Computer engineer commits phone suicide

All over an unleashed virus apparently

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Software, 30th November 2000 17:01 GMT

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Computer engineer Eugene Kapustynski, 40, blew his head off while on the phone to the emergency services a Coroner's Court heard yesterday. Eugene, who worked for telecoms company Bellwater in Basingstoke, was apparently distraught that he had stolen software from the company and infected its machines with a virus - thereby bringing shame on his family.

He had a brief conversation with a 999 operator - reporting his own suicide - before pulling the trigger on his shotgun. Police raced to the scene - a layby on the A3 at Liphook in Hampshire and found Eugene laying on his back in a pool of blood.

The coroner returned a suicide verdict, saying that Mr Kapustynski had clearly intended to kill himself. This much was backed up by a transcript of the 999 conversation, which started "I would like to report a suicide". When the operator asked if he knew who it was, he replied: "Yeah, it's me." The conversation went on for a short time before used Eugene said: "It's nice and quiet. I am sitting on the ground. I have just had a nice breakfast..." Then there was a loud crack as he pulled the trigger.

Tragically, Bellwater ran an audit on its software and found that none of it was missing and neither were there any signs of a virus on its network. Eugene's relatives said they were baffled as to why he would want to kill himself. ®

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