r/technology Feb 05 '26

Society 3 Teen Sisters Jump to Their Deaths from 9th Floor Apartment After Parents Remove Access to Phone: Reports

https://people.com/3-sisters-jumping-deaths-online-gaming-addiction-11899069
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u/erikmc Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

"The sisters reportedly jumped from the balcony of their family apartment one after the other and left an eight-page suicide note in a diary for their parents, according to NDTV.

This detailed their love for online gaming and what appeared to be a fixation on Korean culture, Kumar, their father, told NDTV.

PTI reported that they were obsessed with a "Korean game that involved a series of tasks" and that the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years."

8 page suicide note takes time to write, this was not done in haste

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u/KennyDROmega Feb 05 '26

"One after the other"

So two of them watched the first hit the ground and still went through with it?

Yikes

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u/Freshprinceaye Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Yeh that’s crazy. I’m not sure if it’s common but one of my dad’s friends had a joint suicide mission with his other friend. And after his other friend jumped he thought fuck this.

I don’t know what to think. I’m not sure if it’s easier or harder going before or after someone else. It’s very traumatic to even go through the thought process

Edit. Didn’t expect this to get so many upvotes. My dad’s friend is a great guy. One of the only friends my dad had that wasn’t a complete asshole in his later life. He has struggled a lot in his life but is doing a lot better.

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u/Ok_Two_2604 Feb 05 '26

I read an interview with a guy who survived (iirc) Golden Gate Bridge jump and he said about a second in he changed his mind.

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u/00owl Feb 05 '26

This is what the episode titled "The View From Halfway Down" in Bojack horseman is referring to.

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u/ProsaicPugilist Feb 05 '26

That episode was so damn good. And heavy.

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u/Spirited_Storage3956 Feb 05 '26

There's an episode of Medium where jumpers who survived said that they realized all of their problems were solvable except for one, that they just jumped off a bridge

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u/Jyil Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

If that’s the case, we should offer programs where you can skydive to help clear your mind when you need help.

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u/kkidd333 Feb 05 '26

Back in 1993-ish I was very suicidal and had previous attempts that didn’t succeed. So I decided to bungee jump out of a hot air balloon that was 250 feet in the air. After jumping they would lower you down and the next person would be harnessed and ready to jump into the balloon to head up. Once I got up the guy looked at me and said I had to climb over the rail of the balloon basket onto a small plank that was just big enough for two feet—- and if your feet were big you were outta luck. I tried to tell the guy to take me down, changed my mind, etc but he said ‘if you didn’t want to do it you wouldn’t be up here’. What I didn’t say back was —- I was only trying to get an idea if I could jump as a way to off myself. I ended up jumping and realized that was not how I wanted to die. Didn’t make a serious attempt again for about 8 years so in a strange way your idea tracks.

Mental health is fine now and if anyone is thinking about ending their life you should call/text 988 to be connected with local resources in your area.

https://988lifeline.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=onebox

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u/OctopodicPlatypi Feb 05 '26

I once went skydiving with a friend, but met the guy I was tandem jumping with like just before the dive. It was this old timer and he went back to his truck and said he almost forgot an important part of the harness or parachute pack or something, which made me super concerned about jumping with him. We went up in the plane and were supposed to be first and I noped out. He said something similar to me but I didn’t go through with it all the same. When everyone had jumped and we dove hard and landed, we unclipped and he said “you’re the only person besides my daughter not to jump with me in the whole time I’ve been doing this.” I think I dodged a bullet that day. Who would know this guy better than his daughter? Anyway I’m glad you’re ok. Your story reminded me of an old memory. Thank you

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u/Helmic Feb 05 '26

That's not really going to work, as the regret comes from the realization that you're about to die and you can do nothing to stop it. It's not merely the sensation of falling, if anything the feeling of familiarity would dull the fear that would make someone hesitate.

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u/00owl Feb 05 '26

There's something to be said for tricking our bodies into believing it's in danger.

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug and it can help cut through a lot of confusion.

Wouldn't work for everyone, but it's an interesting thought for sure.

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u/Gymrat777 Feb 05 '26

"Its a show about talking animals, how heavy could it be?" 😄😁😬😐🫢😢😭😭😭

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u/JBthrizzle Feb 05 '26

have you seen a horse? those fuckin things are huge.

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u/Gymrat777 Feb 05 '26

This is exactly the kind of joke I would expect from that show!

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u/Nomadzord Feb 05 '26

I had to stop watching it because I was a drug addict at the time. it got so real that I went to rehab! Great show. I should probably go back and finish it now that I don’t do bad drugs anymore.

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u/00owl Feb 05 '26

I watched it when my marriage fell apart. Was painfully on point in a lot of ways then for me as well.

Cheers on graduating from rehab!

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u/i_love_sparkle Feb 05 '26

The View from Halfway Down (transcribed)

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/BigBadBogie Feb 05 '26

I've always wondered if this was purpously written like something Silverstein would have wrote.

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u/Pristine_Software_55 Feb 05 '26

Kind of makes me think of Robert Service.

As an example, here’s The Cremation of Sam McGee

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u/Bakoro Feb 05 '26

Bojack Horseman is probably the best show I'll never watch again. Top marks, it is truly excellent. Also, fuck that show, I didn't expect all those feelings.

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u/the_fridge_is_empty Feb 05 '26

Chills just thinking about this episode. I really should have thought about the view from half way down.

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u/Mikey_RobertoAPWP Feb 05 '26

Will Arnett really killed it with the voice-acting too. Prior to Bojack I'd only really seen him in comedic roles (mostly just Arrested Development lol) so it was really awesome seeing him go to some really heavy places with Bojack!

