Kriti Mehrotra
While there’s no denying that every loss of life is heartbreaking, the grief of it is multifold when it stems from nowhere. That’s precisely the case in the death of 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji, who disappeared from her college dorm on March 9, 2008, only to be found dead a little over a month later. While there initially seemed to be no foul play involved, things took a turn when her last conversations in a chatroom came to light. So, with Investigation Discovery’s ‘Web of Lies: Killer Chatroom’ chronicling the case in detail, we get an insight into what precisely transpired and why.
Nadia Kajouji Died by Suicide After Months of Struggling With Her Mental Health
Nadia Kajouji was born on June 8, 1989, in Toronto, Canada, as the only child of Deborah Chevalier and Mohamed Kajouji. However, she grew up in a big, full home alongside her 2 half-brothers, Marc Kajouji and Omar Kajouji, who genuinely adored her. According to their own accounts, they were a tight-knit family who shared almost everything with one another, so Nadia wanted some independence by the time she had graduated from high school. She had dreams of becoming a lawyer, so she enrolled at Carleton University in Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. She believed it was close enough to drive home whenever needed, but far away enough for her to have some real freedom.
Nadia was a bright individual whose passion was not only the justice system but also the creative arts, so she often even dabbled in writing poems and sharing her work with the world online. In fact, she kept a video journal, wherein she expressed her deepest emotions – whether it be about her recently coming out, dating life, pressure of university, or reported depression and insomnia. According to her brother Marc on the show, the 18-year-old was a bubbly, vibrant young woman when she left for college in the fall of 2007, but her spark had seemingly vanished by Christmas break.
Therefore, when Nadia’s parents and friends realized that no one had heard from her for a few days, they didn’t hesitate to call the authorities to report her missing. That’s when it was ascertained that she was last seen going into her room on the night of March 8/9, 2009, only for her to have locked it from the inside before blaring music. When officials managed to get the door open, they found all her belongings except her ice skates, a jacket, and an ID card – her phone, her wallet, and her laptop were all in their place in her room. Thus began an extensive search for the young woman, but sadly, it was her remains that were found on April 20, having washed ashore after more than a month in almost freezing water. According to records, she had jumped off a bridge into the frozen Rideau River with her ice skates and drowned in the water – her autopsy confirmed the same before ruling her manner of death as suicide.
Nadia Kajouji Was Encouraged to Take Her Life By a Stranger on the Internet
While the search for Nadia was active, so was an investigation into her case. Hence, officials spoke to all her loved ones, retraced her last known steps, and sent her electronic devices for analysis to know more about her and who she had been talking to in the time leading up to the fateful day. That’s how they uncovered that she was active in a suicide chatroom and had been talking to one particular person more than anyone else, including on the day she went missing. This person seemed to be a young woman going by the name Cami D, and she told Nadia that she was a nurse so she knew what methods worked best to take one’s own life. In their conversations, she explicitly suggested to Nadia that it would be best if she hang herself, before giving her detailed instructions on how to do so.
As if that’s not enough, per official records, Cami told Nadia they should make a suicide pact and that the 18-year-old should also capture her final moments with a webcam so others can watch. Authorities eventually traced the IP related to Cami D to an address in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a man initially opened the door and indicated it was possible his teenage daughter was Cami D. However, as time passed, it came to light that Cami D was actually the man himself, William Francis Melchert-Dinkel, then a proud licensed practical nurse, a husband, and a father of two.
As investigations continued, officials in Minnesota were contacted by people in England to report the eerily similar case of Mark Drybrough. The 32-year-old IT technician had died by suicide in July 2005 after talking to someone using the aliases Falcongirl and Li Dao in a suicide chatroom for 2 months. He was depressed and suffered a nervous breakdown, but he hanged himself in his home in Coventry in Warwickshire, England, only after talking to the person claiming to be a nurse from Minnesota. The way he had done so was almost exactly as the nurse had guided both him and Nadia. It took a while, but it was eventually determined that Li Dao, Falcongirl, and Cami D were the same person.
William Melchert-Dinkel is Likely Leading a Quiet Life in Minnesota
Since both William and his wife were licensed practical nurses, officials had to be certain about wheather only he, his wife, or both of them were involved in the matter. The IP address had connected the 3 aliases to their home address for certain, and then, it was eventually a webcam feed that confirmed William alone was behind it all. So, with the Saint Paul Police Department and the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force helming the case, he was arrested on April 23, 2010. He was charged with advising, encouraging, or assisting Mark and Nadia in taking their lives over the internet, but he himself later claimed he had successfully done so in at least 5 cases. He allegedly also told investigators he enjoyed “the thrill of the chase” and wanted to see how many people he could push over the edge.
William opted for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, during which prosecutors detailed how he gained the trust of those contemplating suicide in chatrooms before encouraging them to follow through. As per their arguments, he told them not only what methods worked best, but also that it was acceptable for them to take their own lives because they would be better off in heaven. Evidence also showcased him falsely entering into suicide pacts with them. So, on March 15, 2011, he was convicted of aiding a suicide, which is criminal under Minnesota law. A little less than 2 months later, on May 4, he was sentenced to a year in jail. He almost immediately filed an appeal, which the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld on July 27, 2012.
However, William continued fighting his conviction, and on March 19, 2014, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the initial verdict on the grounds that part of the law used to convict him was unconstitutional. They then remanded the case and left it for the lower courts to determine whether he had actually assisted in both suicides under the statute laid out by law. Since Nadia had jumped off the bridge into a frozen river, unlike what William had suggested online, the matter was taken into careful consideration. Eventually, he was found guilty of assisting Mark’s 2005 suicide and attempting to assist Nadia’s 2008 suicide. He was then sentenced to 3 years in prison, suspended to the original 1 year, with the stipulation that he abide by the terms of his 10-year probation. In the end, he was granted early release in 2015 after serving just 178 days in prison. So, today, with his probation period having passed, it appears as if he is now a free man who prefers to lead a quiet life, likely still in Minnesota.
Read More: Ellen Greenberg’s Death: What Happened to Her? How Did She Die?
