Deeply depressed over a pending home foreclosure and mounting bills, Debra Gibbs, a Goshen, Indiana, homemaker, sent her daughter out the morning of June 23 — and then shot herself in the head, MSNBC.com reports this morning.
Gibbs' suicide occurred the day after the repossession of her 2007 Chevy Malibu, the last purchase she’d made with her late husband, Sam. “She was doing everything she could to hold onto what was hers,” said Gibbs’ daughter, Rebecca Filley, said.
In some U.S. communities that went into recession as early as 2005 or 2006, the worst recession since the Great Depression has been accompanied by a worrisome rise in suicide deaths. People who’ve lost jobs commit suicide at rates two times to four times higher than those who are employed, according to the American Association of Suicidology.
Public officials in the communities that have experienced a rise in suicides can't help but see the recession connection. “We’ve had many situations where people lost their jobs and that was the reason for why they do what they do,” said Sheriff Mark A. Hackel of Macomb County, Mich.
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