Tuesday, February 10, 2009

FaceBook Friend Saves Man From Suicide, Two Weeks Too Late


On the 10th of February 2009, Barry Twinklemire, 26, was found dead in his 1 bedroom apartment in South West London.
According to his FaceBook history, Barry had left a suspicious message on his profile page, his last update of his online status had read "Barry Twinklemire is...going to kill self in bathtub with a laptop".

Police, who found him in the bathtub with his laptop, are calling it an "apparent suicide or a tragic incident".

Barry had over 67,000 friends on FaceBook, many of which had tried to help Barry by sending him a "hug" or a "poke" to prevent him from going through with it.

The police tried to contact many of these friends on why he might have done it, but none were available to comment.

The tragedy was also very nearly avoided, as Barry's FaceBook friend, Steve "The Party Sensation" Sandbrook, had read the suicide note on the social networking website.

"The minute I saw Barry's note, I jumped in my car and drove straight to his place to stop him" Mr Sandbrook said.
He continued; "I got there as fast as I could, but it was a long drive and ferry ride from the Isle of Man, plus I'd never met the guy before and only knew that he lived somewhere in London".

After a week and a half of investigating and searching through 34 different phonebooks, Steve found Barry's house, but was too late to save his friend.
"I was just a couple of weeks too late, but I gave it a bloody good shot", said a devasted Sandbrook.
"I'll probably just spend a few days exploring the captial before heading back home".

FaceBook director and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, saw the positive side of the incident:
"I think this story just proves how FaceBook brings people together, Larry Twanklemire might have just rotted away in his patheticly puny apartment if it hadn't been for the service, his friends really came through for him here".

Many of Barry Twinklemire's friends have left messages of condolence on his FaceBook page, and it has so far amassed over 8 comments.