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May 12, 2009
Teen suicide probe reveals pacts
Minnesota suspect told people he coaxed 5 people to kill selves through web chat
By BETH JOHNSTON, SUN MEDIA
Nadia Kajouji in a Facebook photo.
OTTAWA -- A Minnesota man admitted to police he used the Internet to coax five suicidal people, including Carleton University student Nadia Kajouji, to kill themselves, according to a St. Paul Police affidavit.
William Melchert-Dinkel, a 46-year-old nurse, made the admission Jan. 7, 2009, when a police officer showed up at his Faribault, Minn., home with a warrant to search his desktop computer.
"(Melchert-Dinkel) admitted using ... the screen name "Cami" to advise, encourage and create suicide pacts, typically via hanging, with persons on Internet Newsgroup alt.suicide.methods for the past four or five years," the affidavit, filed in Ramsey District Court, reads.
He told the officer he found the victims on suicide chat rooms, befriended them -- sometimes posing as a suicidal young girl -- and asked if he could watch them end their lives on his webcam. He never witnessed a suicide, he claimed.
Police believe one of Melchert-Dinkel's victims was Carleton University student Nadia Kajouji, 18, who disappeared March 9, 2008, and whose body was in the Rideau River on April 20, 2008.
Melchert-Dinkel, posing as a suicidal young woman, told the depressed Brampton native what kind of rope to buy, where to buy it, how to tie the knot and asked her to position her webcam so he could watch, chat transcripts show.
INSTANT DEATH
The affidavit, to secure a search warrant for his desktop computer at the home Melchert-Dinkel shares with his wife, was recently unsealed by the court.
In a particularly disturbing April 12, 2007 suicide pact e-mail between "Cami" and a person using the e-mail [email protected], Melchert-Dinkel advises the person to make sure the rope is tied behind the left ear, across the carotid artery "for instant unconsciousness and death."
He also told the person to time the suicide so they'd be found soon after.
<span style="font-weight: bold">"Hanging for 1 week is not good ... the decomposition of the body over 1 week will make for a terrible scene for anyone who discovers you
," he wrote. He also explained he'd play the Christian hymn On Eagles Wings while he took his own life.
"Being highly Christian... i want spiritual songs played as it is my journey to heaven that will begin then
It is good to have support at this time of need **hugs** and love.....Cami." </span>In March, St. Paul police said they expected charges of aiding suicide would be laid against Melchert-Dinkel soon.
But it's uncharted territory and that's the holdup.
Minnesota police, who are working with investigators from Canada and the United Kingdom, suspect there could be more suicides linked to Melchert-Dinkel.
"Countries have gotten better at co-operating and working together but this case is unusual and different, this is new ground," said St. Paul Police department spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell.
Investigators are reviewing the statutes, trying to determine who has the best jurisdiction -- state, federal or international -- in charging the case.
"This man took advantage of people who are at their most vulnerable, but this is not the kind of crime that's usually charged," Schnell said.
"The U.S. Attorneys' Office can issue a charge and we may or may not be the first to know."
[email protected]