Death of Brandon Vedas

Brandon Carl Vedas (April 21, 1981 – January 12, 2003), also known by his nickname ripper on IRC, was an American computer enthusiast, recreational drug user and member of the Shroomery.org community who died of a multiple drug overdose while discussing what he was doing via chat and webcam. His death led to debate about the responsibilities and roles of online communities in life-threatening situations.[1][2][3][4]

Brandon Vedas
Born
Brandon Carl Vedas

(1981-04-21)April 21, 1981
DiedJanuary 12, 2003(2003-01-12) (aged 21)
Phoenix, Arizona
Cause of deathDrug overdose
OccupationComputer enthusiast, recreational drug user
Known forOverdose caught on webcam

Overview

The video chat session began when Vedas logged into the IRC channel and announced "i got a grip of drugs". Vedas indicated that his webcam was up, and that chatters were welcome to view his "grip of drugs" and his subsequent ingestion thereof. While some of the substances were illicit, most of them had apparently been obtained through legitimate prescriptions for treatment of various illnesses from which Vedas was said to have suffered.

Vedas then began consuming psilocybe mushrooms, which had been stored in a prescription medication bottle. As the chat session progressed, one of the users in the channel, grphish, noted "that's a lot of klonopin" and this is thought to be when Vedas consumed 8 mg of clonazepam. Vedas continued by showing the webcam viewers what would be one of four bottles of methadone that he would consume over the course of the session, and, after noting this on the channel, proceeded to consume an entire bottle (reportedly 80 mg of methadone). After a brief respite, Vedas then consumed 110 mg of propranolol (Inderal), two Vicodin tablets, and 120 mg temazepam, which seem to have been taken in between descriptions given on the IRC channel.

During this process, Vedas maintained that this was "usual weekend behavior" for him and that he had consumed similar quantities of the same substances on previous occasions. "I told u I was hardcore" was one of the last things Vedas typed, a phrase often quoted sarcastically on Internet message boards and discussion sites.[5]

Upon consuming the remainder of this original batch of drugs, Vedas began to retrieve even more drugs that had been stashed about the room, and began to prepare and consume these as well ⁠— and it was at this point that users of the channel began to voice their concerns that Vedas was taking things too far. Some pleaded with him to stop while others recommended that he seek immediate medical attention. After taking another large quantity of the same drugs he had already ingested, Vedas gave instructions that if anything were to go wrong, that they should try to contact him by calling his cell phone, and if that did not work, they should call the local authorities and give them the license plate number of his car, which was parked in his driveway and could easily be seen from the street.

When Vedas lost consciousness, users of the chatroom considered informing the police and asking that they trace Vedas's cellphone in order to locate him. However, the members of the channel were hesitant to contact the authorities for fear of involving Vedas and/or themselves in a police investigation. According to the chat logs, one user had even called 9-1-1 and asked the group if he was doing the right thing. After an emphatic "NO" response from another user, the user said "I talked my way out of it." and claimed that the police told them that there was no way to find Vedas with the information available. His mother discovered his body in the afternoon of January 12, 2003.

According to Vedas's brother, the information Brandon gave to the users in the chat, as well as the address in his domain name registration would have been enough for the police to locate Brandon, which he confirmed with local police. Later, Vedas's brother said about the incident, "It seems like the group mentality really contributed to it. These people treat it like somehow it's not the real world. They forget it's not just words on a screen."

See also

References
  1. "Net grief for online 'suicide'". BBC News. February 4, 2003. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  2. Kennedy, Helen (February 2, 2003). "He Takes Fatal OD As Internet Pals Watch: Chatroom vultures egged him to pop more Rx pills". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on July 9, 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  3. "Obituary: Brandon Carl Vedas". The Arizona Republic. January 16, 2003.
  4. Craig, Olga (February 9, 2003). "Chatmates watched internet suicide". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  5. "En blogg om det mesta som händer på internet". egomania.nu (in Northern Sami). Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
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