r/lastimages • u/bendubberley_ • 1d ago
LOCAL The final photo of Heather Price Papayoti shows her looking over the Hoover Dam bypass bridge on January 16, 2014. Just moments later, she jumped over the railing and ended her own life.
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u/cletus72757 1d ago
Poor thing. Rode a cab 280 miles to jump from 900’ to ease the pain. Fuck depression.
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u/marytoodles 1d ago
Why that location??? 😭
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u/korok7mgte 1d ago
I mean, she got the results she was looking for? So I'm just guessing that's why. Same reason the Golden gate bridge has a trampoline. But I hear it's expensive to bounce on.
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u/CutsAPromo 1d ago
Expensive? They get fined??
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u/proxyPhoenix 1d ago
I would assume they have to be rescued and must pay the fees for that. It makes sense, in the awful way our society works, as a "punishment" for wasting the time and resources of emergency services that could have been "better" used for other emergencies.
Again, just assuming, but assuming based on how our society works.
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u/HeyRiks 1d ago
The logic behind it is that emergency services usually save people either from criminals or accidents. They still treat suicidal people as actively choosing to cause public expenditure, like they're just prank calling 911. It's pretty sad.
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u/beansyboii 22h ago
This is not entirely true. EMS treats suicidal patients like other patients, they get taken to the hospital for acute stabilization just like everyone else does. Mental health emergencies are still emergencies that require treatment, just not medical treatment.
Yes, there are bad apples in EMS who feel these patients are a waste of time, but they aren’t treated like they’re prank calling 911.
Source: I work in healthcare, have worked in behavioral health too, and years ago I had a 911 operator beg me to stay on the line until someone got to me when I called for suicidal thoughts. She told me about her crochet projects and her cats while I cried so hard I couldn’t speak.
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u/JasonBaconStrips 17h ago
One of the big reasons people kill themselves is because of crippling debt, so then someone tries to kill themselves to end the misery they have been putting up with, they then have their suicide thwarted, on top they then get put in more debt, what a beautiful system!
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u/proxyPhoenix 17h ago
It's intentional :) If we aren't productive enough, we aren't useful. Crippling debt keeps us under control and at the bottom, too busy to look up at what needs to change and be motivated to change it. Escape by any other means only fuels the top.
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u/JasonBaconStrips 17h ago
They can't make money off a dead person either
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u/proxyPhoenix 17h ago
They can! They can sell what assets and debt are left for profit :) Not to mention, someone has to pay cremate or bury you, including the cost of funeral affairs and estate probate.
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u/JasonBaconStrips 17h ago
You're right, but I guess keeping someone alive in that state makes more money?
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u/RealSinnSage 8h ago
it’s this-and that “netting” or trampoline is actually like thick ass metal steel cables, so it’s physically painful and difficult and expensive to rescue people from. but they work.
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u/StillPunky 8h ago edited 8h ago
It’s not just suicide attempts that have to pay. My 27 year old brother was killed in a one car accident. The car slid on black ice and struck a tree. The car caught fire and he was pinned inside. After he died, my dad received a bill from the city for over 12,000 dollars. That was for the volunteer fire department to assemble and come out to the scene to, basically, watch the car burn and eventually put it out. Then the tree needed to be cut down and removed and the vehicle removed and crushed. Then there was a charge for the burn marks to be washed off the road. This on top of having to bury him and purchase a grave and marker. It’s insanely painful, and so much more so when crushing debt comes with the loss.
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u/SprinkleBubble 7h ago
Why would your dad have to pay that? I assume you mean it came out of your brother’s estate?
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u/StillPunky 7h ago edited 7h ago
No. My brother didn’t have an estate. He didn’t own anything. He had no insurance. These costs are incurred by the city and need to be paid by the decedents next of kin. It isn’t uncommon. Someone has to pay for clean up of accidents and for the city workers, including fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel.
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u/SprinkleBubble 7h ago
Is this in the U.S.? What state? You cannot be held legally responsible for someone else’s debt. It’s their debt not yours. If your brother had no estate the city would be out of luck. Maybe they sent the bill hoping someone would pay but they had no case to collect in the event your dad refused.
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u/unwinagainstable 1d ago
Yes for rescue services
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u/BeniBin 1d ago
This country is fucked up. In France you would never get charged for having your life saved...
