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Story 1.

Bridge End

Lying between the sandy beaches of South Wales Gower Peninsula and the rugged mountains of the Brecon Beacons, the county of Bridge End is surrounded on all sides by areas of outstanding natural beauty.

But over a three-year period in the late 2000s, the area was devastated by a string of teenage suicides.

Just what was happening in Bridge End.

On the 25th of September 2006, a young man by the name of Dale Kroll said goodbye to his mother and left the family home in Meisteg.

He was going to visit his friend David Dilling in the neighbouring town of Porth Cowell.

It was a destination he would never reach, but at the time of his disappearance, his family and friends were not immediately concerned.

Like most 18-year-olds in the local area, Dale was well known for using alcohol and drugs to help cope with the issues in his life.

There had been a number of occasions where his drinking had gotten him into trouble, and he had been found in an unresponsive state having taken pills.

It was initially assumed he had met up with other friends, and was off enjoying himself somewhere else, but as the days turned into weeks, Dale's family began to worry and reported him missing.

It would be three long and desperate months before his remains were found by the police at an abandoned funfair warehouse in Porth Cowell.

It was David who had suggested the location when approached by officers, telling them that he and Dale had frequently sought refuge from their problems at the empty premises and had often stayed there overnight.

The body was badly decomposed and it took some time before a pathologist reported that his death had been the result of hanging.

At Dale's inquest, the coroner reported that traces of ecstasy and cannabis had been found in samples from his hair and a verdict of suicide was recorded.

But barely had his friends and family had time to come to terms with the senseless loss of their loved one before further tragedy struck.

In the early hours of the 18th of February 2007, a man walking his dog past the grounds of Pyle Church found the lifeless body of another young man hanging from a tree branch.

It was only six weeks since his best friend had been found in similar circumstances, and now David Dilling was also dead.

The investigation into the death was brief and found nothing unexpected.

David had been similarly well known to the local police for his alcohol and substance abuse, and his father reported that the troubled teen had never fully recovered from the loss of his friend.

A date was set for his funeral, with the rural community preparing again to say goodbye to another of their youngsters.

It would not be the last time.

Just two days before David's funeral was due to take place, Thomas Davies went to the same churchyard and hanged himself from a tree adjacent to the one that David had been found in.

He was a mutual friend of both Dale and David, and this third sudden and heartbreaking death sent further shockwaves throughout the local area.

The police looked into the incidents in great detail, hoping to find something that might link them to one another.

Other than their existing friendships, there was nothing obvious to be found.

All the authorities could do was hope that the suicides would prove to be a tragic but isolated affair.

Sadly, this was not to be the case.

Over the next year, a further 14 young people living in the Bridge End area would end their lives by hanging.

The individual methods and locations of these incidents varied considerably, but there were a number of common factors that set them aside from other suicides.

All were completely unexpected, and in most cases, no note or explanation was left behind.

The individuals had more often than not been vocally critical or outspoken about the other hangings that had occurred.

All of them died with their hands untied, and most with their legs or knees still in contact with the ground.

In August of 2007, the parents of 17-year-old Zachary Barnes found their son in the back garden of their address, hanging by a t-shirt that had been tied to the washing line.

He had been out drinking in the park with friends all night, and a copious amount of alcohol was found in his bloodstream.

There was no indication at all that he had meant to kill himself, and so a straightforward verdict of suicide could not be recorded.

Between December 2007 and February 2008, the incidents suddenly increased in terms of both frequency and proximity to one another.

This spate started with the suicide of 20-year-old Liam Clark, who had been a close friend of the third victim Thomas Davies.

The following month, local youth Nathaniel Pritchard was rushed to hospital, having asphyxiated himself in his bedroom, following an argument over the phone with his ex-girlfriend.

As Nathaniel lay in a hospital bed fighting for his life, news of the apparent suicide attempt reached his 20-year-old cousin Kelly Stevenson, who was out at a party.

Kelly immediately became very emotional and asked to go upstairs to compose herself.

