Updates by emailNEWSLETTER Subscribe to The Dreamin DemonRSS Subscribe to The Dreamin Demon

After He’s Accused Of Rape, Jose Canseco Tweets Accuser’s Name, Phone #Andrew Barnett Gets 5 More Years For Mailing Phony Anthrax, Throwing PoopVideo Captures Two American Bulldogs Attacking Woman Before They Are Shot Dead By PoliceElderly Double-Amputee Killed After Four Pit Bulls Drag Him From WheelchairICE Need Help Identifying John Doe Seen Sexually Assaulting Young GirlTaylor Powers Rescued From Colorado Mountain After Ingesting Mushrooms, Stripping NakedBrandon Pierce Accused Of Setting His Dog On Fire To Help It Get To HeavenGary Gray Says This Time He Won’t Admit To Child Sex ChargesHaven Lee Norton, 10, Struck And Killed By His School Bus While Mother WatchedUnique Gould Charged With Manslaughter In Beating Death Of Her Toddler

Missing Woman Found Dead Committed Suicide By Inhaling Helium

December 11, 2012 at 9:02 am by  

Missing Woman Found Dead Committed Suicide By Inhaling HeliumMILLBOURNE, PA – Authorities are saying a 44-year-old woman, whose body was found in a Pennsylvania state park almost a week after being reported missing, committed suicide by inhaling helium gas.

A man contacted police on December 2 to report that he had returned home and was unable to find his girlfriend, Teresa Mastracola.

He’d last seen her that morning as she left for Delaware County Memorial Hospital where she worked as an imaging Equipment Specialist, and her co-workers reported that Mastracola never showed up for work that day.

Police did not immediately treat the woman’s disappearance as suspicious because Mastracola, a Master Sergeant with the National Guard, was an avid hiker and would often spend days out in the woods. But this past Saturday, her body was found in a heavily wooded area deep in Ridley Creek State Park.

Authorities have not released all the details surrounding her death, but are confident foul play was not involved, and that the woman had committed suicide. Coroner Frederic Hellman listed her cause of death as chemical asphyxia from helium inhalation.

I knew you could die from inhaling helium, and was aware people did commit suicide with it. In fact, the guy who wrote the song “You Light Up My Life” committed suicide with helium last year after being accused of a series of casting couch rapes.

What I wasn’t aware of is how popular this exit strategy has become for people wanting to speed up their shuffle off this mortal coil. According to a recent study that I have no link to, helium-related deaths have jumped from two in 2010 to 42 in 2011.

For anyone wondering how to  float to Heaven with a high-pitched voice, here’s a nice instructional video. I would rather have a suicidal, Google impaired individual do this the right way, and not end up a vegetable. Oh, and if you don’t happen to have helium tank fittings, you can order them from this guy. You are welcome.

Tags: , , , ,

44 Comments

    Comments


    V2 Cigs electronic cigarettes - Break Free From The Pack!

    The views expressed in the comments are those of the comment writers and don't represent the views or opinions of D'D or its staff. Feel free to flag comments that may violate conditions outlined in our Disclaimer.

    • Sam

      Are we sure this was suicide, and not just a quest for weight loss gone horribly wrong?

    • Sam

      So is this classed as a suicide method with no way of backing out? What with the emergency responder unable to move in heaps of laughter on the floor at the pitch of your voice if you do call for help?

    • heather

      Seems like a rather quick and painless way to go. Much better for the viewing too than an ugly gunshot wound.

    • Sam

      Now I find myself wondering if helium affects you like carbon monoxide poisoning does – CO turns you bright pink. Helium strikes me as green. Maybe she was attempting to camouflage her body in the forest?

    • OutOfBubbleGum

      I’m feeling light headed.

    • Andyman

      Wow, I had never heard of someone doing this. I guess you really do learn something new every day. Sigh. RIP lady. Anyone want to conjure a guess as to whether this is better or worse than the car / tailpipe / garage method?

    • OutOfBubbleGum

      “… but are confident foul play was not involved …”

      On the highest branch of the highest tree in the forest, an eagle named Alfred landed. He looked below.
      Slowly, he turned his head to the vulture and gave a wink of approval. His plan was fulfilled. The dirty work completed by the vulture for an easy promise of easy meat. With the sole goal of fame and fortune, Alfred would star once again on Broadway’s “The Birds: Suicide Really? Or Murder?”

    • tkaz

      I didn’t know you could die. BUT…
      When my daughter was 7 she sucked helium, I didn’t worry because I didn’t think she’d be able to do it (she saw older kids at a party doing it) – well, I was WRONG. SHe inhaled it & immediately fainted. I kid you not, i didn’t realize it was real – I thought she was being goofy which she is known for. She hit the ground, chipped a tooth & I felt like the worst mother on the planet.
      She’s never tried it again since, so that’s good. It was a lesson for us both!

    • osteenq

      From what I’ve read in accounts of people dying unintentionally from helium inhalation (i.e., trying to be funny at parties), the second they get a really good huff of the stuff they almost immediately pass out and hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. I imagine it would be more peaceful if you were in bed, though. Very little time to feel anything.

      It’s very big with euthanasia enthusiasts, apparently.

