UPDATE--MSU STUDENT RYLAN COTTER COMMITTED SUICIDE

Not long ago, I did a piece SEE HERE about Rylan Cotter. Another college woman found dead. Another mystery. Who were her friends? Who did she hang out with? Was it a random serial-type killing, or an act of rage from a boyfriend or ex?


This news is a no win situation. Yes, it is a good thing that she was not murdered, yet it is not a good news for her family to learn that she took her own life. If she had been murdered, and the killer was found and justice was served, the family might have some sort of closure. But with a suicide, the family is probably even more tormented because they are thinking, "What could I have done?" "Why couldn't/didn't I recognize something was wrong?"


For any family to lose their child, sibling, cousin, aunt, uncle...any relative, is worse than if that person were to die in an accident. It is something that haunts you. You will never know why, never know what was going on in their head. You will never know if there was anything you could have done different had you known they were going through something that lethally serious. Happy people don't kill themselves.


This unfortunate closure to this Rylan's life hits home to me. Two years ago, my only uncle committed suicide at the age of 51, alone in his apartment. It was a couple days before anyone found him. He shot himself in the head, and the authorities found the movie "Crash" in the DVD player...the last thing he was watching before his demise. I know this haunts my mother, and it certainly haunts me.


I pray for Rylan's family, offer my condolences, and can only say, take it one day at a time. The pain will never go away, but you will be able to go on with your life. She will be the one that you will always hold dearness to your heart.

RYLAN COTTER--SUICIDE, NOT MURDER

CHESTERTON, Ind. (AP) - A coroner has ruled that a college student whose body was found in January on a northwestern Indiana golf course committed suicide by jumping from an electrical tower.


Porter County Coroner Victoria Deppe reported Friday that Michigan State student Rylan Cotter died from massive blunt force trauma to her chest and abdomen. Brassie Golf Course employees found the 20-year-old's body Jan. 9 next to a paved path on the course in Chesterton.


Police have said Cotter left East Lansing, Mich., where Michigan State is located, on Jan. 7 and traveled to Benton Harbor, Mich. She was then spotted hours later in Chesterton. Officers found Cotter's car in a parking lot near a bike trail about a half-mile from her body.