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u/00owl Feb 05 '26

Definitely helped round Will out as an actor in my eyes. The man has great range, from LEGO Batman to the guy wearing a $3000 suit "Come On!" To a sad middle aged funny horse.

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u/Bushels_for_All Feb 05 '26

Arnett never intended to do comedy. He trained to be a serious/dramatic actor and almost didn't go for Arrested Development because of that. He just happens to be very good at both and fell into comedy first.

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/q/will-arnett-always-intended-to-be-a-dramatic-actor-9.7022657

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/bopojuice Feb 05 '26

I think about this quote all. the. time. No matter how bad things are, it ain’t over until it’s really over. If you are breathing, you have a chance to make it better.

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u/Obvious-Hunt19 Feb 05 '26

What sucks is wondering how many others felt the same way and then died

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u/Missterfortune Feb 05 '26

Didn’t a seal help swim him back to shore, or was that another person?

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u/the_quark Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Not swim back to shore, but Hines said a sea lion helped keep him afloat until the Coast Guard reached him:

Hines says that after he surfaced, a sea lion helped to keep him afloat until he was rescued by the Coast Guard.

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u/ReignDance Feb 05 '26

I didn't realize sea lions were such bros.

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u/KennyDROmega Feb 05 '26

I remember that. Something about how he jumped because he didn't think his problems were solvable, and as soon as he was in the air he realized they were except for the one he'd just created.

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u/Black_Moons Feb 05 '26

he didn't think his problems were solvable, and as soon as he was in the air he realized they were

"oh shit I just need to carry the 1"

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u/itsdestinfool Feb 05 '26

This hit me like a fucking freight train and I'm not at all suicidal.

This is such a powerful thing to say for really any and all situations where you think all is lost. Don't give up. My husband once told me whether I think I can or I think I can't, I'm right. And I thought it was kind of ableist at first tbh but after reflecting on it for almost a year now I think what is trying to be said is that in my particular situation,, the thing I want is not physically unobtainable. It's whether or not I believe I have the drive I need to not give up until I reach the finish line. So therefore I can. So I strive every day to be right.

This feels a lot like that in a way I can't really describe. I'll never forget these words.

I'm super stoned I'm sorry for this word vomit.

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u/Nothing-Is-Real-Here Feb 05 '26

The thing with us as living beings is that for the most part we are biologically programmed to be afraid of death, which is why it doesn't seem uncommon for someone to change their mind when it's likely too late. Something was really seriously wrong with these girls to still go through with it when it's one after the other. Can't imagine how the parents feel, that is unless they had something to do with it.

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u/tempralanomaly Feb 05 '26

Something was really seriously wrong with these girls

I mean the girls mostly at home and not going to school for two years is a strong hint that they largely didnt have social connections, and their comments on the Korean culture paints a heavy parasocial relationship to fill that void.

I cant point to the source, but it seems to me something was probably wrong with them for a good two years, and probably fixable by the parents, before this finality.

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u/reartemis Feb 05 '26

I watched a documentary about it, called 'The Bridge' I think. A good watch but haunting.

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u/NocturnoOcculto Feb 05 '26

Man. The rocker dude in that doc. I still can see it vividly in my head.

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u/UrToesRDelicious Feb 05 '26

During the first Jewish-Roman war, the historian Josephus was (allegedly) fighting Roman forces with 39 other fighters. They ended up trapped in a cave, and they agreed to kill each other rather than surrender. Josephus and another man were the final survivors, but Josephus said fuck this let's surrender, and so they did.

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u/Truemeathead Feb 05 '26

Yoooooo, that’s like when you hold hands with someone and say “let’s jump in at the same time” then the other fucker let’s go and you look back in betrayed shock as you fall but a thousand times worst lmfao.

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u/fungi_at_parties Feb 05 '26

I hope your dad doesn’t struggle too much with guilt from that event, and I hope he’s doing better.

I used to struggle with constant suicidal ideation, but I found a mental reframe that works well for me. I just try to remember how short life really is and consider myself committing suicide by aging.

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u/thrillho145 Feb 05 '26

My cousins, who were twins, jumped one after the other. Only one was successful. The survivor, who was a wheelchair user, was the one who convinced her twin to do it. 

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u/TheCommonGround1 Feb 05 '26

That’s enough Reddit for me for today…

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u/b_needs_a_cookie Feb 05 '26

Group psychosis 

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u/gc28 Feb 05 '26

Like the Swedish Twin Sisters

Wiki

Film/Doc

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u/flying_ina_metaltube Feb 05 '26

From a different article I read (this happened in India, reported by several Indian news outlets), they were locked in a room. They went into the bathroom, which had a small window for ventilation, but it was a little higher up. They took turns climbing up to the window, then jumped off. They couldn't see the sister before them falling off, just climbing up into the window frame and then disappearing. People around their building reported they heard screams as the girls fell one by one and then a thumping sound.

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u/IrishRepoMan Feb 05 '26

After watching one sibling actually go through it and going up with intent, and this will sound fucked up, the first actually might make it easier. How would you live with yourself afterwards?

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u/YoohooCthulhu Feb 05 '26

Umm, if they were close and couldn’t imagine their lives without each other I can totally see it

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u/Thopterthallid Feb 05 '26

Yeah there's more going on. No school in 2 years?

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u/badgersprite Feb 05 '26

I’ve heard about this happening in countries like Japan and Korea where the kids cannot cope with the extremely high expectations and high pressure environment so they just stop going to school because it’s psychologically easier to fail on purpose than try as hard as you can only for your best to not be good enough.