    • JGo555

      If she did it to spite some one, I know who!!!

      All of those party planners and helicopter moms that use helium balloons on their kids’ birthday parties!

    • SayAunt

      In a case like this I think a balloon release memorial/funeral might be in bad taste.

    • Athena

      Why would you associate helium with weight loss? I’m legitimately curious. I may be on to the most hilarious diet ever.

    • daMonBrooks

      A local news guy went out this way this time last year year.

    • Sam

      Helium rises. At least temporarily. You may need a cork up your bajinga and hoo-hoo though.

    • TinyCyborg

      I get it. She didn’t want anyone (most likely her boyfriend) to have to clean up the mess of a dead body or go through the trauma of finding her rotten corpse. I’ve thought of doing this same thing pretty often. Hide out in the wilderness were it would be unlikely anyone would find me and end it. Go out as animal and plant food and in a year all that would be left would be bones and a helium tank next to a tree. In a way I’m sad for her that someone did actually find her. It sucks ass we can’t even choose the way we die.

    • Lemont_Cranston

      We just watched a special on helium suicide on PBS about a week ago, very educational. Was she watching it too?

    • lespacino

      I watched that, too. And the suicide assistance organization profiled thereon probably explains the increased use of helium in suicides, as that’s the method they teach.

    • lespacino

      I did this as a kid- got a lovely head wound from it. I don’t let my kids mess with the stuff. People don’t seem to understand the dangers involved in the pursuit of making your voice funny for 2 seconds.

    • lespacino

      You pass out very quickly and continue to inhale the helium being released into the bag on your head, so yeah, there’s pretty much no going back.

    • newstarshipsmell

      Too bad her consideration for others didn’t extend to not wasting a valuable resource that is likely to disappear in our lifetimes thanks to reckless waste.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

    • newstarshipsmell

      Me too, lol. I think I was in sixth grade or so, at a potluck dinner for the school/church that my family and I attended. I was repeatedly sucking down balloons (they had a tank of helium in the kitchen to fill them) and saying stupid shit in chipmunk voice – the next thing I know I’m lying on the concrete floor with a splitting headache and a bunch of concerned looking kids and adults surrounding me. Apparently I passed out and bashed my head on the floor pretty spectacularly. It ruined the rest of the evening as my throbbing headache refused to subside. The only upside was my friend’s mom owned a cotton candy machine that she wheeled in for every event like this, and she felt bad for me so she fed me fresh cotton candy all night long.

    • LoKi4778

      don’t you mean “fowl” play?

    • newstarshipsmell

      Totally off-topic, but I saw this and immediately thought of you, Andy (and yes, I saw this on Facebook.)

      https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/481875_474567459275998_582174689_n.jpg

    • LeaveMeBe

      I keep picturing her staggering around those last few moments talking to herself and sounding like a Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz.

    • Andyman

      Well thanks for thinking of me. And sharing! That did make me chuckle.

    • newstarshipsmell

      I keep picturing her breasts expanding and rising.

    • scud420

      holy shit. that makes the actual act of suicide a lot less frightening… which kind of scares me.

    • Heather4877

      If only that worked….sigh.

    • Heather4877

      Any info on why? I know some people don’t really need a reason, other than being monumentally unhappy, but I’m always curious.

    • JimP

      maybe she wanted to talk to the chipmunks on the woods

    • LeaveMeBe

      This doesn’t surprise me in the least.

    • alphatroll

      Thank you for the instructional video, Morbid. In this age of declining educational standards, it’s good to know someone’s willing to step up to the plate.

    • alphatroll

      WEIGHT loss, not mass loss. ;)

    • Athena

      Yeah, yeah… I get it, now. ;)

    • LuvsHorror

      Wow, I always thought I’d use the car exhaust way, but this sounds better.

    • OutOfBubbleGum

      LoKi4778, you hit a home run compared to my fowl balls.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XA4RDSRSUX3XRSCPRR7XNGSPUQ Joshua

      I think she was very selfish. Helium is a fairly rare and non renewable resource. Once we use up all the helium we won’t have it any more. Scientists are starting to push for it to no longer be used for frivolous things like balloons because of its importance in MRI scanners

    • GGMon

      In Japan there is a “Suicide Forest” where lots of people just go into this wooded area and hang/kill themselves. pretty eerie and well known.

    • techsupp0rt

      Certainly sounds more fun.

    • Clyde The Dog

      Finally!!
      I’ve been reading this fucking site for years and wondering just how to kill myself due to the depression associated with being aware of the human waste that walks amongs us.

    • Clyde The Dog

      Like Seattle?

    • Minerva

      I’m from the area and confused by the story. She committed suicide by helium, but was found in the woods. Her car was found, however, in a bad neighborhood of Philadelphia. The distance from where she was found to her car is about an hour drive. The story has holes and its just odd that some things are being ignored.

    • http://www.facebook.com/shawn.guhr Shawn Guhr

      TinyCyborg … I enjoyed reading your messages. Please contact me at Teshula@cox.net. Thanx! :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/shawn.guhr Shawn Guhr

      TinyCyborg… I just want to let you know that I enjoy reading your comments. Please email me whenever you like at… Teshula@cox.net Thanx :)