A short time later, her uncle forced entry into the bathroom to find that she had also committed suicide by hanging.

Kelly had been an aspiring police officer.

who was the last person her friends and family would have suspected of wanting to take her own life.

She was also Liam Clarke's ex-girlfriend.

Not long after her body had been discovered, Nathaniel Pritchard also succumbed to his injuries and passed away in hospital.

He was just 15 years old.

The inhabitants of Bridge End were both bewildered and horrified by the madness that seemed to have beset their community and desperately demanded that the authorities act in some way to protect their children.

In response to the public outcry, A joint task force of police, NHS and social care professionals was quickly assembled.

Church leaders and community groups also united, organising counselling sessions and public events.

As part of their programme, mentors and peers would identify young people considered to be at risk of suicide and take them away from the area on day trips to the coast.

It did little to help, and the deaths continued unabated.

The next person to end their life was 16-year-old Jenna Parry.

She had been close friends with previous victim Zachary Barnes and was found hanged from a tree by a dog walker in a beauty spot near to her home address.

Her knees were still touching the wet grass beneath her feet.

Something was very wrong with the young people of Bridgeend, and now the rest of the world had suddenly taken notice of their predicament.

The spike in deaths over the festive period had piqued the interest of the press, and the subsequent coroner's inquests were widely reported in the national newspapers.

The story suddenly went global.

and as the grieving residents continued to try and deal with the unseen danger that was plaguing their community, they were additionally besieged by a torrent of unwanted and intrusive media attention.

From as far away as China and the United States, a small army of social commentators and documentary filmmakers descended on the Welsh valleys, bringing film crews and production assistants with them.

Children on their way to and from school were ambushed in the street and asked if they knew anything about an alleged online suicide cult.

The local police began to face repeated requests to clarify whether or not they were investigating the work of a suspected serial killer.

The papers reported on the situation with lurid headlines that labelled Brigene a death town and a suicide capital.

Online chat forums and social media pages filled up with bizarre theories about what was taking place, including the work of vengeful Celtic spirits and sinister modern-day Druid cults.

As the number of hangings continued to climb, The local member of parliament and senior police officer ordered news agencies to stop reporting on the deaths.

There was a strong fear fear that the articles which saturated the national papers and online publications were in some way glamorising the situation, making a number of teens more susceptible to the ideas of suicide and self-harm.

Over the summer of 2008, the picturesque village of Betoos fell victim to a cluster of apparent suicides.

On the 20th of April, 19-year-old Sean Rees was found hanged from a tree near his friend's house.

His family could think of no reason as to why he would do this.

Having just passed his A-levels and driving test, he had been planning to move away to attend university.

On the 7th of June, his best friend Neil Owen was also found deceased just meters away from where Sean had chosen to end his life.

Ten days later, on the night before Neil's funeral, a building worker found their mutual friend Carwin Jones hanged at the rear of the local pub.

Carwin was a loving father of a two-year-old daughter.

and nobody could comprehend how he had come to do this.

The investigating officers discovered that all three friends had been born and raised in the same street.

With a ban on reporting any further deaths in the county now in place, wider public interest in the situation inevitably dwindled away.

The wild conspiracy theories and speculation ceased, and the media found new, morbid subjects to move on to.

It's widely believed that the number of hangings eventually fell back to within expected levels after the end of 2009.

but they certainly did not stop altogether.

It is believed that by the close of 2012, the number of deaths attributed to hanging and asphyxiation within the county since the death of Dale Kroll had risen to 79 cases.

This staggering number of fatalities meant that few people residing in the county remained untouched by the loss of friends and loved ones.

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The reasons behind such a dramatic increase in this one method of suicide still remains the subject of intense speculation, with not one particular cause agreed upon by investigators.

Ideas predictably range from the unfeasible and naive to suggestions that are painful and shocking in their nature.

The theory that is most regularly offered and debated by those examining the cases is that an individual, or group of individuals, were responsible for deliberately persuading victims to take their lives.