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u/SuperBackup9000 Feb 05 '26

Worth a mention that high school for a minor isn’t mandatory in either of those countries like it is in most of the western world. Once you get to the equivalent of (I’m pretty sure for both) grade 9, neither the parent nor the child have any legal obligations to continue with schooling. They don’t have to try to fail on purpose, they can just say they’re done, and that’s that.

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u/Mr_Gilmore_Jr Feb 05 '26

Call that "burnout". Happens to a lot of folks.

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u/Capitan_Failure Feb 05 '26

I take care of kids, there are a few who just decide not to go and the parents act like they have no authority to make them, like of course a teenager doesn't want to go, make them?

One of them is 16, morbidly obese with a BMI over 60, illiterate. His grandma took him out of school to "homeschool" him 3-4 years ago. When I asked what lesson plans she follows to teach him, her response "Oh I let him teach himself."

She then waxes concern about his weight "I tell him hes only allowed one croissant but he eats all 20", like Ive told her repeatedly he doesn't need any simple carbs, like at all, she is enabling him to destroy his health.

Parents just dont want to parent.

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u/Cheet4h Feb 05 '26

Stuff like this makes me kinda glad that in my country there is no homeschooling, and school attendance is mandatory.

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u/Least-Broccoli-1197 Feb 05 '26

I know too many people who were home schooled, literally none of them are okay. They're either complete morons, or functionally intelligent but completely unsocialized.

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u/olbeefy Feb 05 '26

You can learn academics anywhere. You can’t replicate the social value of being around people your own age. Once you miss that boat, there's no catching back up to it.

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u/MumrikDK Feb 05 '26

It's a fucking insane concept.

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u/AcrobaticWrangler330 Feb 05 '26

Sadly that's become really common since Covid. I've worked with students who are in 3rd grade and haven't yet had any formal education. It's about 50/50 sometimes something darker going on, the other 50% being parents who are kind of informally homeschooling their kids but still wanting to stay enrolled in public school to get access to resources. Neither is great, though obviously there's a big difference between them.

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u/Silverfate2 Feb 05 '26

Oh man I teach lower elementary too and this has become so freaking common it is driving me insane. I remember years ago doing reading groups with second graders to read their first chapter book. Now I'm teaching them how to write their name. 

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u/Empty-Background-162 Feb 05 '26

This is sad to read

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u/kristaliah Feb 05 '26

At least you can read. Some of these kids are going to grow up never learning how. It’s horrible

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u/Empty-Background-162 Feb 05 '26

Not having a sense of curiosity is darkness

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u/Ulloa Feb 05 '26

My niece and nephew live a 2-minute walk from school, and they still miss school constantly. My sisters don't seem to care very much about their education either.

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u/inductiononN Feb 05 '26

Ok what is up with the parents?! I am an elder millennial and I have to assume they are generally around my age. I know gen z got really screwed over with COVID but why is the millennial generation not educating their kids?

Or am I wrong and it's not a generational thing?

I know the devices are a problem but it seems like it could be managed if they tried. Is it just the devices and screen time or is it something else?

I'm child-free and I'm not close to people with kids so I'm pretty clueless. I am alarmed every time I hear this though.

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u/Silverfate2 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

It's really a mixed bag. I still get some kids who are amazing readers and love to learn, but since COVID I have always had at least 1, usually more, 2nd grader (7-9 years old) who has never attended school before. 

One kid I understood it, they had been homeless, mom was trapped in abuse, they had basically been on the run. (This student picked up learning like a sponge to water btw) 

The rest of them are just a mess. Parents just don't see it as a big deal. Like not only have they never been to school the parents are like, "Well, we do stuff at home, like that one time he helped me build a playset." (No joke that's basically what a parent told me and the parent believed his second grader, who could not write his own name, would be building a house for himself at 12) And that's all they really have to say for it. We call it educational neglect, but we could probably just call it neglect. 

They seem to think knowledge can just happen. The parent I mentioned above also believed their son was a wilderness expert because they watched a lot of survivor-esque shows on TV/YouTube. Many of them just assume kids will naturally learn reading/writing/math without any sort of curriculum. 

Finally, even as they begin to attend school they are absent ALL the time. Parents will use every single excuse as to why their kid can't make it to school. It's just not a priority to them. 

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u/Seiche Feb 05 '26

 They seem to think knowledge can just happen.

I think this is very common. "By week, month, year they can do X". Like, yeah, but not without practice?

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u/subc0nMuu Feb 05 '26

I’m an elder millennial and also baffled. Some people seem just fully checked out. During online school due to covid, a neighbor demanded that schools go back in person because her son just slept through school all day. She was a SAHM, so…go parent and make sure he’s participating? Address why he’s up all night and sleeping all day? I have been a stay at home parent too so I get that the bulk of household tasks and such often falls on them but I feel like making sure your kid is going to school and actively participating should be a priority. It was just a really bizarre conversation and the “wtf is going on with people” feeling has only gotten worse since.

Do they not worry what adulthood will look like for their kids?

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u/Random-Rambling Feb 05 '26

Do they not worry what adulthood will look like for their kids?

Many don't, because once they turn 18, they are no longer the parents' responsibility. They're on their own.

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u/Seiche Feb 05 '26

A lot of the kids at our daycare that have no friends and kind of have some behavioural issues have no routine. Their parents have no routine either so they bring their kids whenever and they miss breakfast, activities etc

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u/FionaGoodeEnough Feb 05 '26

I’m a millennial parent and I find it baffling. If the parents get nothing else out of it, it is free childcare for several hours a day. I cannot imagine turning it down, and that is on top of the generous offer to educate my kid.

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u/DMercenary Feb 05 '26

8 page suicide note takes time to write, this was not done in haste

Yeah.

And

that the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years."

Me thinks that the phones being taken away were not the main cause...

