I do charity work time to time and mental health is very close to my heart. I was curiously hopping about personal adverts on Craigslist and I saw someone asking for company before they passed away. It didn’t say much more beyond this, aside from the call being over webcam because they couldn’t leave their home.
I responded because I had been interested in end of life care but I had always been quite scared about how it would affect me. I have cared for people who eventually died but I never really saw it leading up to that point as they were usually taken into hospices.
A few days later they responded and they told me their name was Gerald and they were in their early 50’s. We arranged a call over WhatsApp in a few days.
A couple of days later I sat down for the call at my computer and took the call. He was an older man as said, short grey hair and slightly gaunt. His accent was west country English and he wore prescription glasses. He didn’t appear unwell, but often people don’t.
We spoke for a while and he explained how he made his money in selling specialist farming equipment which was more interesting than I thought. His wife and daughter left him around a decade before so he took his money and moved to Asia.
I was curious as to what his diagnosis was, but it wasn’t for me to ask. He explained however that he would not survive until tomorrow. This raised a flag because from my perspective he didn’t seem outwardly unwell but he was firm that this day was his last which points to either paranoia or suicide.
In this situation I pressed him a little to ascertain his location. WhatsApp was encrypted and the number he was using appeared to be Norwegian. I asked him about this and he told me he was using an online sim card and using a proxy. When I asked why, he explained that people were looking for him to take him away and he would die before he would let that happen.
I told him I would find him help and I googled suicide crisis teams to call him, but he told me that if I stopped talking to him, he would just change his number and change his location via his VPN.
Then things took a darker turn and he took out a small revolver pistol and showed me it was loaded with three bullets. He said he wanted to show me his home and took me on a tour around his house. I was speechless really, I didn’t know how to respond but I thought maybe if I stayed with him I could help, because at that point I didn’t know what I could do.
His house was large and the garden was surrounded by tropics of some variety. Unfortunately I don’t know much about plants so I couldn’t work out where he was. He spoke about this being his legacy and how “they” wanted to take it away from him.
He then told me he wanted to show me something and he opened a door to his basement which had a large lock. Switching the lights on I saw a woman and a child.
He told me it was his wife and daughter. His wife threatened him with divorce and taking his daughter away and his money. The police were looking for them and the net was closing in.
I wish I had have said something but I was in shock. He asked if I was watching and then shot his daughter in the head. It was so surreal, I knew it was real but I hoped it was a sick prank while the woman screamed for a moment before he made me watch her be shot too.
I was silent and felt incredibly sick. He put the camera down to face him and explained that they tried to take his legacy from him but he knew he would never get away with it. He would end on his own terms.
He leaned over to a Jerry can and pushed it over. He lit a cigarette and threw the match nearby the gas and it ignited.
The last thing I remember him telling me is that he called me so he knew he would be remembered and that I would never forget his face. And then he hung up.