… is UD‘s word for the placement of your body at a site of great meaning as you commit suicide. Offhand, UD can think of many examples of these – nature lovers who walk deep into national parks and lie down, athletes who end themselves on playing fields and running tracks, and, most recently, a young Finnish politician who killed himself in the parliament building (he had apparently gotten dire health news).
Of course most suicides do the deed at home, or, if it’s outside the home, the motive is simply to spare family members trauma. But many want to make a statement about what made them feel fully alive.
Horribly, some locations are chosen to express worthlessness and nihilism.
In 2016, Ohio State football player Kosta Karageorge – covering up concussions that were becoming symptomatic, having easy access to a gun, crushed by a fight with a girlfriend, and with a history of depression – placed himself, before pulling the trigger, inside a dumpster.
August 20th, 2025 at 10:32AM
Too often it’s a busy railway track, and the engine crews get to be treated like suspects by the coroner and the Federal Railroad Administration and then have a lifetime of nightmares ever after.
August 20th, 2025 at 10:43AM
Stephen: Forgot about that steady favorite. Bridges are less in favor as more and more of them get fences/barriers.
Yes, the trauma for the engine crews must be godawful.