By David Lohr

April 30, 2007

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BELGRAVE, Australia (Crime Library)  — Last week Crime Library brought you the story of Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater, both 16, who hung themselves from a tree in Dandenong Ranges National Park. Friends and family members remain confused and saddened by the girls' deaths, which appear to have been the result of a suicide pact. Since that time, new details have emerged, which gives a better understanding of what drove these young women to end their lives.

In the aftermath of their deaths, friends of Stephanie and Jodie have given interviews to the media, suggesting the girls were having a difficult time at Melbourne's Upwey High School, where they were, according to close friends, teased and taunted by bullies on a regular basis. Stephanie allegedly told friends that she had reported the problems to school officials, but that they took no action.

In the days leading up to the girls' suicides, Stephanie told her friend, Gemma May, 19, that a group of students had cornered her in a locker room and harassed her.

Stephanie's Birthday

"She was really upset," May said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald this weekend. "She said the school's not doing anything. She was crying. I hadn't seen someone that upset for a while. This was different. She was over it; she was so worn down, sick of it. You could see it in her face."

Perhaps even more troubling than her revelations to close friends are chats she had with a total stranger. Yesterday, 18-year-old Josef Abramson provided a series of chat conversations he had with Stephanie to The Herald Sun. According to Abramson, he had met Jodie at a party a few months ago, and she had given him Stephanie's MSN screen name. The two of them hit it off, and they spent two months getting to know each other over the computer. It was not long before Abramson got a glimpse into Stephanie's troubled life. Admittedly, he did not take a lot of it seriously. In retrospect he wishes he had.

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Contact David Lohr at   crimewriter74@hughes.net

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