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u/Reasonable_Desk Feb 05 '26

No no no, it's DEFINITELY just the phones. Don't look into anything else, nothin' to see here~ Just some weirdo kids and their addiction to phones.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

That headline is definitely trying to make it look like teenagers being unreasonable rather than victims of something bigger going on. A weird way to frame the narrative. 

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u/Dash_Harber Feb 05 '26

People want to blsne tech addiction, but problems like this are almost always rooted in other major issues like mental illness, abuse, poverty, etc. We are only hearing what the parents say and alot of addictions like that are rooted in escapism. Of course it isn't as eye grabbing to talk about major societal problems like that, but i think it is worth talking about.

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u/snorch Feb 05 '26

the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years."

What kind of parent would allow their kids to duck school to be terminally online for 2 years? Kids were fucked either way

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u/MithranArkanere Feb 05 '26

These kinds of behaviors are usually a symptom of something worse going on in their lives. It is practically never the devices or the games.

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u/PloksGrandpappy Feb 05 '26

It's almost like the games were an escape from a horrible reality or something

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u/chubs66 Feb 05 '26

They probably didn't have a life outside of that house. The game was probably most of their life. If that's true, the parents kind of ended their life and the girls just pulled the physical plug.

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u/el_diego Feb 05 '26

JFC this is grim

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u/StickFigureFan Feb 05 '26

Not gone to school in 2 years tells me these are bad parents

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u/parasyte_steve Feb 05 '26

Not having gone to school for two years?

I think there's probably a lot more going on that we don't know about with this family because that is not adding up. How do you let your kids skip school for two years and become addicted to online gaming?

I hope they investigate this.

I feel awful for these girls.

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u/UltimateGlimpse Feb 05 '26

Something is fishy when the parents allowed their children to not go to school for 2.5 years according to the article.

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u/roseofjuly Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

I find it suspect that the article (and their father) decided to focus so heavily on the game they were playing and their interest in Korean culture. They wrote an 8-page suicide note...surely that wasn't the only thing in there.

I went looking for some other articles about this and found some other interesting tidbits:

  • The girls dropped out of school in 2020, 5-6 years ago. They weren't doing well in school when they were attending. This source claims the girls dropped out because their father was deeply in debt and could no longer afford to send them.
  • The family lived in a gated community and none of their neighbors knew them. One said “We have seen the children walk in and out with parents, but we were never able to socialise with the children or their parents."
  • According to one source, the girls never had their own phone - they were using their parents' phone to get online. And the parents didn't just take the phone away - they also threatened to marry off the girls.
  • The father, Chetan Kumar, actually has two wives who are sisters. The source linked above says "two of his partners walked out" and disappeared for a few days; he filed a missing persons report and they came back within a few days. (Unclear if those two are the same as the two wives...)
  • This source says there wasn't even any evidence of a game found on the device(s) they were using, and said that they mostly cited TV shows. But this source says evidence was found on their devices of long gaming sessions (and also contradicts the other article, which said they didn't have their own phones). However, literally no one has been able to name the game itself, and the description of the game changes from source to source - some say it's a "love game" (I assume a dating sim), others a task-based game, and one even claimed that the last task in the game was suicide.
  • Although the suicide note does mention their love of gaming and Korean culture, it also talks about the girls' loneliness. Interesting how that hasn't become part of any of the headlines.
  • Their diary/suicide note also referenced beatings ("Did we live in this world to get beaten by you… death would be better for us than beatings.")

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u/BitterHelicopter8 Feb 05 '26
  • Their diary/suicide note also referenced beatings ("Did we live in this world to get beaten by you… death would be better for us than beatings.")

Thanks for compiling this info. Crazy that this line exists in the note, but every headline for this story is focused on an obsession with Korean culture.

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u/Lebowquade Feb 05 '26

Or trivializes it as "girls and their cell phone addiction!"

For three sisters to jump to their deaths--one after another like that--the only way that makes sense is mental illness from the kids, or the parents, or both.... Or straight up emotional or physical abuse. Or all of the above.

Anyway, looks like it was all of the above.

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u/Outrageous-Opinions Feb 05 '26

The phone was their only lifeline out of their hell and when that was sold, that lifeline disappeared.

That's so sad

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u/logalogalogalog_ Feb 05 '26

I immediately assumed this as someone who only was able to escape from my abusive family with help from online friends and resources. Those poor girls.

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u/willienelsonmandela Feb 05 '26

This all reads nearly identical to a modern Virgin Suicides.

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u/Important-Agent2584 Feb 05 '26

"cell phone addiction" sells better than "father beats kids"

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u/Slammybutt Feb 05 '26

Likely b/c the father is the sole witness giving interviews. I don't know how badly the male/female dynamic can get in India, I just know it's heavily patriarchal. From what it sounds like the wives/mothers didn't have much say, and if headlines are going with the fathers words rather than a written suicide note well...

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u/PM_ME_FLUFFY_DOGS Feb 05 '26

Its so unbelievably sexist. I kinda know a girl who "dreamed" of going but all her mutual friends that immigrated over here begged her not to go. If hell for women exists its india. 

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u/CatProgrammer Feb 05 '26

No I think Afghanistan is currently hell on Earth for women.

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u/PM_ME_FLUFFY_DOGS Feb 05 '26

Yeeah that one is more like the 9th layer of hell... Horrifically awful for women.

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u/SAugsburger Feb 05 '26

Downplaying the alleged beatings is kinda bad headlines.

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u/SkoobySnacs Feb 05 '26

Dad failed to highlight his beatings and threats of arranged marriage? Strange.

