TRAGIC SECRET: Father weeps for 'suicide pact' son

Robert Sutcliffe

A FATHER broke down in tears yesterday as he told of his shock at learning how his son killed himself in a bizarre internet suicide pact with a woman he had never previously met.

Melvyn Lumb, 63, said he had no idea that his son Steve, 35, had driven 200 miles on Monday from their home in Yorkshire to Braintree, Essex, to see reclusive Joanne Lee, 34, before they killed themselves in a fume-filled car.

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The couple inhaled a lethal cocktail of chemicals containing hydrogen sulphide, which Mr Lumb said would have killed them both within seconds.

While Miss Lee, a seriously ill anorexic, had made clear her intent on a suicide forum the reasons for Mr Lumb’s demise are much less clear-cut.

Miss Lee, 34, had written on a web forum: “I haven’t strength to do this alone. I’m not a cop, a cannibal or a murderer, just desperate. I have all the ingredients and want to do it ASAP.’’

Mr Lumb of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, said his son, a long-distance trucker, had appeared to be his happy-go-lucky self when he last saw him on Sunday.

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“He didn’t give me any indication that anything was wrong – he was just a normal, active lad who enjoyed going out for a few beers with his mates and playing games on his computer. It’s terrible. ’’

Asked how he would describe the people who run how-to-kill-yourself suicide websites, he replied: “I can’t put it into words. It’s just beyond belief really.”

Speaking about Miss Lee, he said: “I don’t know anything about her.’’

Mr Lumb added that the police had been to see him following the discovery of the bodies in his son’s Vauxhall Astra.

Families devastated: Page 2.

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