Suicides Los Angeles County

Ignoring three witnesses, a 32-year-old man scaled a fence along the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, flung off his motorcycle helmet and leaped 250 feet to his death Monday morning, police said. The man, whose name was being held pending family notification, landed on a shipping terminal dock at the Port of Los Angeles shortly after 11 a.m., Police Lt. Jim McNair said. Police said he was carrying cigarettes, a checkbook and a driver's license with a West Hollywood address.

A Lancaster man hung himself in a holding cell at the Antelope Valley Sheriff's Station in an apparent suicide just six hours after being arrested on suspicion of spousal abuse, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. A cellmate discovered Todd Fenske, 25, hanging from his bed at 4 p.m. Monday, said Deputy Angie McLaughlin. The cellmate, whose identity was not released, had been sleeping prior to discovering Fenske.

The death of a 28-year-old Carson man, who drank an unspecified amount of the pesticide malathion just days before he was scheduled to appear in court on charges of harassing a child television star with sexually explicit letters, was ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office Saturday. Sheriff's investigators said Mark Alan Budman drank the lethal dose of malathion July 8 and lingered in the intensive care unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center until his death Thursday afternoon.

Daniel V. Jones, the 40-year-old Long Beach man who killed himself on live television while making a statement about HMOs, left a videotaped message explaining his motivations and laying blame for his suicide, Los Angeles police said Friday. As friends and relatives grieved Friday for Jones, describing him as proud, passionate and willing to take his life--and his beloved dog's--to prove a point, police said they found a videotaped "suicide note."

The death of TV game show host Ray Combs, who hanged himself with a bedsheet last month in the psychiatric ward of Glendale Adventist Hospital, has been ruled a suicide. A coroner's official said Monday that toxicology reports showed only therapeutic drugs in Combs' system. Neuropathology reports showed that hanging, not injuries to the head he had received before his admittance to the hospital, had killed him.

As soon as students at West Covina High School heard of the shootings at the Teschner home, they knew it had to be Matt Walker. As a senior last year, Walker would spend his class time sketching gory death scenes that at times involved dismembered women. He covered his body with tattoos, including a shrouded skeleton bearing a scythe on his left arm and the words, "100% Crazy" on the inside of his lower lip.

The ex-wife of golfer Fred Couples died after jumping seven stories from a chapel roof on May 26, the golfer's current wife confirmed Friday. Deborah Couples, 43, was reported missing from her Corona del Mar home last Saturday, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Mike McDermott said. She may have been depressed, according to a missing persons report. Her body was discovered by neighborhood children after she jumped from the Kresge Chapel at the Claremont School of Theology, police said.

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer who apparently committed suicide by ramming her car into a freeway support column was distraught over an extramarital affair with one of her former LAPD bosses, the woman's brother said Wednesday. Officer Nadine Arango, who was separated from her husband, began dating one of her superiors at the LAPD's Foothill Division, said Andre Arango, Nadine's older brother.

A 28-year-old high school teacher and football coach who was suspected of molesting two teenage boys committed suicide in his parents' backyard, authorities said Friday. Roberto Paul Regalado of Azusa was found dead Thursday night in the backyard of a home on Citrus Edge Street, authorities said. Investigators believe he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Deputy Steve Sciacca said. His family members called police shortly before 8 p.m. to report the shooting, Sciacca said.

An off-duty Pasadena police officer shot himself to death Wednesday as he sat in his vehicle in the parking lot of Las Encinas Hospital, authorities said. Alfredo Lozano, 32, an eight-year veteran who was assigned to the department's anti-gang unit, was pronounced dead outside the Pasadena psychiatric and chemical dependence facility, Police Chief Bernard K. Melekian said at a news conference. Lozano was discovered about 1:34 p.m.