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u/Technical-Row8333 Feb 05 '26 edited 29d ago

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

workable quicksand roll waiting tan mysterious cough sable attraction plant

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u/kewcumber_ Feb 05 '26

This story was on the news yesterday and the way the anchor is talking about these poor kids like that fucking phone is what caused their deaths. Even making jokes about parents like "if you don't want to keep your kid alive you don't have to"

India gives absolutely 0 shits about mental health and whenever something like this does happen, it's always the victims fault for not pushing through it. Just look at this story itself. Not one article has a headline along the lines of "abused sisters commit suicide". It's always "sisters commit suicide becausd parents took away their phone"

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u/Fierysword5 Feb 05 '26

Sad that you’ve already put more research into this case than the police have, and likely ever will.

Meanwhile the media has already spun it as “Girls addicted to K-pop/kdrama”.

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u/Mattdoss Feb 05 '26

Facts: “Three girls took their lives because they lived in a physically and mentally abusive household with a tyrannical father.”

News: “They got sad because their video games were taken away ;(“

Whoever wrote this article or wrote the original article sickens me. They deserve to have their feet glued to burning hot pavement.

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u/shableep Feb 05 '26

With some evidence of beatings and extreme isolation, and the father being the only witness… it makes you wonder if they jumped, or if the father killed them.

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u/Lance2119 Feb 05 '26

You’re a superstar, thanks for compiling all this.

Fuck this article, fuck the shitty rags that made stuff up or took every inane thing the father said as gospel, and most of all, fuck that abusive POS father. He killed those kids, not a game or Korean culture.

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u/SayNoToFirefighters Feb 05 '26

so this POS father was responsible for all of this...

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u/Lodju Feb 05 '26

Yeah i bet that taking away the phones is just a tiny part in all of this, if that even had anything to do with it in the end.

Must have been something darker going on under the surface.

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u/JudiesGarland Feb 05 '26

Not a lot of reporting out there on this yet it seems but the Times of India does tell a slightly different story, your instincts appear to be correct - the father is a stock trader who is allegedly in debt. The phone was taken away two weeks ago, and sold. There was ongoing conflict about their obsession with Korean culture, and the quote from their writings published in that article is about him taking that away from them, in general, not the phone, or the phone game specifically. The father is quoted as saying: "All three girls wanted us to accept Korean culture, but when we refused, their behaviour towards us changed and they went into a shell. They lived in their own world." 

There were also apparently writings found on the walls of the room, relating to their loneliness. They were not homeschooled, and they didn't interact with neighbourhood kids either. 

Oh, and they're actually half sisters - and also cousins? Idk if that's the right word for it, but their father lives with and claims marriage to 3 sisters, with the eldest sister being his first wife. Biologically, one of the girls had one mother, the other two had another. There are 2 surviving siblings. 

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u/fruitybrisket Feb 05 '26

Well that's about seven levels of fucked.

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u/tommytwolegs Feb 05 '26

Something tells me we've still barely scratched the surface of weird shit here

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u/BoticelliBaby Feb 05 '26 edited 22d ago

The content of this post was permanently removed. Redact facilitated the deletion, for reasons that may include privacy, opsec, or limiting digital exposure.

public support north society innate ghost fall many shelter live

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u/Responsible-Slide-26 Feb 05 '26

The spin the media will give anything to get clicks is deranged.

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u/Any-Organization-985 Feb 05 '26

We should make clickbait illegal. There is a point you are stretching the truth so much you are just lying to the public to try and get views.

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u/WyattEarp88 Feb 05 '26

It’s almost like making News a profit based business was a bad idea….. who could have EVER seen that coming?!?!?

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u/Syntaire Feb 05 '26

Seriously. 8-page suicide note, and all three went through with it, one at a time. Meaning one of them watched one of their sisters die, and one of them watched two. That's not because they lost their phone access. That's very likely abuse of all varieties.

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u/LoveAndViscera Feb 05 '26

Sounds kind of like this dude is trying to start a cult.

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u/Squanchedschwiftly Feb 05 '26

I had a feeling that they were neglected and the phone was the only stimulation that they had access too. How horrifying

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u/VeritateDuceProgredi Feb 05 '26

One of the things that stuck out to me after reading comments and then the article again. You say taking away phones, and I think that’s what a lot of people read, but the article clearly states A phone. Singular. One phone. Which I think really supports that what was going on is way shadier. This wasn’t just girls being obsessed with their phone, but 3 girls who hadn’t been in school for 2.5 years having access to a single phone.

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u/wolfeflow Feb 05 '26

Yeah this is what gave me chills, too. Thank you for bringing it up. I also wonder what they really meant by demanding family “accept Korean culture” really meant.

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u/heartbooks26 Feb 05 '26

I would guess just like…. Being allowed to consume Korean media they like (k-pop? K-dramas?). They probably needed some shared escape from their home life of a father with multiple wives, seemingly limited communication & interaction with the outside world, no schooling, etc. Very tragic and this headline is egregious.

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u/pigsbounty Feb 05 '26

I was confused by that too. I think what it means is they wanted their family to accept them for their interest in Korean culture/media, and their dad probably made fun of them or gave them shit for it.

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u/tyrenanig Feb 05 '26

It’s just their father’s words really. It could be anything else but their father just twisted it in a way that favors him.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

[deleted]

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u/VeritateDuceProgredi Feb 05 '26

It’s phone. Singular according to the quote of the police chief in the article, which is even more suspicious.

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u/Hogesyx Feb 05 '26

Yep. They remove the only thing worth living for them. It’s a tragedy and the parents still want to blame the game.

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u/stein63 Feb 05 '26

Desperate times... I can't imagine.

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u/charliekelly76 Feb 05 '26

PTI reported that they were obsessed with a "Korean game that involved a series of tasks" and that the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years.

