Melchert-Dinkel, 47, will be the first man prosecuted in coaxing two people he met in online chat rooms to kill themselves, describing his acts as "for the thrill of it".
Melchert-Dinkel met two alleged victims in online chat rooms where he posed as a concerned female nurse, under the names of "Li Dao" or "Cami." Melchert-Dinkel allegedly struck suicide pacts with his online correspondents--two of which investigators say followed through with the suicide.
Melchert-Dinkel's first alleged victim was 32-year-old Mark Drybrough of Coventry, England. Drybrough's mother said her son, Mark, suffered from depression and blames Melchert-Dinkel for her son's 2005 suicide death. "I feel that he killed Mark," said Drybrough, describing what she said was a suicide pact the defendant made with her son. "He [Melchert-Dinkel] said he was a nurse in his 20's. He said he was a woman, he said he had bipolar disorder for 10 years and [that] nothing had worked." Melchert-Dinkel reportedly also told individuals that his own nursing experience gave him “expert knowledge into the most effective ways to kill yourself.” Mark Drybrough hanged himself in his apartment, found by his sister who said she also found e-mails and picture(s) from Melchert-Dinkel on her brother's computer. "You can easily hang from a door ..." Melchert-Dinkel allegedly wrote in one message. "I felt somebody had killed my son," Elaine Drybrough said. "Somebody was out there, virtually a serial killer, still doing it over and over again and nobody was stopping him."
Melchert-Dinkel didn't know he was being watched, not yet by police or authorities but watched by a 64-year-old Englishwoman named Celia Blay. Blay, a retired teacher and amateur local historian, browsed chat rooms and first learned of Melchert-Dinkel in 2006 when she met a young South American woman online. That young woman abruptly told Blay about a suicide pact she had made online with another woman--a young female nurse. "I couldn't dissuade her because she said, 'I didn't want to let the other girl down,'" Blay told ABC News. Blay made it her duty to find Melchert-Dinkel by meticulously monitoring traffic in suicide chat rooms.
With the help of a friend, Blay uncovered all of Melchert-Dinkel's online aliases, even where he worked--and Blay discovered his name. "By that time we had about 50 [online] cases that we knew of, that he'd been in touch with suicidal people," said Blay. "We knew his age, his address, we knew everything about him, his family, what he did at church, you know."
Blay said Melchert-Dinkel's communication style allowed her to recognize him. "His spelling is dreadful," Blay said. "He uses the word 'hon,' and he says, 'I understand.' His language is very distinctive." Blay then took her findings to the British police, but she says police didn't take her seriously. "The parting shot [from British police] as I left the police station was, 'If it bothers you, look the other way,'" Blay said.
But Blay continued to track Melchert-Dinkel with the help of friend, Kat Lowe, who began corresponding with him also, via e-mail communication. Lowe said Melchert-Dinkel boasted to her about watching on a webcam literally as a young Englishman hanged himself. That man was Mark Drybrough. Melchert-Dinkel has since denied that he watched Drybrough die. The breakthrough: Lowe finally caught a glimpse of Melchert-Dinkel on his webcam. Apparently, Melchert-Dinkel then e-mailed a photo of him with his family.
Celia Blay immediately sent the photos, transcripts and testimony to the FBI. "The FBI didn't even reply to me," Blay said. "We never got a reply. And this was [in a timeframe] before Nadia's death."
"Nadia" was Nadia Kajouji of Ottawa, Canada, second of Melchert-Dinkel's alleged victims. Kajouji's family described the young woman as a beautiful, vivacious 18-year-old college freshman whom had slipped into a spiral of depression following a miscarriage and painful relationship breakup.
"These weren't people who were terminally ill that he was targeting," said Blay. "These were just you and I in bad circumstances." Blay said Kajouji was a typical target.
Allegedly Melchert-Dinkel, this time posing as "Cami," made a suicide pact with Nadia. "I've had severe depression for 12 years. ... I know what does and doesn't work so that is why I chose hanging to use," "Cami" typed in one message. "I want it to look like an accident," Kajouji replied to Melchert-Dinkel ["Cami"]. "There is a bridge over the river where there is a break in the ice ..." "If you wanted to do hanging we could've done it together online," Cami replied, "so it wouldn't have been so scary for you." March 9, 2008, Nadia jumped off a bridge and was found six weeks later after the ice thawed. "Cami" had promised to kill herself the following day.
Celia Blay contacted police in Melchert-Dinkel's hometown only weeks later, and this time police listened. Police arrested Melchert-Dinkel, and he was criminally charged onApril 23. According to police, Melchert-Dinkel confessed to officers that he had "encouraged dozens of persons to commit suicide," entered into "10 to 11 suicide pacts online with individuals all over the world" and "assisted five or less individuals in killing themselves."
When asked why he had done such a thing, police say Melchert-Dinkel told them [police officers] that he did it for "the thrill of the chase."
Melchert-Dinkel's Defense in the criminal charges is that he was never present at a suicide or death, never personally met his victims and never supplied equipment or drugs. He claims he did simply nothing but chat online. Melchert-Dinkel’s license was revoked by the Minnesota Board of Nursing in June, both because of the police investigation and due to years of reprimands and documented infractions during his time as a Nurse . The nursing license had been suspended since February 2010. "Our belief is that Mr. Melchert-Dinkel will be acquitted," said criminal defense attorney Watkins. Perhaps defendant's Melchert-Dinkel's best hope of acquittal is if words like these are deemed "Free Speech," a defense expected to be heard in trial. That 'free speech' apparently included Dinkel's words: "Attach the noose or loop to yourself then step off and hang successfully."
According to the nursing board’s public action document, the Board received a complaint in August 2008 that Melchert-Dinkel was under investigation by the St. Paul, Minnesota, Police Department for allegedly using fake identifies on the Internet and encourgaing people to kill themselves, sometimes watching the suicides via webcam. The complainant, according to the document, was mother of a 32-year-old man who, she said, had hanged himself after corresponding with Melchert-Dinkel online.
In January 2009, Melchert-Dinkel was actually admitted to a hospital, the admissions survey noting that he was “dealing with addiction to suicide Internet sites,” and, “feeling guilty because of past and present advice to those on the Internet of how to end their lives.” The nursing assessment also noted that Melchert-Dinkel had had a four-year “suicide fetish”, posing as a 28-year-old woman on the Internet in order to make suicide pacts with others --even though he had no intention of following through on his end of the suicide pact. A medical record from that time indicated Melchert-Dinkel was involved with an Ottawa woman who jumped to her death after talking with Melchert-Dinkel online.
Dinkel also reportedly told individuals online that his nursing experience gave him “expert knowledge into the most effective ways to kill yourself.”
Reached by phone, Melchert-Dinkel declined discussion of allegations against him, telling ABC that “What they [hospital documents] said was all nothing new,” he said of the information contained in the Board of Nursing document.