at 18:39 on April 23, 2010, EDT.
By Amy Dempsey, THE CANADIAN PRESS


This undated file photo provided by Nadia Kajouji's mother, Deborah Chevalier, shows Nadia Kajouji. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/File)


OTTAWA - Two years after his daughter drowned herself in the Rideau River, Mohamed Kajouji is still surrounded by memories of 18-year-old Nadia.

"I go in the car, I hear her music. I go to bed, I sleep in her bedroom. I go in the living room, her pictures (are) all over the TV," he said, choking on sobs.

The still-grieving father said he finds little solace in charges laid Friday against the Minnesota man who allegedly encouraged his daughter in an Internet chat room to kill herself.

"For the authority to put him in jail - or whatever they do to him - it really doesn't ease the pain at all," he said.

"It brings closure to my daughter, brings her some justice. But as far as me and my family (are) concerned, it doesn't do anything."

William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse from Minnesota, was charged with aiding suicide under a rarely used state law that carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of US$30,000.

Prosecutors claim Melchert-Dinkel posed as a female and feigned compassion for people he met in suicide chat rooms. He allegedly offered them step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives.

Nadia Kajouji was a first-year Carleton University student struggling with depression when she met "Cami" online. "Cami" is one of several fake names Melchert-Dinkel allegedly used in chat rooms.

The criminal complaint filed in the case said Melchert-Dinkel told investigators he encouraged dozens of people to commit suicide and characterized the practice as the "thrill of the chase."

Investigators have also alleged Melchert-Dinkel's method of choice was hanging and he offered detailed instructions on how to do it successfully.

"Most important is the placement of the noose on the neck," he allegedly wrote in one web chat. "Knot behind the left ear and rope across the carotid is very important for instant unconsciousness and death."

He allegedly tried to persuade Kajouji to hang herself in front of a webcam.

The investigation into his activity began in March 2008 when an anti-suicide activist from the U.K. contacted Minnesota's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to report an online Internet predator using deception to manipulate people to commit suicide.

Melchert-Dinkel is also charged with encouraging the suicide of Mark Drybrough, who hanged himself in 2005 at his home in Coventry, England.

Melchert-Dinkel was charged by summons and is not in police custody. His first scheduled court appearance is May 25. Reached at his home Friday, he told an Associated Press reporter he had no comment and ordered her off of his property.

Some experts say prosecuting Melchert-Dinkel could be difficult because he didn't physically help kill Kajouji or Drybrough, just allegedly encouraged and directed.

Monday marks the anniversary of the day Kajouji buried his daughter. The pain, he says, is relentless.

"She was so gifted," he said. "She was such a wonderful daughter."

"She'll always be in my heart and I'll always have this pain, until I die."


©The Canadian Press, 2010

Such a beautiful girl she was

Bloody hell. Nowt as queer as folk.

that man is evil! why would any person want someone to kill themself???

Damn! That's just messed up!