INQUIRER: Schocking news from the suburbs. The two teenage girls struck and killed by a high-speed Amtrak train in the Philadelphia suburb of Norwood last week stepped onto the tracks deliberately, meeting their deaths together in a suicide pact, according to authorities. Gina Gentile, 16, and Vanessa Dorwart, 15, were killed instantly when an Acela Express racing from Boston to Washington sped through Norwood at 10:28 a.m. last Thursday. An examination of their e-mail and text messages showed dark thoughts and fatalistic moods, Police Chief Mark DelVecchio said. In the days before they stepped into the path of the train, he said, the girls secretly
spoke of their desire to end their lives. Their motives remain unclear. A classmate at Interboro Senior High School who was with the girls in the moments before they died told police that she, too, had intended to take her life. As the train approached and its whistle blew, the girl said, Gentile stepped onto the tracks. Dorwart followed.The girl said she had screamed at her friends to get off the tracks. Ignoring her pleas, Gentile and Dorwart embraced and were struck by the train. MORE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Andrew Knoenig reportedly hanged himself from a tree in Vancouver’s Stanley Park .A source close to the Koenig investigation revealed to E! News that the 41-year-old actor, best known for playing Boner in “Growning Pains,” was found Thursday hanging from a tree. Koenig, who went missing on Feb. 14, had been clinically depressed and sent his father a “despondent” letter on the 16th.During a private search conducted by 11 family and friends, the actor’s body was found so deep in the forest that the source told E!, “Andrew didn’t want to be found.” Koenig’s father, Walter, who played Chekov in the original “Star Trek” TV series, rushed to the scene after being alerted of the discovery. In a press conference Friday, he confirmed his son’s death. “My son took his own life,” Koenig said, then urged others not to ignore signs of depression in others.MORE
E! ONLINE: Marie Osmond’s son Michael Blosil took his own life Friday night after leaping to his death from his Los Angeles apartment, E! News confirms. The 18-year-old reportedly suffered from severe depression in recent years, leaving behind a note which detailed his plans to commit suicide. In it, Blosil explained his loneliness, stating that he felt as if he had no friends and simply did not fit in. Osmond expressed her grief over the tragedy in a statement released Saturday evening: “My family and I are devastated and in deep shock by the tragic loss of our dear Michael and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this difficult time.” MORE
TELEGRAPH: A seven-month-old girl survived for three days alone with a bullet in her chest after being shot by her parents as part of a suicide pact over their fears about global warming. Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their daughter and her toddler brother before killing themselves. Their son Francisco, two, died instantly after being hit in the back. However, their unnamed daughter cheated death after the bullet from her father’s handgun missed her vital organs. Police were alerted by worried neighbours who discovered the massacre three days after the shooting and the girl was taken to hospital. The youngster is recovering in hospital in the town of Goya in the northern Argentine province of Corrientes, where doctors say she is out of danger. Her parents said they feared the effects of global warming in a suicide note discovered by police.