At the height of the incidents, social media platforms and online chat forums were still very much in their infancy, and society did not have the in-depth knowledge and familiarity with them that we possess today.

The idea that mysterious influencers could misuse this new technology without the knowledge of the authorities soon took root.

It should be noted that at no stage during any of the investigations did police find anything suggesting someone was contacting the victims and influencing them.

Given the high number of cases and the length of time such an offender would have been operating for, being able to contact the Bridge End teams and leave absolutely no digital footprint seems a highly improbable feat.

This is true of another theory, which is that the clusters of deaths were the result of the victims participating in some form of online suicide cult.

Bridge End was an extremely close-knit rural community, where the majority of the people involved were related or regularly associated with one another.

It is inconceivable that if a group or cult existed, that at some point a survivor or family member of someone involved would not have gone to the authorities with their knowledge of what was taking place.

Suicide clusters and mass suicide events are not uncommon, but are typified by the fact that the participants have an identifiable shared goal or purpose.

The most famous of these occurred in Japan, where up to a thousand victims died during 2000, having been encouraged to inhale lethal substances and gases.

Similarly, in 1962, cases of suicide amongst blonde females in the United States soared in the wake of Marilyn Monroe's death, and we barely need to remind anyone of what occurred in Jonestown back in the late 70s, although it is rightfully argued that this was a massacre rather than a mass suicide.

In Bridge End, the absence of suicide notes or any evidence of preparation for the acts effectively rules out the possibility of an organised movement or group.

These young people had no message to send to society and no apparent grievance to address.

They acted without warning or comment, leaving nothing but unanswered questions for the devastated friends and relatives they left behind.

There are some commentators who believe in searching for a more scientific justification in relation to what took place.

A number of these individuals have noted that mobile phone masts situated within the county were spaced much closer together than in other areas of the country.

There have long been concerns about the additional electromagnetic traffic which is to be found in the vicinity of these masts and the potentially hazardous effects they could have on electrical activity within the human brain.

People living close to them have reported lapses in concentration, nosebleeds and memory loss.

Is it possible that in the bridge end cases, this effect was somehow being increased or aggravated?

Whilst not impossible, it is again unlikely.

Every day, people in urban areas from office staff to emergency workers carry out their roles in much closer proximity to phone masts, and there has never been any perceived increase in mental illness amongst those demographics.

One area which draws a level of scrutiny that cannot so easily be defended is the actions of the media throughout the incidents.

By invading the personal space of the young people of Bridge End and questioning them at length about their personal thoughts and feelings regarding the deaths, there is strong evidence to suggest, to a certain degree, they normalised what was occurring.

One example of this is the death of Justin Beacham in 2010.

Justin was a close friend of the third victim Tom Davies and in January he had been interviewed about his friend's death for a documentary.

After the interview, Justin grew distant and began to exhibit a worrying downturn in his mental health.

In the early hours of the 26th of February, his brother found him trying to asphyxiate himself at the tree where Tom had hanged himself.

Justin was cut down and rushed to hospital.

Despite telling nurses he was hearing voices that were encouraging him to die, he was discharged back to his family home.

Several hours later, he evaded his relatives and made it to nearby farmland, where he was later found hanged from a tree branch.

Justin's family maintained he had always struggled with depression, but something changed in him after he had spoken to the film crew.

The role that the internet had to play in increasing the number of hangings is also key.

A significant number of people involved in these incidents had accounts on the the Bebo platform, and it was there that the majority of tributes and memorial pages for the victims were created.

It is argued that in the already disenfranchised and isolated teenagers, seeing this outpouring of love and affection for the victims pushed them to imitate the act, in the hope of achieving the same level of adulation for themselves.

The World Wide Web was still a relatively new development at the turn of the 21st century, and for young adults, growing up in an area with poor job prospects and transport links, it was often seen as an escape from reality.

