Morbid, yes, but it's a valid question nonetheless and a topic we've addressed in this column in the past (see QoD 10/18/2005).
It's been awhile since we researched suicide in depth, but in the course of answering this question, we came across a really interesting, if disturbing study (courtesy of KNPR's "State of Nevada" show archives) that answers a number of your questions. The study took place in 2008, but as the relevant causal factors cited have only worsened in the interim, we figure these figures, if anything, will be underestimates.
The author of the study we're going to cite is a former Las Vegas resident and sociologist who is (or was) at Temple University in Philadelphia and took it upon himself, along with some colleagues from Harvard, to do some comparative studies of suicide rates in his former domicile, versus the rest of the country. Matt Wray's study, on which he collaborated with colleagues from Harvard, examined 40 million deaths nationwide over a 30-year span, including approximately 600,000 suicides. The findings were somewhat disturbing:
If those are the facts, what's causing this elevated suicide rate in Las Vegas?
Among the resident population, there are a number of possible factors at work, not least how hard this city was hit by the recession. While other states are apparently seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, for many in Las Vegas it's still turning out to be an oncoming train, as we continue to experience some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the nation. Add in factors like alcohol and drug abuse, gambling problems, and other vices that are particularly prevelant in Las Vegas and may rear their ugly heads even more in times of stress and desperation, and you have a potentially lethal cocktail.
Even in the boom years, Las Vegas has always been a very transient city and it's not the easiest place to make new friends. There's a high risk of social isolation and loneliness and a general lack of social cohesion, which could play a significant role in pushing some people over the edge.
A number of factors, not least the climate, have led to Las Vegas becoming a popular destination for retirees. It's possible -- and a contention borne out by some of the cases we've read about in the local press -- that the aging community has health issues and concerns that, especially when coupled with the economic downturn that's affected so many people's savings, is likely to lead to an increase in such homicide-suicides, where one partner despairs and doesn't want to leave the other behind, or doesn't want to see their spouse suffer with an incurable medical condition, nor live on without them.
In terms of why people deliberately come here in order to take their life, the county coroner was interviewed by KNPR for their show and had an interesting perspective on suicide among tourists. "The vast majority of those people that came to Las Vegas did not come here and lose their money and then commit suicide. They came here with the idea of making their last kind of 'hooray,' and then they took their lives. And they did it so that they wouldn't be doing that at home where their family members would find them; they were going to another location."
This is a consideration we've heard before, and which we cited in our previous QoD about suicides here. It makes sense. Another contributor to the show from the University of Chicago also suggested the following: "Those who are predisposed to suicide disproportionately choose Las Vegas to either reside in or visit. So Las Vegas would then be a destination for individuals who are suicidal." (Don't tell that to the Convention and Visitors Authority.
We don't know what motivated them to do it and it's none of our business, but as far as those recent cases are concerned that we've heard about in the media, our thoughts go out to the friends and family of the Long Beach police officer who shot himself in a room at the Gold Coast last April; of the man who arrived on a Hawaiian Airlines flight last August and shot himself outside McCarran Terminal 2; of the man who died jumping from the Imperial Palace in January of this year; of the man you referenced who jumped from a ledge at The Cosmopolitan in March after authorities tried for almost two hours to talk him down; and of the man who last Saturday, April 23, jumped to his death from the parking lot of Caesars Palace. RIP.
To end on a happier note, one afternoon earlier this year, a report came in via the local news networks that the northern part of the Strip had been closed due to a suicidal person atop the Stratosphere Tower. Some time later, it was disclosed that mediators had been successful and the would-be jumper was now safely on terra firma once again. Congratulations to all involved.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, 877-885-HOPE is the number for the Suicide Prevention Hotline of Nevada, while 800-SUICIDE is the National Hopeline Network. Please call; they're there to help, whatever the problem may be or how bad it may seem.
