Is disappearing cruel if I leave a note?

[JustKillMe]

I know that people have had similar discussions and it depends on the people who might care after you die, but I want to know if the circumstance of it changes if you leave a note kind of providing closure. I really think that disappearing and dying in the woods or something would be a peaceful way to go, but I know that providing closure can be important, so my idea was to put in a suicide note that I disappeared intentionally and that was how I wanted it to be or whatever. Do you think that would be enough closure or do you think people would try to find the body too? Also, what if they left your body but someone just happened to come across it decomposing in the woods, then should you leave something identifying when you die so they don't think it's a murder or something?

 

[QuietEnd]

I've thought about this from a theoretical point, and without checking the laws my conclusions so far are:

1. Without finding your body they might have trouble declaring you dead. Depending upon what you're leaving behind that could cause financial or legal issues.
2. Depends upon how connected you are, are there people that you are close to e.g. partner, or just connections like colleagues/health care workers - this would influence how much they might feel like they need an answer to why you've made your choices and whether they feel guilt or shame that they should have intervened some way.
3. How good you are at communicating in a way that enables people to be on the same page with the same understanding. (People always seem to add things I didn't say, or don't believe what I say and think I mean something else).
4. The risk of an unprepared person coming across your remains and how that might impact them. This is a strong personal preference I have, as whilst I make choices about my life and how it should end, I don't want my ending to impact someone else's living in a very unbalanced way.

 

[Smart No More]

Definitely a good idea to keep something about your person to make it easier for them to put the case to bed. The quicker the better for everyone.


People will go looking for your body based on the note you suggested. Even if it's to confirm you died, cremate you and bring your ashes back to be scattered in the same spots. Law enforcement investigators will look into your circumstances too. They'll want ro know if you disappeared to avoid debts or have some motive to want to vanish and start a new life. People have done that in the past and their spouse has claimed life insurance only to later discover that the person was still alive. There was a pretty famous case in the UK which had a drama series based around it.

I guess what someone might do is carry a gps tracker. Send a delayed email to LE containing their note (containing the gps tracker info) , set to arrive in a few days time. This would allow time to pass in the place of choosing and be found with little hassle. It's a working theory. I'm not sure it's air tight by any means.

 

[JustKillMe]

I've thought about this from a theoretical point, and without checking the laws my conclusions so far are:

1. Without finding your body they might have trouble declaring you dead. Depending upon what you're leaving behind that could cause financial or legal issues.
2. Depends upon how connected you are, are there people that you are close to e.g. partner, or just connections like colleagues/health care workers - this would influence how much they might feel like they need an answer to why you've made your choices and whether they feel guilt or shame that they should have intervened some way.
3. How good you are at communicating in a way that enables people to be on the same page with the same understanding. (People always seem to add things I didn't say, or don't believe what I say and think I mean something else).
4. The risk of an unprepared person coming across your remains and how that might impact them. This is a strong personal preference I have, as whilst I make choices about my life and how it should end, I don't want my ending to impact someone else's living in a very unbalanced way.

Number 4 is also something I really worried about, and I for a while really wanted to go to suicide forest (in Japan) because for regular visitors there not supposed to go off the paths that much and the only ones who do are the trained volunteers and their job is to find bodies, but then also to recover the bodies they have found which I wouldn't want.
I didn't really ever think about being declared dead or the potential legal and/or financial implications of just disappearing and saying I was dead without evidence. I'm not super well established so I don't own anything significant like a house, but I do have student debt and they need a certificate of death in order to forgive that, otherwise they just harass my family for the money. I guess if I'm trying to ctb though I might be able to scrape up enough money to finish paying down my debt since it's not much left and I won't need any money once I'm dead so I could put everything I own and any resources I have towards getting that taken care of before I die.

Definitely a good idea to keep something about your person to make it easier for them to put the case to bed. The quicker the better for everyone.


People will go looking for your body based on the note you suggested. Even if it's to confirm you died, cremate you and bring your ashes back to be scattered in the same spots. Law enforcement investigators will look into your circumstances too. They'll want ro know if you disappeared to avoid debts or have some motive to want to vanish and start a new life. People have done that in the past and their spouse has claimed life insurance only to later discover that the person was still alive. There was a pretty famous case in the UK which had a drama series based around it.

I guess what someone might do is carry a gps tracker. Send a delayed email to LE containing their note (containing the gps tracker info) , set to arrive in a few days time. This would allow time to pass in the place of choosing and be found with little hassle. It's a working theory. I'm not sure it's air tight by any means.

I've never thought of using a gps tracker, but that's smart, especially with the post dated email to law enforcement. My phone does have tracking so I could just share the location on that with law enforcement via email. The debts thing too is a good point that QuietEnd brought up too, so I guess I'd have to settle all that before I ctb.

 

[QuietEnd]

Definitely a good idea to keep something about your person to make it easier for them to put the case to bed. The quicker the better for everyone.


People will go looking for your body based on the note you suggested. Even if it's to confirm you died, cremate you and bring your ashes back to be scattered in the same spots. Law enforcement investigators will look into your circumstances too. They'll want ro know if you disappeared to avoid debts or have some motive to want to vanish and start a new life. People have done that in the past and their spouse has claimed life insurance only to later discover that the person was still alive. There was a pretty famous case in the UK which had a drama series based around it.

I guess what someone might do is carry a gps tracker. Send a delayed email to LE containing their note (containing the gps tracker info) , set to arrive in a few days time. This would allow time to pass in the place of choosing and be found with little hassle. It's a working theory. I'm not sure it's air tight by any means.

I wonder whether a dog tracker GPS might work. It might have a longer battery life than a phone. Coverage level would need to be checked.