The emotional fallout from the Bridge End deaths not only affected and influenced their daily lives, but also their digital lives as well, giving them no possible escape from what was happening and magnifying their fears and insecurities.

So what could have caused the suicide rate in this ordinary Welsh county to dramatically increase, especially in a time when suicide numbers across the United Kingdom have continued to fall year on year?

With the more outlandish and ill-informed theories easy to discredit, what we are left with is a perfect storm of social circumstance.

Bridge End, whilst beautiful, is an isolated and economically deprived region.

Its young people had to contend with unemployment and social apathy, with many using drugs and alcohol to do so.

Whilst trying to endure these factors, they were then unable to cope with the additional stress of losing those closest to them.

The sudden introduction of social media and the intrusion of the world's press gave them no escape from what was happening, essentially converting the hangings into a form of infectious viral disease.

Authorities and parents simply did not have the experience or understanding to effectively counter these aggravating factors, and so each hanging laid the basis for others, causing a domino effect.

As time has progressed, Cooperation between agencies and authorities has meant that help is now available for troubled youngsters, and the number of suicides has now thankfully stabilised.

Our heartfelt thoughts go out to all of those in any way affected by the tragic events that took place in Bridgenda over the last decade.

Our words could never capture the devastation wrought by these tragedies.

Our only hope is that this story raises awareness of just how serious an issue depression can become, not just for the individual, but for the friends and loved ones left to come to terms in the aftermath of such a tragedy.

We would urge anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts to reach out to those around them and talk through their problems rather than suffering in silence.

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Story 2

11

11 years,

11 diaries, 11 deaths.

In July 2018, a small town in North Delhi, India was rocked to its core when an entire family perished under strange circumstances.

A case still heavily under investigation, we question:

what were the events that led up to the mysterious Burari deaths?

It was surprisingly cloudy for a midsummer's day, as Gurcharin Singh slowly paced back and forth at the edge of Jugatpur Park.

He had been waiting half an hour longer than anticipated, and now a light rain was beginning to fall.

Showers had been forecast for the whole day, but he had expected them to start later.

Not that a little drizzle would have discouraged him from taking his walk.

It was a ritual of sorts, every day before work, a morning stroll through the park with his old friend of many years, Lalit Chundavit.

It was a way of cleansing the soul before the burdens of the day took hold, and he and his friend always took it together, almost religiously.

He looked at his watch again for what felt like the hundredth time that morning.

It was 6.57am,

and still, Lalit was nowhere to be seen.

It was unusual for him to be late.

Gurcharin resolved to wait until exactly 7am,

and if his friend hadn't arrived by then, he would make his way back home.

Of course, he waited until 7.05.

The rain was beginning to fall heavier and showed no signs of slowing, so he decided to walk back into the streets of Burari towards his modest home.

He reasoned that Lalit must have been taken ill or had an errand to run, which had prevented him from meeting.

He was in the middle of considering whether to make a visit to his old friend's house later that evening, when something gave him pause.

Across from where he was standing, he saw Lalit's grocery store.

There was nothing special about it.

It was just a standard shop, the same as any other you would find on any street in Burari.

But what stopped him in his tracks was that for as long as he had known Lalit, his shop had always been open promptly at 6am every morning without fail.

But today,

it was closed.

It was unusual for his friend to have missed the morning walk, but it was near impossible for his shop not to be open.

Without even thinking about it, Gertrude began heading towards the Chundavit home.

He had to make sure that everything was okay.

But something in the pit of his stomach said otherwise, and he had no idea why.

Arriving at his friend's house, he knocked at the front door, but there was no response.

After a second knock went unanswered, he tried the door handle, and to his surprise, found that it was unlocked.

With eleven people living under one roof, the Chundavit household was obviously a lively one, always filled with the sounds of activity, conversation and laughter.

But on this day, in those brief seconds as the door hung ajar, the only thing that slipped through the small crack was an eerie silence, which sent a cold shiver running down Gertrude's spine.

