The sheriff told me to “Google ‘Naked Suicide'”

At The Community Meeting With SD Police Brass

by Reviewer Rob

I went to the town square meeting, or whatever they called it, the big brass public relations talk, at the Jacobs Center off Market Street yesterday. It was about the City and County Of San Diego’s newly public policy for releasing police-involved shootings when the officer or officers involved are not being charged. They appear to be getting proactive now that body cameras are being issued, eventually, to the patrols and so many incidents nationwide have attracted public outcry when witness and security video gets leaked after someone is killed.

Long story short, San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said she will release video — with faces and identities of people involved blurred “for privacy” — from every officer-involved shooting unless the officer is to be charged in the case. If so, the video will be withheld until it is shown during court proceedings.

After the panel discussion/meeting I met the sheriff of San Diego, William D Gore. Tall and grey-haired he spoke with enthusiasm about an old case that was closed when the person considered by many in the media and the public to be the responsible party (possibly through negligence) in the killing is said to have committed suicide in a manner that was sensationally bizarre.

I remember last seeing Sheriff Gore on TV, appeared at the press conference for the above case’s closure a few years ago. He was stone-faced and stern then, very serious in relaying to the public through reporters that there would be no further investigation in the Spreckels’ Mansion death of 32-year-old Rebecca Zahua. Few but him however were satisfied. Look it up if you’re in the mood for a really freaky story.

The sheriff had a totally different demeanor last night. He was almost upbeat and began to speak in an enthusiastically friendly way. But afterall it is now, as they say, ancient history. Tragic, but ancient history.

It was the grief of guilt that drove her to do it the way she did, he said, and he told me to Google “Naked Suicide”, as a way to understand the psychology behind the conclusion his department’s investigators and forensic specialists came to. So I did (when your county’s sheriff tells you to your face to do something you’ll usually try to avoid being a dooshbag and do it) as soon as I got online. Here’s what came up first in the search:

“Anger and vengeance can be expressed by completing suicide while naked, especially when it is intended to traumatize a survivor. The shock of discovering a naked suicide inflicts an indelible, traumatic memory that can haunt a survivor for a lifetime.12 The person who completes suicide while naked may intend to add insult to a suicide survivor’s already devastating injury.”
from http://www.jaapl.org/content/36/2/240.full

But still. Did they really prove that a person can tie their own hands behind their back with their feet together and then hop to a window with a noose around their neck and then jump out?

Oh well, case closed, people forget and move on with their own lives I guess.

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[The next similar meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on May 17 at Cherokee Point Elementary School on 38th Street in the community of Chollas View, according to the SD Union Tribune website.]