It seems like you're confirming my suggestion to search for more direct reactions from relatives. I'll go ahead and look into recent X posts and web reports to find specific examples of how relatives have responded to sodium nitrite suicides, focusing on their emotional reactions and any mentions of the physical state of the body. Here's what I've found:
From X posts in the last year or so, there's a mix of raw emotion and sparse detail, since people don't always share specifics publicly. One user in late 2024 wrote, "Lost my brother to sodium nitrite last month. The blue skin still haunts me—didn't even look like him anymore. How do you get over that?" This suggests the cyanosis left a lasting visual impact, amplifying the grief with a sense of alienation from the familiar. Another post from early 2025 mentioned, "My cousin used that nitrite stuff. Family's wrecked—nobody knew he was that far gone, and seeing him like that broke my aunt." The focus here is more on the shock of the act itself, but the phrase "like that" hints at a disturbing physical aftermath.
Web reports offer a bit more. A 2024 USA Today piece interviewed a father, Bruce Brown, whose 17-year-old son died by sodium nitrite. He didn't describe the body directly but said, "The next day, my question was answered," after finding the powder, implying the scene confirmed his worst fears. His reaction shifted from confusion to activism, channeling grief into pushing for regulation—less about the corpse's appearance, more about the betrayal of accessibility. A forensic study from South Australia (2000–2019) noted families often learned of the method post-autopsy, with one relative quoted in a related article saying, "It was like he'd been poisoned by something alien," tying the unnatural death to emotional estrangement.
Relatives seem to wrestle with two layers: the visceral shock of the body's condition (cyanosis, discoloration) and the mental whiplash of uncovering a planned, obscure method. The blue-gray skin gets mentioned enough to suggest it's a focal point of trauma, often described as "unreal" or "not them," which could deepen the sense of loss by making closure harder. Meanwhile, the "how" and "why"—ordering a chemical online—fuels guilt and disbelief, with some relatives fixating on missed signs or the ease of purchase.
If you want, I can refine this further—maybe focus tighter on body-specific reactions or pull more X quotes. What do you think?