As a middle-aged man, he'd experienced a lot throughout his life, endured many challenges, lost people, seen things he couldn't unsee, but nothing could have prepared him for what he found on the other side of that doorway.

As the heavy panel swung inwards, he was greeted with a sight that left him standing mouth agape.

After what felt like an eternity, he fell to his knees and let out a shout of horror and pain.

In the hallway in front of him, ten members of the Chundavit family were hanging from the ceiling by their necks, close together in a circular formation, their bodies now lifeless and silent.

and when police arrived just after 7.30am,

the street in front of the house was was filled with curious bystanders.

The area was cordoned off as investigators began to examine the scene, and what they found left them at a loss as to explain exactly what had happened.

The first thought on everyone's minds was that the family had been murdered and then robbed, but this was quickly dismissed when all of their cash and valuables were found not only throughout the house, but even on the victims' bodies.

As the morning gave way to afternoon, police began to believe that they were instead dealing with a mass suicide.

But even then, foul play could not be ruled out for a number of reasons.

First of all, the way in which the family members were found seemed to suggest that a third party had been present at the time of death.

Each of them had had their hands tied behind their backs, and their heads wrapped in material cut from the same sheet of cloth.

They were also blindfolded, with their mouths taped shut and their ears plugged with cotton wool.

Besides the ten bodies in the hallway, officers also discovered the body of the grandmother in an adjacent room, although she had been strangled rather than hanged, so there was at least one instance of murder.

Secondly, the kitchen was found in such a way that seemed to suggest that the family had been preparing for breakfast.

Ingredients and recipes were all readily laid out, and places were set.

Why would they have done this if they were planning to commit suicide?

Friends and relatives also insisted that suicide was impossible because the Chundavits were such a happy and well-off family and never seemed outwardly troubled.

They questioned how 11 people could, as one, simply decide to end their lives.

But then all of this was contradicted when police reviewed CCTV footage captured by security cameras near the residence.

Videos clearly showed the family taking ropes and stools into their home on the night before their deaths, seemingly indicating that they were the only ones who were responsible for their demise.

Suffice to say that nothing seemed to make any sense.

Further investigation revealed 11 diaries, which had been kept by family members over the course of many years.

These notebooks would prove to be invaluable in understanding what had happened, especially the diary of one family member in particular, the one that belonged to Lalit Chundavit.

The notes contained within each one of them would detail a dark and secretive side to what the rest of the community viewed as an otherwise normal household, ultimately painting a picture of an entire family's descent into madness.

Or at least that is what has been assumed.

But before we get into the hows and whys of this case, allow us to introduce you to the Chundavit family.

The Chundavits moved from Rajasthan in Delhi in 1989.

Popal Singh, a family man with a large plot of land and grazing cattle, sold his assets to invest in a new home in the small town of Burari.

He and his wife Narayani had five children, three of whom were sons, Bhuvneesh, Dinesh and Lalit, and two daughters named Pratibhar and Sujata.

Popal took Narayani and Lalit with him to Burari and with his remaining capital, set up a small business selling plywood.

The other four children, who weren't really children at all, as they were now in their early to late 20s, remained in Rajasthan to concentrate on their careers.

By 1993 however, both Bhuvnesh and Pratibha had also moved into the family home in Berari, bringing their own families along with them.

Over the next 10 years, there would be as many as 12 people living under the same roof.

and the Chundavit family would go from strength to strength, both financially and socially.

Although Popal was a good man, he ruled over his family with an almost dictatorial control.

His word was law, and he demanded absolute adherence to his wishes and instructions.

His family regarded him with the utmost respect, and never questioned or threatened his authority.

He used to say that their success depended upon him, and in many ways that was true.

This would be demonstrated in mid-2007 when Popal unexpectedly passed away due to a respiratory illness.

The family's fortunes soon went into decline and they found themselves struggling in the aftermath of such an upheaval.

Lalit, Popal's youngest son, was hit the hardest by the tragedy.

Aside from his father's death, he also had personal issues which had had a negative effect on his quality of life.

