Reports Of Five Suicide Cases In One Month - There Could Be More To It Than What The Media Is Telling Us

These days, some sections of the media have developed the penchant for reporting every unnatural death( mortem naturae) as suicide(felodese). Even before investigations prove via a coroners report, they call every unnatural death "suicide".

What our media guys should know is that what investigators can do to unravel the mysteries surrounding many of these deaths, they cannot do by sitting behind the console to read the news at 12:00. And that is not to say they shouldn't talk about such cases but they must learn to operate within acceptable limits.

In the past one month, five people have died unnaturally under strange circumstances. Four females and one male. Two of the felodese involved two female university students, one from KNUST and the other LEGON, Ghana's premier university.

Some of the media houses are alleging that the two university ladies probably "killed themselves" because of estranged relationship problems with their fiancées or probably killed themselves due to what is usually referred to as "broken heart"

I have my own doubts that this could be the case.
When these unnatural deaths occurred, the media in their usual indecent haste to rush to be the first to break the news, threw all professional caution to the wind and reported "suicide" on all the cases without even having the courtesy to call the deaths as "alleged suicides" they called them suicide just like that even before investigations could commence.

What the media does not realise is that by hastening to label every unnatural death as felodese ie the act of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally, will lead to they unconsciously helping potential murderers to cover up their bad deeds by making every unnatural death appear like suicide to escape justice.

There have been many instances where these suspected suicide cases actually turn out to be murders rather than the reported suicides.

There are instances when people actually murder others and go and hang them elsewhere and try to create a suicide situation to elude investigations. Some of them actually call police to report such deaths they themselves have caused.

Once upon a time, there was a report at a police station of a case of suicide in one of the police jurisdictions in Accra that someone had hanged himself along a major road so the police proceeded to the scene of crime ascertain the veracity of the report.

When police got there, they realised that indeed, someone was dead and had a rope around his neck and was standing instead of hanging so this aroused the curiosity of police because "the scene of crime was speaking a different language" ie the scene was telling investigators that this was a case of suspected murder instead of the suicide that was reported.

A careful examination of the body by investigators showed that there was a very big stick in the anal cavity of the deceased which meant that the stick was pushed into his anus which lead to his death before he was brought to the roadside and hanged to create a fake suicide scene and to portray that he had killed himself.

This obviously was meant to throw investigators off gear which didn't succeed.

There are many of such cases that 12 o'clock or midday news cannot unravel the complexities and sophisticated criminality that they present. Only serious investigations can do that.

This should tell all of us that what we usually see or hear the media report as "suicides" are actually "cosmetic murders" presented to divert attention to throw investigations off gear.

On the Legon case, what if the lady was pushed by another person?

And what about the so called "suicide note" left behind by the KNUST student, could it have been written by someone who killed her? Why didn't the media wait until a handwriting expert determines that indeed that handwriting was actually the ladies handwriting?

Why is our media rushing like that?
Where are they rushing to?
Why the indecent haste?
Don't they think they are helping criminals to get away with crime?

You are first to report or break the news and so what?

Do they even realise that the more they report such cases, the more they prepare others to become suicidal?

Please Ghana media, you can do better than this.
Going forward, the media must try and operate within limits that they are comfortable with or have knowledge about and allow criminal investigators to do what they do best in solving complex crimes in our society.

Abdul Hanan Mohammed EL-Saeed
Chiraa Police Station
Sunyani District/BAR
0244087295
[email protected]