Actresses Demi Moore and Nia Vardalos were involved in a Twitter intervention for a young Florida man threatening suicide on the popular social networking site early this morning.
Demi and Nia (of My Big, Fat Greek Wedding fame) were among Tweeters sending messages of hope to a teen threatening to hang himself outside his home in Casselberry, north of Orlando, on Friday.
“I have messed up my life bad. I’m thinking about killing myself,”
Jeremy Lynch first Tweeted, followed by two messaging sent directly to Demi.
Within an hour Moore had responded, retweeting the teen and asking, “R U rlly asking 4 help?”
Lynch replied, “yes.”
Vardalos jumped in, asking Lynch to call a suicide helpline: “@jeremyllynch please call 1 800 SUICIDE. I’m on the phone with them right now. They are waiting to talk to you.”
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said they received two calls from the West Coast — one from Nia –alerting them to the suicide threat on Twitter. (CLICK HERE For Audio Of Nia’s Emergency Call…..) Thanks to Nia’s quick thinking and helpful information, police in The Sunshine State were able to locate the depressed young man, who they found crying but uninjured in front of his computer.
Jeremy’s mom told deputies that Lynch “was very emotional and diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.”
He has since been hospitalized for a mental evaluation.
This isn’t the first time Tweets from @mrskutcher have possibly saved a life; last year, Demi helped stop another Twitter user from committing suicide. The response from the Twittersphere in the wake of this latest suicide scare has been overwhelmingly supportive, with many folks still sending the teen messages of support.
“@jeremyllynch people care, I don’t even know you and I care,” one Twitter user posted. “I only just stumbled upon your tweet via Demi, but death is not the answer.”