Two women die in a copycat ‘chemical’ suicide pact

LONDON - Two young women have allegedly killed themselves in a copycat suicide pact by inhaling toxic gas in an airtight room in Britain, police said.

The pair, believed to be in their 20s, were found in a flat in Putney, southwest London. The windows had been taped up and police believe they inhaled toxic vapours, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

Detectives are investigating whether the women had met in an online suicide forum, or if they were already known to each other, and whether they found the ingredients for the lethal substance on internet.

According to a neighbour, an African woman had moved into the flat five months ago and lived there alone. She had apparently told a friend she had suicidal thoughts and had been “collecting” chemicals at the home.

The case comes a week after Joanne Lee and Stephen Lumb made a pact online and died together in a car filled with a gas used in the First World War. It was said to be Britain’s first “chemical” suicide, and police fear the latest tragedy was a copycat case.

Lee had formed a suicide pact with Lumb, a lorry driver from Yorkshire whom she found on internet.

Using the name Heaven’s Little Girl, she wrote on a suicide forum page: “I’m desperately seeking a pact in the UK. I’m 34, female, and live in the Essex area.”

Lumb, with the username Endthis, responded. It is believed the 35-year-old drove 200 miles to meet her. Their bodies were found in Essex near Lee’s home.