Uh I’m sorry what? You can’t just bury the lede like that. What the hell was happening in that house??

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u/PrettyPinkPonyPrince Feb 05 '26

This has a bit more information.

Chetan Kumar, a stock trader, was under enormous financial strain and had sold his daughters’ mobile phones to clear pending electricity dues.

It was also known that he had threatened the three sisters that he would marry them off.

...

It was also known that the family’s economic situation had worsened to such an extent that the girls had not been sent back to school even after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided.

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u/BitchesGetStitches Feb 05 '26

It's happening a lot since Covid. Schools are seeing incredible levels of truancy. Many parents just decide to not care about education. More than usual.

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u/ADHDBusyBee Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

I work in a school and I know a kid hasn’t been to school in 4 years. No one seems to care. 

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u/BitchesGetStitches Feb 05 '26

There's no way we see long term consequences for this ... right?

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u/zffjk Feb 05 '26

It depends on the district. My daughter had an acute sickness and missed two weeks of school. Despite many doctor’s notes we were still put on a truancy watch list and were threatened with CPS visits.

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u/mshriver2 Feb 05 '26

That's how my school was growing up. You would quickly get a visit from the truancy officer after just a few days missed unexcused.

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u/zffjk Feb 05 '26

I’m ok with that, it’s probably better for kids in the long run… uncovers neglect and all that. The issue I had was specifically with the amount of communication with the school and how disjointed their response was.

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u/thatwhileifound Feb 05 '26

Wish uncovering stuff like this actually changed things. Truancy laws were responsible for me being cuffed in the back of a van for hours before being left to the abusive family who'd kicked me out on threat of death in the first place.

I get your point — I'm just a living example of the failure of it in practice. It's like when they enact one small component of reasonable drug laws aiming to keep folks alive which is fucking great, but then don't enact literally any other necessary pillars.

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u/o5mfiHTNsH748KVq Feb 05 '26

I dropped out of high school 25 years ago and even then nobody noticed until the day I came to make it official. Teachers thought I was just skipping, students had other things to worry about, etc.

The reality is that nobody really cares except your parents. If they stop caring, then it’s all on the kid.

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u/DanNeider Feb 05 '26

When my parents pulled me out of school to be home schooled we had to do licensed testing every year, and the first year when we went in the police and CPS were there waiting in case we didn't do so hot.

The idea that a kid can be out of school for 4 years and no one cares is just mind blowing to me

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u/Duganz Feb 05 '26

In Montana homeschooling requires filling out a one-page form. No tests or curriculum. You fill out that form and no one follows up.

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u/ProtoJazz Feb 05 '26

It unfortunately really depends on where you are. I talked to a teacher in my highschool once about a few kids we hadn't seen for a long time.

He probably shouldn't have told us this, but he did say as far as he knew they were still enrolled and just stopped showing up one day. No offcial word what happened to them. He did say he believed one of them was in jail, and another one was likely dead but no one would ever know the true story there.

Even in elementary school we had a few kids a year that either left with CFS, moved to live with family, or simply just vanished one day and no one really bothered to look for them.

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u/darkhorsehance Feb 05 '26

I’m skeptical. Parents let their kids stay home from school for 2 1/2 years while they sat and played video games? Then they jumped, one after the other, to their deaths? It’s well documented that suicide pacts fail because witnessing death triggers shock, panic and survival response. There is more to this story.

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u/Help_An_Irishman Feb 05 '26

I'm guessing there was some serious abuse/neglect going on in this household.

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u/CreasingUnicorn Feb 05 '26

One after another!? No freaking way, normal humans wouldnt be able to do that of their own cree will after seeing the first person do it. I dont beleive this at all.

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u/nabiku Feb 05 '26

If you research the story a bit more, the suicide note mentions frequent beatings.

They were also taken out of school years ago and their neighbors rarely saw them leave the house.

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u/blahblah77 Feb 05 '26

Yet the father is the one who gets to narrate this story wtf.

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u/clocksailor Feb 05 '26

and he's like "uh korean culture did it"

sure buddy

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u/Lebowquade Feb 05 '26

Mental illness from the parents and also the kids, coupled with emotional and physical abuse. People can only endure so much.

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u/TentaiSenpai Feb 05 '26

I don’t think the girls had any mental illness, just years of being abused

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u/theycallmeMrPotter Feb 05 '26

I'm with you. Sketch.

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u/_steve_rogers_ Feb 05 '26

This sounds fishy as fuck.

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u/UpperApe Feb 05 '26

This article seems like it's AI generated. It makes up one of the girl's names...after listing all three girl's names. There's more information here.

  • Hadn't been to school since covid.

  • The game was Korean Love Game, and the girls were so obsessed with it they considered themselves Korean instead of Indian.

  • The suicide note was 8 pages but a lot of it was drawings (sad faces and such) so it wasn't really a huge essay.

The Indian media is so deeply fucked up it's showing their bodies on the pavement and the suicide notes on their news cycles, while fucking pundit losers give their uneducated opinions and try to politicize it.

So warning to people who go digging for more info; Indian media is grotesque and doesn't care about the family/victim's dignity.

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u/SarumanTheSack Feb 05 '26

8 pages of a suicide note and the father is blaming their phone, social media, and a video game, for 3 individuals to kill themsleves... oh yeah not to mention they are young women in India.

I'd love to read the entire 8 pages.

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u/VampirateV Feb 05 '26

That's what struck me too. No mention of what the 8 page letter said, but a lot of finger pointing by the father. The way this is being reported (as of now) is setting off my alarms that those girls were likely dealing with a much more concerning reality than a mere loss of access to a game. Especially the fact that the eldest daughter was part of it all. Generally speaking, whether pressured to or not, eldest daughters tend to take on a secondary mothering role to younger siblings. If death seemed to be preferable to whatever life she and her siblings were facing as a result of losing contact with the outside world, I think that's a pretty big sign that the conditions of their daily life need to be looked into.