In 2004, Whilst he was working alone in his father's plywood shop, he found himself on the receiving end of a robbery.

The thieves not only stole all of the money from the till, they also buried Lalit under a pile of plywood panels and set fire to him.

Although he managed to escape the attack relatively unscathed, he became extremely introverted and even lost his voice as a result.

He never spoke a single word for many years afterwards.

All this would change shortly after Popal's death, however.

when the family took part in a traditional 10-day long prayer known as Garuda Purana.

Lalit was said to have suddenly burst out chanting along with everyone else.

It was the first time he had spoken in over three years.

This shocked the other members of his family, who began chanting in reply, Father has returned.

They believed that the spirit of Popal had come forth and was channelling himself through Lalit.

Little did they know at the time, just how significant this moment would be.

People in the local community would later speak in hindsight of the changes seen within the family dynamic after this event, especially in the mental and psychological state of those in the household.

Lalit began brazenly telling customers in his shop how his father had appeared in a dream and asked him to perform a puja.

A puja is an act of worship, showing reverence to a god, spirit, or another aspect of the divine, through invocations, prayers, songs and rituals.

Lalit also began praying in front of trees and offering food to animals.

Whilst the local community saw very little of what went on inside their home, the Chundavit household became a platform for the family's spiritual development.

They would gather and pray for 30 minutes every morning and evening.

Lalit soon became the leader of the household and began to convince himself, along with the rest of the family, that he was the reincarnation of his father, who would ultimately lead them to salvation.

He even began to take on some of his father's traits, controlling the family and declaring that his authority must never be questioned.

They were ordered to keep their practices secret from everyone else, including extended family.

As this was happening, friends and relatives did notice some strange behaviour.

The family became increasingly introverted and withdrawn.

Despite this, their financial situation was reinvigorated, and eventually, their sources of income expanded.

The number of businesses they owned increased from one to three, consisting of the plywood shop, a grocery store, and a third commercial business, which was in the process of being set up.

The overall success of the family, according to Lallet, was due to help from his father, who was passing instructions to him spiritually.

One of these supposed instructions, however, would turn out to be fatal for him and his loved ones.

As mentioned previously, certain members of the family had kept diaries, each with extensive notes which had been made over many years.

Older sets of notes spoke of the family's financial difficulties but how Lalit had become their saviour.

The first mention of Po Pal Singh in Lalit's diaries was made on the 7th of September 2007, wherein he asks the family to keep his father's black and white photo in front of them and remember him.

Many of Lalit's entries thereafter are full of strict instructions for the rest of the family, written in a harsh and authoritative tone.

Eating habits, financial activities and day-to-day chores were all detailed and dictated throughout his diary.

Police discovered entries relating to a ritual, which was to be performed on the 30th of June 2018, almost 11 years to the day after Pope Al Singh had passed away.

Lalit speaks of how the human body is temporary and one can overcome fear by covering the eyes and mouth.

Another excerpt described how hands and legs were to be tied and how Beb, grandmother, could not stand, so she could lie down in a separate room.

These details seemed hauntingly similar to the manner in which the family was found.

On the surface at least, it looked as if the Chundavits had indeed committed mass suicide, with Lalit placed firmly at the centre of it all.

At the time of the deaths, there were 11 people in the household, including Popal's widow Narayani Devi, Bhuvneesh, his wife Savita and their three children, Nitu, Minu and Dhruv.

Then there was Lalit, his wife Dina and their son Shivam, and finally Pratibhar and her daughter Priyanka.

How could one man have convinced all these people to resort to such drastic action?

There is a condition known as shared psychotic disorder, whereby an individual suffering from delusions can pass those delusions onto other people.

This has been seen throughout history with many infamous cults, most notable of which was the Jonestown massacre of 1978.

If the individual is charismatic and convincing enough in his or her beliefs, they can condition a large number of followers to place absolute trust in them.

So was the Chundavit family suffering from SPD?

