Strangers arrange suicide pact after meeting on the Internet

Two strangers who died in a suspected suicide pact met only hours before having made contact on the Internet...

Two strangers gassed themselves in a suicide pact having met just hours earlier on the Internet.

On Monday, the bodies of Steve Lumb, 35, and Joanne Lee, 34, were found in a fume-filled Vauxhall Astra alongside wasteland on an industrial estate in Braintree, Essex.

Ms Lee is understood to have posted a desperate message on a suicide forum begging someone to join her in a suicide pact, claiming she didn’t have the strength to do it alone.

'I’m not a cop, a cannibal or a murderer, just desperate,' she reportedly posted on the site.

Mr Lumb responded to her plea and drove 200 miles from his hometown in Yorkshire to meet her.

The parents of Ms Lee said they had no idea their daughter was planning to kill herself, describing her as a lovely, caring daughter.

Mr Lumb’s father, who shared a house with his son, confirmed he had no idea Joanne Lee was, or that his son was contemplating suicide.

‘There was no depression and he never talked about taking his own life. He was a lovely lad,’ he said.

This tragic case raises serious questions about the regulation of Internet sites, where users can openly discuss suicide in such a manner.

Essex police are treating both deaths as unexplained.

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