Honolulu Advertisor
11-10-09
Advertiser Staff

The city Department of the Medical Examiner has concluded that a 10-year-old girl who fell to her death from a Makiki apartment building yesterday took her own life.

The girl's cause of death was listed as "multiple internal injuries due to a suicidal fall from a height."

Investigators said a suicide note was recovered after the incident but would not say what was in the note.

The girl lived with her family in a fifth-floor unit of the 11-story Crown Thurston apartments at 1574 Thurston Ave.

Fire and emergency medical personnel were called to the building shortly after 7:30 a.m. after a report of a fall. They found the girl on a grassy area on the building's ground floor.

She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died shortly afterward.

Police yesterday said it was unclear what the girl was doing on the stairwell or how far she fell, but believed she fell from at least the fifth floor.

Suicide prevention and supporting those who have lost someone to suicide will be the topics of discussion at a daylong conference Nov. 19 in Honolulu.

The conference, the third annual Survivors of Suicide, will be held at the Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Professional health and social services workers, educators and people affected by suicide are urged to attend.

In addition, there will be a 1.8-mile survivors walk around the interior of Kapi'olani Park at 5 p.m., followed by a reception at the Elks Lodge. The walk is intended to raise awareness and money for Prevent Suicide Hawaii, a nonprofit group whose goal is to reduce suicides and attempted suicides.

Following the conference, on Nov. 20, a two-hour workshop on suicide prevention and the media will be presented at The Queen's Medical Center conference center.

For more information, go to http://www.hawaii.gov/health or call 733-9320. The cost is $40 plus $25 for the walk/reception.
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RIP