Suicide at Whiting this AM!

[socalMX]

Was anyone else at Whiting today? I went there to do a quick cactus trail loop, first decent ride since my shoulder surgery. Anyhow I noticed copters hovering while climbing and when I got to 4 corners There were Sherriff deputies around and I was told a 30 year old hiked up dreaded hill and sat on Mark's memorial bench and shot himself leaving a note with his I.D. My solo ride down cactus wasn't great. Guy could've had his best years ahead, life is a precious gift...

 

[bconneraz]

I agree; life is a precious gift.

 

[A D NOH]

Sad to hear about this. Hopefully his family is doing alright.

 

[rojomas]

Sux... May his soul find peace.

 

[santaslilhelper]

wow, and I was just there doing an early AM dreaded loop. Passed by there about 6:30am, saw nothing.
Good timing on my part I guess!
Lotta hikers out and a huge pack of riders starting a ride around 7am too.

Prayers for the family, RIP

 

[socalMX]

wow, and I was just there doing an early AM dreaded loop. Passed by there about 6:30am, saw nothing.
Good timing on my part I guess!
Lotta hikers out and a huge pack of riders starting a ride around 7am too.

Prayers for the family, RIP

Yea, I got a later than normal start, did not get to the 4 corners til about 10ish, it was getting pretty hot!

 

[dstepper]

Permanent solution for a possible temporary problem. Hope he found his peace.

 

[Kriller134]

I'm always conflicted when this happens. Part of me feels anger and sadness for the family and friends bc it's a selfish act, but the other part of me knows that a person doing this is not in a sane state of mind. I hope this person and everyone that's involved finds peace.

 

[socalMX]

I am with you, a truly selfish act. Not only feel for his family but I feel terrible for the mountain biker & hiker who found him, that is an image that will stay with you forever. I wouldn't sleep for days...

 

[CarbonLegs]

Horrible, of all places, Whiting is family orientated and very popular in the MTB community. What if it was father and son riding up there and they see/find that crap-

Sad & disturbing.

 

[ridinrox]

His pain and anquish must have been unbearable. I truly believe in Assisted Suicide; if life is too much for someone to bear who are we to say it's a precious gift?

I'm agnostic so I don't believe in Heaven or Hell - he found his answer.

 

[booger]

All his problems are over.
His family and friends get to live with pain & hurt forever now...my condolences to those who knew and loved him.
Thankfully nobody else got hurt.

 

[mtnbikej]

OCRegister:

WHITING RANCH – A body found along a trail Wednesday morning is being investigated as a possible suicide, officials said.
The body, identified as a 30-year-old Mission Viejo man, was spotted just after 9:30 a.m. by a hiker, said Lt. Jeff Hallock of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies and paramedics were called to Dreaded Hill Trail to check on the man, said Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority.
Coroner’s officials were also called. How the man died remained unclear, but investigators were looking into the death as a possible suicide, Hallock said

 

[Formu1fan]

I am with you, a truly selfish act. Not only feel for his family but I feel terrible for the mountain biker & hiker who found him, that is an image that will stay with you forever. I wouldn't sleep for days...

Horrible, of all places, Whiting is family orientated and very popular in the MTB community. What if it was father and son riding up there and they see/find that crap-

Sad & disturbing.

Yeah, A man has taken his life. We will never know what pain he lived through, but lets drag him through the mud because his illness drove him to take his life in a public place, unfortunately.

For those of you NOT living with chronic major depression, let me tell you; he wasn't in a neurotypical state of mind. Even with medication, living with depression or any other illness that drives someone to suicide is incredibly hard.

All I'm saying is its easy to blame someone for something like this that is really out of even their control. Yes it was unfortunate that he did this in a public place, but it would just be better to say our condolences and move on.

 

[UR2KLOS]

Coroner’s officials were also called. How the man died remained unclear, but investigators were looking into the death as a possible suicide, Hallock said

Sounds like the OP was given incorrect info about the guy shooting himself. The coroner would probably be able to determine the cause of death if he had a bullet hole.

 

[socal_eric]

Even if it was absolutely clear what happened, until the coroner releases an official report there probably won't be any official statements. If it was indeed a gunshot wound on the rare case it wasn't self-inflicted they wouldn't want to make that statement, find out something like the person was poisoned, died somewhere else, then someone staged a body and gunshot.

Sad to hear that someone got to that point and I'm sorry for his friends and family that have to live it.

 

[redwoods]

Let's not assume we know more about this situation than has been reported (i.e. his state of mind or possible mental illness).

Terrible event all the way around. Different from anything like an assisted suicide...seems to me that something like this usually isn't discussed and planned with family in advance.

 

[socalMX]

I was within a few hundred yards of his body, police said there was a backpack, gun, his I.D. and a note. Even that could be staged by someone else in a murder case but they called it a suicide, I was just relaying the info I was given so who knows!?

 

[rojomas]

Please don't call it a selfish act without knowing what this guy was going through. I'm sure his decision didn't come lightly. Who knows, perhaps what drove him to this depression was the fact that he had no friends or family and knowing that there was no one to miss him.

 

[dstepper]

Most people that commit suicide are under the influence of something at the time.

What I have found interesting if someone does kill themselves by gun is where they shoot themselves. People that just can not handle life and/or hear voices going on in there head shoot themselves in the head to stop the craziness. People that find no hope and no way out after loosing someone either through death or break up tend to shoot themselves in the heart to stop the pain.

This is a sensitive matter to those left behind and in respect for the family sometimes what happened is not released by the police and hopefully the papers leave it alone.

Dean