Census worker "murder" really a suicide

[Grenadier]

Looks like this guy just wasted taxpayers' money:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/24/kentucky.census.worker.death/index.html

"Analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted," police said in a statement.

Also, a more thorough account of the situation:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576647,00.html

Investigators say Sparkman acted alone in manipulating the scene to conceal the suicide.
They believe he killed himself and made it look like a murder because he'd recently taken out two life insurance policies that wouldn't pay out for suicide.

 

[Steve]

Looks like this guy just wasted taxpayers' money:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/24/kentucky.census.worker.death/index.html





Also, a more thorough account of the situation:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576647,00.html

That is actually a relief.

 

[grydth]

Died perpetrating an insurance fraud. Terrific.

This type of thing happens occasionally, and often the individual neglects or overlooks the small things police will see....and so dies for nothing.

Taking out insurance policies, especially very large ones, just before death is always a red flag.

 

[Tez3]

Such desperation is very sad. My thoughts are for the family.

 

[geezer]

Died perpetrating an insurance fraud. Terrific.

This type of thing happens occasionally, and often the individual neglects or overlooks the small things police will see....and so dies for nothing.

Taking out insurance policies, especially very large ones, just before death is always a red flag.

Well, people don't usually commit suicide just for the money. As Tez said, they are desperate. They are also usually mental ill. And whatever the convoluted factors and motives leading to such an act, it is deeply tragic.

Now, on the lighter side... a sane, but criminally minded person would fake his or her death for the insurance money. That's been tried. Some may have even gotten away with it.

 

[Ramirez]

Insurance companies by law have to pay out on claims by suicide as long as the insured has been insured at least two years. The reasoning being no one is going to wait 2 years to commit suicide just to defraud an insurance company.

My personal view like others here is the insurance is a non-issue, it is a tragedy that anyone reaches this point.

 

[grydth]

Insurance companies by law have to pay out on claims by suicide as long as the insured has been insured at least two years. The reasoning being no one is going to wait 2 years to commit suicide just to defraud an insurance company.

My personal view like others here is the insurance is a non-issue, it is a tragedy that anyone reaches this point.

A couple of points on this...

First, the fact that an insurance company should pay in no way means that they will pay. If you want the money, you're going to have to hire an attorney and spend months or years choking it out of them in court. I once had an angry insurance rep tell me that they knew something like 20% of claimants would just quit or wouldn't hire competent counsel... and they made tons of money.

Second, you have to look at individual policy provisions.... and many expressly exclude suicide. (I have actually seen a disability insurance policy crafted in such a way that nobody could figure out any way to recover from it). I suspect that is why the decedent here tried to make this look like a murder.

 

[grydth]

Well, people don't usually commit suicide just for the money. As Tez said, they are desperate. They are also usually mental ill. And whatever the convoluted factors and motives leading to such an act, it is deeply tragic.

Now, on the lighter side... a sane, but criminally minded person would fake his or her death for the insurance money. That's been tried. Some may have even gotten away with it.

I believe that a number of suicides are the result of extreme physical illness, not mental illness. A person sees they are going to die of some painful and wasting disease and leave their survivors penniless.....why not end the pain and leave your family with insurance money instead of unpaid medical bills?

 

[Tez3]

I believe that a number of suicides are the result of extreme physical illness, not mental illness. A person sees they are going to die of some painful and wasting disease and leave their survivors penniless.....why not end the pain and leave your family with insurance money instead of unpaid medical bills?

There's been about a thousand people from here who have travelled to Switzerland for an assisted suicide for this very reason though the medical bills aren't an issue here. There's an organisation called Dignitas you go to and they help you die. It's quite controversial by all accounts as it may a 'for profits' organisation or have it's own agenda according to allegations made by some.

 

[theletch1]

There's been about a thousand people from here who have travelled to Switzerland for an assisted suicide for this very reason though the medical bills aren't an issue here. There's an organisation called Dignitas you go to and they help you die. It's quite controversial by all accounts as it may a 'for profits' organisation or have it's own agenda according to allegations made by some.

The idea of assisted suicide in this country is also very controversial but not, I think, because the folks helping may be a for profit group. Here, I think, it is much more based on religious ideology than anything else. I'm sure there are those that disagree with it based on some idea that folks could begin to be forced into it given the current health care debate in this country though. I'm in danger of running this topic off thread here so I'll just post a link to another thread that we had regarding assisted suicide.