It's always hard to hear that someone's found something outside of themselves so difficult to cope with, that they feel they truly can't cope.
Suicide's not good news for any community. Very sad.
November 9, 2004 -- A 25-year-old Georgia man left behind a bizarre, handwritten travelogue detailing his somber thoughts and often quirky adventures before he ended his life with a shotgun blast to the head in the construction pit of Ground Zero.
Andrew Veal's three-page missive, which cops found in his parked car near the site, at first shows a man amused over the purchase of his suicide weapon and later anguished over his passion for two women: his fiancée and a love from his hometown, Athens, Ga.
Although the letter isn't dated, Veal was last seen by his friends on election night. He is believed to have set out on his final journey sometime the following day.
At first, his friends believed he killed himself over the outcome of the election, but his written musings never mention it.
His first entry is about buying the gun, the same gun he used to kill himself sometime early Saturday while he sat on a concrete box in the pit of Ground Zero with a bottle of Jack Daniels at his side.
"I got 60 rounds of shells and I'm driving toward the beach or Jersey. I'm still in Walmart . . . I just bought a Smith and Wesson 12-gauge action shotgun. I can't wait to fire it. I can contact Trent, but if I do I won't tell him about the shotgun because he'll get nervous." As he drives closer to Manhattan, Veal reveals his anguish over two women.
Veal who was engaged to an Iowa college student, Audrey Grieme, 21, reveals his feelings toward another woman named Karen, who lives in Athens.
"I think I expressed my feelings to Karen with all certainty today. What bad timing. What an ass- - - I am. I learned early what it is to fall in love with someone. But I never learned how not to."
"She doesn't deserve the turmoil I am sure to put her through. She is one of the most altruistic people."
Veal's addresses his last lines to his parents.
"To mom and Dad please know this is not your fault. It's my own doing. I'm thinking of you now. I love you both very much."
From today's N.Y. Post. This should satisfy most of the speculation on this matter.
Wow. Whoever thought publishing those women's names would help anyone was incredibly stupid, and unkind.
flyboy - that's not directed at you. We aren't the national media here. Those poor young women.