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u/akkari1990 1d ago
We europoors can not comprehend real freedom /s. I rather have free healthcare and physiologic aftercare in such a case though
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u/Lazy-PeachPrincess 22h ago
Oh, but let’s just be super clear that there is NOTHING playful and bouncy about the net underneath the GG Bridge. It’s sturdy and meant to cause significant injury but not death. I guess the hope is that people will be too incapacitated to keep trying or will have the opportunity to change their mind before rescue arrives.
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u/Sh0wMeUrKitties 1d ago
I feel bad for the cab driver! He probably just spent hours chatting with this woman. I'd imagine that he regrets driving her there...
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u/Walkerbait97 1d ago
always wondered if he had a feeling. obviously not much he could do but possibly violate her privacy and call with her in the cab. he picked her up in tempe at the behavioral health clinic in town that is well known, an active meeting letting out & she said “just drive me to hoover dam” our states maybe most popular jumping spot?
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u/Lazy-PeachPrincess 22h ago
I know of a woman who took an hour long cab ride to the Golden Gate Bridge to jump. I can’t imagine what the cab driver thought.
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u/La_Saxofonista 1d ago edited 22h ago
https://youtu.be/u1_EBSlnDlU?si=YusepEwt5L6iVaDB
"The View from Halfway Down" - BoJack Horseman (written by Alison Tafel)
The weak breeze whispers nothing
The water screams sublime
His feet shift, teeter-totter
Deep breath, stand back, it’s time
Toes untouch the overpass
Soon he’s water bound
Eyes locked shut but peek to see
The view from halfway down
A little wind, a summer sun
A river rich and regal
A flood of fond endorphins
Brings a calm that knows no equal
You’re flying now
You see things much more clear than from the ground
It’s all okay, it would be
Were you not now halfway down
Thrash to break from gravity
What now could slow the drop
All I’d give for toes to touch
The safety back at top
But this is it, the deed is done
Silence drowns the sound
Before I leaped I should’ve seen
The view from halfway down
I really should’ve thought about
The view from halfway down
I wish I could’ve known about
The view from halfway down
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u/Walkerbait97 1d ago
good on you for posting this. bad times pass, i know it isn’t that simple but wow
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u/La_Saxofonista 1d ago edited 22h ago
Yes. I think the author of the poem was originally inspired by survivors who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. Almost all of them said they regretted their choice the moment they let go of the rails.
There's actually quite a lot of time to think in those few seconds, and none can truly understand the view from halfway down until it's too late.
I bawled my eyes out watching that episode of BoJack Horseman. I'm pretty sure it won an award for the poem reading scene alone.
EDIT: minor rephrasing
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u/PlasmidEve 1d ago edited 17h ago
Was this the one where there was a video of her rolling down the dam?
EDIT: Stop upvoting!! I was wrong!! XD
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u/Thurisaz- 1d ago edited 1d ago
She was 42 yrs old . Got this from an old article.
“It was simply last week, on January 10, that Papayoti took a cab ride more than 280 miles straight from the Tempe, Arizona behavioral counseling meeting, telling the driver to just take her to the Hoover Dam, where she was somehow capable quickly crawl over a 5-foot barrier railing and jump, simply moments before sunset.
Her family’s issued media statement reflects the despair that they were Papayoti that is clearly aware who married with a child was fighting recently.”
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u/LauraPa1mer 1d ago
Okay some of those words make sense, but not in that order,
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u/Thurisaz- 1d ago
I just copied and pasted from an old article. Poorly written.
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u/BlackLodgeBrother 1d ago
An old article or ChatGPT?
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u/Thurisaz- 22h ago edited 22h ago
Old article…there is more but just copied and pasted the summary of events. article found regarding suicide.
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u/Fearless-Mission-740 1d ago
There's a documentary on survivors of suicide attempts jumping from the Golden Gate. Every single survivor said the moment their fingers left the railing they regretted it. Final solution to temporary problems.
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u/ColdDeath0311 21h ago
I love the quote one of them said where he said “I realized every single problem in my life was fixable except the fact I had just jumped off this bridge.”
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u/thisunrest 9h ago
I feel horrible for the cabbie.
Imagine driving for four hours only to learn that you literally drove your passenger to their death.
I hope he has all the support in the world, because this could really screw him up.0
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u/ManchuDemon 1d ago
I just looked it up. The drive from Tempe - where she got in the cab - to the dam would’ve taken her over 4 hours. 4 hours to reconsider, call someone, or text someone to maybe make her change her mind. She was determined to end her life that day. So sad.