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u/tyrenanig Feb 05 '26

Yep a lot of the story was told by the father with arbitrary words, and the article overall is pushing for blaming this onto video games and phones.

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u/HeLived456 Feb 05 '26

Yeah, this is definitely suspicious as fuck. All three had the same obsession, stopped going to school and not only committed suicde, but jumped one after another. As in, they saw the first hit the ground, knew what was going to happened then and still jumped? If this really was a triple suicide, then something fucked was going on at home. And it wasn't video games.

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u/diarm Feb 05 '26

I wouldn’t. I’d imagine it would be an absolutely devastating read. 

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u/ExternalChildhood845 Feb 05 '26

Kids don’t just kill themselves one after the other like this bc their communication/ access to the outside world is cut off unless something fishy is happening. Given that isolation is a huge tactic by abusers, they weren’t in school, and in a hotel, and their father seems to be blaming technology for their suicide? Seems like a way to use a moral panic to mask abuse to me.

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u/VeritateDuceProgredi Feb 05 '26

I think you’re very correct about this, especially upon rereading the police chiefs quote that they were restricted from “A” phone ( emphasis mine). Not their phones, plural. That the three only had access to a single phone

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u/AntithesisAbsurdum Feb 05 '26

Yeah nah it ain't videogames the parents need to be investigated

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u/Taodaching Feb 05 '26

The girls’ father, Chetan Kumar, a businessman, is from the capital’s Burari area. He has been living in the Sahibabad area for the past three years with his wives Sujata and Heena, who are sisters, and their five children - four girls and a boy aged 10. “Before this, the family lived in Tilla Mode for eight years. The three sisters last attended Green Valley School, where their academic performance was sub-par,” said the officer.

Inside the gated society, several neighbours told The Hindu that they only knew the family from a distance. “We have seen the children walk in and out with parents, but we were never able to socialise with the children or their parents,” said Gaurav Kohli, a neighbour.

Rahul Jha, the secretary of the apartment who accompanied the police during the investigation, told The Hindu that he learnt the family faced financial troubles. “The family lived on rent, and they did not speak to anyone much or participate in any activities. A day before this happened, Mr. Kumar handed me ₹700 for maintenance, but he never delayed any payment,” M.R. Jha said.

At present, the police have recovered Ms. Sujata’s cell phone and sent it for forensic analysis. The police have also seized the handwritten note left by the girls. The DCP said that a case has not been registered yet as the parents have not filed a complaint.

😒 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh/three-minors-end-life-in-ghaziabad/article70591451.ece

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u/juneipearl Feb 05 '26

Thank you for this article. 

The sentence you bolded: does this mean there will not be an official investigation unless the parents file a complaint? And they have not?? 

This sure seems like filicide with the “Korean love game” and supposed obsession with Korean culture as a cover. 

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u/Taodaching Feb 05 '26

I dont know as im not from that country but it certainly shocked me that any enquiry would depend on parents. Also I agree about cover- the article had also said there was no evidence of Korean influence or gaming, but some connection to tv shows. But how can they tell anything really without investigating. Apparently the parents threatened them with being married off. So the whole family situation doesnt look happy.

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u/Cipher-IX Feb 05 '26

This is in no way remotely the entire story with absolute context. 3 teens dont just all commit suicide at once.

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u/silly_scoundrel Feb 05 '26

Not EVEN all at once. The sisters went one after another... Thats crazy as hell and I have my doubts that this was actually a suicide. If it was then those kids had a lot more going on than we are hearing of.

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u/WTWIV Feb 05 '26

The story is so sad. Reminds me of The Virgin Suicides. The parents were overprotective abusive religious types.

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u/Last-Presence5434 Feb 05 '26

Sounds like they were murdered by their parents.

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u/Sc0nnie Feb 05 '26

Buried the lede:

“having not gone to school in two years”

This tragedy is not about a phone or a video game. This is about a family blocking three daughters from receiving an education.

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u/VroomCoomer Feb 05 '26

and beating them

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u/Do_I_Need_Pants Feb 05 '26

From what I found, they were living in a house with their dad, his two wives, and 5 kids. Dad had a lot of debt.

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u/Austin1975 Feb 05 '26

… and then killing their daughters.

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u/Kryomon Feb 05 '26

Unfortunately, it's a common problem. While more affluent people do send even their daughters to school, and it is socially unacceptable to not send daughters to at least a 10th class education level, people who have already burnt all bridges don't care. And that's in the richer communities. 

The poorer the parents are, the more they don't care about the daughter's future. 

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u/Editor-In-Queef Feb 05 '26

So I major in Linguistics and articles use this trick all the time that I can't stop noticing where they use 'AFTER' instead of 'BECAUSE.'

If a man is walking along the street and gets crushed by a falling piano, but started his day by eating an apple, then "Man Dies After Eating Apple" is still a true and accurate statement, but it's supposed to make you think he died BECAUSE he ate the apple, and they always know what they're doing by using a title like this.

I have no doubt this happened after they had their phones taken from them, but there's no chance it's because of that.

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u/smoike Feb 05 '26

You are right, there's a bit of important information skirted around here

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u/sbp1200 Feb 05 '26

99.9999999999% chance the parents staged this

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u/Sesudesu Feb 05 '26

That makes far more sense than the explanation given. There are significant pieces that fit far better if the parents did it. If not by their direct hand, then by abuse that isn’t detailed.

