Man Broadcasts Murder of Infant Daughter on Facebook, Then Kills Himself

Facebook, who has since removed the footage, called the incident "appalling."

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A Thai man broadcast himself killing his infant daughter on Facebook before later killing himself Monday, Reuters reported. The footage reportedly showed Wuttisan Wongtalay tying a rope around his 11-month-old daughter's neck before dropping her from the roof of a "deserted building" in Phuket. Wuttisan's suicide was not shown on Facebook, but authorities discovered his body at the scene.

"This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim," a Facebook spokesperson told Complex Tuesday. "There is absolutely no place for acts of this kind on Facebook and the footage has now been removed." According toReuters, the two videos of the murder were removed around 5 p.m. in Bangkok Tuesday, roughly one day after first being uploaded. 

Jullaus Suvannin, the cop in charge of the Wuttisan case, told Reuters that the man was paranoid about his wife "leaving him and not loving him." Local police spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen added that the killing could have been "influenced by behavior from abroad," specifically citing the recent Facebook-published murder of Robert Godwin Sr. in Cleveland.

In an update to their Community Standards and Reporting page earlier this month in the wake of the Cleveland murder and ensuing nationwide search for suspect Steve Stephens, Facebook said they would "do better" in the future. "Currently, thousands of people around the world review the millions of items that are reported to us every week in more than 40 languages," Justin Osofsky, Facebook's VP of Global Operations, said. "We prioritize reports with serious safety implications for our community, and are working on making that review process go even faster." Stephens later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

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