Can a thread be removed or locked?

That's very true. Thom stayed off the net. Nothing to do with anything online. His cousin pretty much summed up the stress brought onto him that caused his demise.

Oh I'm sorry to hear that Morgan feels guilty about starting that thread. He really shouldn't feel that way. He started the thread to urge people not to drink and drive, and to plan ahead to use alternate transportation if they knew they'd be drinking. And while Thom's accident and arrest provoked his posting the topic, Morgan did not identify Thom when he started the thread--he obviously wasn't intending it to be a specific discussion about Thom's case.

After it became a news story, and was all over the internet, the thread discussion focused on that specific accident, and Thom's name was used, and people commented about him, but I don't think that was what Morgan had in mind when he started the topic, nor could he have had any control over where the discussion veered.

And, compared to the magnitude of the consequences of that accident on Thom's life, any possible effects of that thread are really insignificant and trivial--even if Thom had read the thread. It couldn't have come as any surprise to him that people, including me, take a harsh view of drinking and driving, particularly when a fatality results, and the main negative attitudes voiced toward Thom, mostly by people who were strangers to him, had to do with his driving after he had been drinking, There's nothing at all unusual about that sort of sentiment toward people who drink and drive, and I don't feel guilty about expressing my feelings on that matter in that thread, even given the final tragic outcome of the story with Thom's suicide. My feelings about drinking and driving haven't changed.

So I hope that Morgan also sees that thread in it's proper perspective and inconsequential light. Thom made a terrible error in judgment that night last December when he got into his car to drive home from Georgie's--and the consequences of that error were catastrophic for him. Compared to those consequences, nothing said in that thread, or about that thread, really matters--that thread wasn't the significant or realistic source of Thom's stress or distress--he was dealing with a real life horrendous ordeal, which had all sorts of drastic ramifications for him.

Morgan started the thread because he wanted to see other people avoid winding up in the same situation that Thom found himself in. He wanted to urge people to use alternate transportation and not risk drinking and driving. Could his intentions have been any better? Was that an inappropriate topic, given the fact that he knew someone who had just been involved in a DUI with a fatality? Why should he feel guilty about starting that thread? In fact, given the final tragic outcome with Thom, the message that Morgan was trying to send, by starting that thread, seems even more urgent than ever--and I hope people heed it.

Thom read that thread in the beginning when it was only a few pages long. At the advice of his Attorney he stayed off the Internet. I've known Thom for years, I didn't view the thread as an attack on Thom, I viewed it as a discussion on the issue of what CAN happen when ANYONE of us thinks it's okay to drive after drinking.

I was also close friends with Thom. I kept up with thread, people were not attacking him directly only debating the situation. That thread was noticed by many in town and I'm sure made a lot of people think before getting in their cars after partying, it sure made me more aware.

Marco and I attended Mr. Swift’s memorial service. We were saddened by the loss of a life, and saddened by the series of events that lead to this tragedy, the little that I know, the rest I can only imagine, some I don't want to imagine. It was an amazing celebrating of life, so many attented and had wonderful things to say. An amazing life that had so much impact on those in it and much more to offer. Many tears fell that night.

A friend of ours kept in touch with Thom everyday and sent him a text that night, a text that was never returned.

You're saying this friend who kept in touch with him every day didn't get any hint of the suicide before it happened? Maybe it could have been prevented.

A lot of people suspected and some advised the proper authorities but what were they going to do? Absolutely nothing on here say. I'm sure the court system suspected the same thing,they don't react to suspicion.