Were they so utterly convinced by Lalit's assertions that he was possessed by the spirit of their father, and did they blindly accept that the only way to achieve true salvation was through sacrificing themselves?

Or was there something more sinister afoot?

Further scrutiny of the diaries revealed notes from other family members, which explicitly mentioned future events, talking about what they needed to do the next day or the day after.

sometimes even weeks in advance.

Pratibhar's daughter Priyanka was even engaged to be married at the end of the year, and she spoke of this in her own diary.

Curiously, those who knew the Chundavits still feel that the family looked forward to a tomorrow, which is backed up by their behaviour leading up to their deaths.

One day prior to the incident, Priyanka had invited a friend to her wedding and had given her clothes to be washed.

The teenagers had planned a cricket match for the following day.

and several of the adults had arranged meetings and made other plans over the phone.

We have already mentioned how the kitchen was readily prepared for a meal.

With this in mind we have to ask, did the rest of the family know they were going to die?

It is possible that the apparent suicide could have been a spiritual or religious ritual that had gone horribly wrong, but if that was the case, why was Narayani found strangled in another room?

Police also found that the feet of both Dhruv and Shivam were touching the floor, suggesting that the two youngest members of the family did not die from the hanging, but were possibly killed or even tranquilised beforehand, with their bodies being hanged afterwards.

So whilst the rest of the family may have been expecting to live through the ritual, one amongst them, or possibly even two or three, must have fully intended for all of them to end their lives.

Rather than being a mass suicide, This case could well be classed as a mass murder, with Lalit being front and centre as the prime suspect.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that third parties were involved.

Lalit had obviously learned of this ritual from somewhere, and many people wonder whether he had contacted and been influenced by some form of cult.

One of the instructions in this ritual was to leave the front door unlocked.

Could this have been so that another cult member could have visited the house after the family had died and set about taking all of their cash and valuables unopposed?

Despite being a possibility, police have so far found no connection to another group.

Finally, we would be remiss if we were to exclude the many paranormal theories out there.

There are those who truly believe that Lalit was indeed possessed by the spirit of his dead father, who wanted the rest of his family to join him in the afterlife.

Others have pointed to the possibility of an evil or demonic entity, which manipulated Lalit into believing that he was communing with Popal and blindly following its instructions.

There is, of course, a great deal of superstition surrounding this case and its connections to the number 11.

There were 11 family members, who kept 11 diaries for 11 years after the death of their father.

They performed a ritual, which as one would expect, resulted in 11 deaths.

Even the house itself had links to the number 11.

There were 11 iron bars above the front door, and on the side of the house, there were 11 pipes which didn't seem to serve any purpose.

They were not connected to any water source or ventilation ducts, but they were arranged in a curiously similar fashion to how the 11 bodies were found.

There were seven bent pipes and four straight pipes.

One of the bent pipes was placed much further away from all the others.

People have speculated how the seven bent pipes represented the seven women, the four straight pipes represented the four men, and the pipe that was furthest away represented the grandmother, Narayani, who died in another part of the house.

Lalit had had them installed a few months prior to the incident, and he told the person who installed them that they were for ventilation purposes.

When the installer suggested having windows put in instead, Lalit refused.

This would seem to be a very personal touch.

and only serves to further suggest that Lalit acted alone and knew full well what the outcome of his ritual would

The real mystery here is just what was going on inside his head to warrant an inexplicable desire to kill himself and the rest of his family.

In his final notes he wrote the following passage, At the last moment and during the fulfilment of the last wish, the sky will move and the earth will tremble.

Do not panic at that moment.

Chant more vigorously, I will come and bring you down.

I will also help bring down the others.

It seems he did not keep his word in this regard.

Perhaps he was so inwardly damaged that he wanted to end his life, but did not want to go alone.

In the end, no matter which way you look at it, it is a tragic waste of eleven lives.

Our hearts go out to the rest of their loved ones.

We can only hope that the Chundavit family found the salvation they were promised.

Medtime's glorious.