Cult Suicide

A wild child who surfed her way to suicide and 'virtual immortality'

The secret life of Natasha Randall was laid bare on an alarmingly candid web page.

At the click of a button you could discover her likes and dislikes, study revealing photographs, chat to her online and find out who wanted to have sex with her. Yesterday that page became her virtual headstone.

'Internet suicide cult' rips apart town as SEVEN young people hang themselves Scroll down for more ...

Victim: Natasha Randall was the seventh young person to kill themselves in Bridgend in a year
The 17-year-old college student's entry on her favourite social networking site was overflowing with tributes to the latest victim of what appears to be a bizarre chain of internet-chronicled suicides.

An online memorial wall of "virtual bricks" was started just hours after she was found hanged - and friends quickly began to cover it in farewell messages drawn on individual sections.
The fact that at least seven suicides and two attempted suicides might be linked in one area of Britain is a horrifying prospect.

But equally disturbing is the possibility - voiced by police - that young people may regard "virtual immortality" as the ultimate in cool. To an adult unfamiliar with the peer status that celebrity on the web can create, it might sound unlikely. But a few minutes spent browsing Natasha's page on "bebo", one of the leading social network sites, would horrify most decent parents. And she was not alone. Her web page contains links to others in the so-called suicide circle, among them Liam "Clarkey" Clarke.