web", Estadão (Portuguese), April 23, 2010
• "Bí ẩn vụ tự sát qua mạng (kỳ cuối)", 24h (Vietnamese), June 11, 2010

Persondata
Name	Melchert-Dinkel, William Francis
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Date of birth	July 20, 1962
Place of birth
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