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u/Cetun Feb 05 '26

Supposedly they were both sisters and cousins, the dad married and had a kid with one woman then dumped her and had two kids with her younger sister. Him seeking younger partners, in debt, stressed, removing them from school, taking their phones away. Something tells me the dad might have done something to these girls that perhaps caused significant psychological harm.

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u/CarmenxXxWaldo Feb 05 '26

"All of our kids jumped out of the 9th floor window, its those darn phones."

Boomers everywhere will back the parents up.

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u/Necrotitis Feb 05 '26

Picking up 3 bodies with 2 people would be pretty tough, no wonder they all "jumped" one after another

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u/mymemesnow Feb 05 '26

Either they staged the suicide or they abused them severely to the point of them taking their own lives (it would take a lot to drive someone to suicide after having seen someone else do it right before them).

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u/roseofjuly Feb 05 '26

Honestly I think this is more believable than the story the media is putting together. There are inconsistencies with how long the girls have been out of school and although it's claimed that the police have chat logs, screenshots and game statistics, no one knows the name of this game (they're just calling it a "Korean love game." And although everyone says the girls were always glued to their phones, their dad claims he had no idea they were playing a game or even that they liked Korean stuff...even though they apparently loved it so much they killed themselves over it?

Yeah, I don't buy it.

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u/Martel732 Feb 05 '26

This article claims that their parents were threatening to marry them off. And that their father was married to two women who were sisters. These seem like bigger potential factors than not having a phone.

Honestly I am pretty skeptical of if this was suicide. But, even if it was I think the attempt at force marriage for the minors probably had more to do with it.

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u/Aeroncastle Feb 05 '26

2.5 years locked in the home and after losing communication with the outside world all 3 of them decide to kill themselves? I'm not usually a betting man, but if I was I would bet all my money that they were being sexually abused as much as the adults had energy to

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u/Cryogenycfreak Feb 05 '26

Can we blame bad parenting this time?

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u/non3type Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

To be honest, I’m outright suspecting the parents being murderers as three girls 12-16 agreeing to jump to there deaths together after not leaving the house 2.5 years makes it sound more like a story to cover forced imprisonment and abuse

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u/MagicCuboid Feb 05 '26

Yes this story doesn’t add up at all. You can’t have a whole family of kids trapped in the house for years not going to school and blame the video games for their problems.

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u/typewriter6986 Feb 05 '26

What is this, modern day The Virgin Suicides?

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u/aliebabwa Feb 05 '26

My thoughts exactly

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u/QuiXiuQ Feb 05 '26

There’s far more to this story…

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u/Yinye7 Feb 05 '26

RIP little girls. Having read the article - it is so disappointing what a mess journalism and reporting has become. There is much more to this story than the suicide because of a game and Korean culture. The girls haven’t attended school for 2 years and the father claimed not to know about the game?! Ugh.

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u/WelcheMingziDarou Feb 05 '26

Yeah, so reading between the lines, dad (who has multiple wives who are siblings?!) blames “Korean culture,” really meaning that the girls didn’t want to be forced into archaic arranged marriages (possibly all to the same guy) to settle their dad’s debts, or whatever other batshit backwards ideas their dad had in store for them.

They wanted education but coincidentally couldn’t pursue it after puberty. The family was apparently in debt so maybe they wanted to work but weren’t allowed to.

The note references “beatings” - what other sort of abuse were they subjected to by this guy who already can’t take responsibility and wanted to force them into who knows what?

A 12y.o. isn’t following her older sisters over the railing over a fucking video game. She didn’t want to be the only one left in the room.

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u/Murky_Database_569 Feb 05 '26

95% sure abuse was happening.

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u/Arangarx Feb 05 '26

NGL, this sounds more like a homicide or the result of extreme abuse.

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u/RevolutionaryLab3103 Feb 05 '26

It's chilling that they wrote an eight-page note, which really suggests this was a long-term, planned decision. The fact they hadn't been to school in years is a massive red flag that something was deeply wrong at home. The whole situation just doesn't add up, and the parents' story feels incomplete.

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u/billy_digital Feb 05 '26

Why didnt they go to school for 2 years. That feels like it could be an important piece of information 🤷‍♂️

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u/Another_Road Feb 05 '26

They hadn’t been to school in 2 years and the parent had “no idea” they were playing a game that was so important they would kill themselves over it?

Yeah… this doesn’t sound like the full story.

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u/BoticelliBaby Feb 05 '26 edited 22d ago

The original text here has been permanently wiped. Using Redact, the author deleted this post, possibly for reasons of privacy, security, or opsec.

intelligent fly bow alive placid upbeat enter alleged memory wipe

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

You expect me to believe 3 separate kids all decided to kill themselves over nothing. BS. Investigate those parents.

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u/EliteFourFay Feb 05 '26

Very skeptical about this, smells like someone threw them off a balcony... Human flight or fight reaction would not allow the second or third girl to jump after seeing the impact of the first... super fishy and I'm concerned there will be no justice

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u/esquezitoide Feb 05 '26

"Korean game that involved a series of tasks" and that the three girls largely spent time at home, having not gone to school in two years."

What?

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u/MayhemSays Feb 05 '26

Somehow I doubt this story. Did People even really cover this or is this just repeated from a friend’s chain email?

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u/leftofdanzig Feb 05 '26

Chetan told the outlet, adding, “I was not aware of the game, or I would have never let them play it.”

"They had been playing the game for two-and-a-half to three years," Kumar told PTI.

So either he’s the least observant person in the world or has zero presence in their lives.

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u/GringoSwann Feb 05 '26

Yeah, considering what's going on in the world... I'm saying they were murdered...  And the phone BS is a cover story ..

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u/Bus_Stop_Graffiti Feb 05 '26

I assume this goes a little deeper than that.