Group May Have Aided 130 Suicides; Four Members Arrested
Scores of death investigations may be reopened as Georgia authorities probe an Atlanta area group that helped others commit suicide with helium gas.
A court document says the group Final Exit Network may have helped as many as 130 people around the country commit suicide, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Investigators want to know if group members merely witnessed the suicides or if they were active participants.
So far investigators have arrested the group’s founder, Thomas “Ted” Goodwin, and three other members, the newspaper reports. All are accused of assisting the suicide of a Georgia man and violating the state’s racketeering act.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says Goodwin was arrested after he instructed an agent posing as a cancer victim how to commit suicide using the procedure. An affidavit says Goodwin has helped 35 people commit suicide in the last four years, according to the AJC.
Assisting a suicide is a felony under Georgia law that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Los Angeles Times reports. Oregon and the state of Washington have legalized physician-assisted suicide.
