Suicide

"I would just like to thank Allegheny Power for making me aware of these energy-efficient light bulbs, and taking pennies a day paying for them is not gonna kill me. I never heard so many whiners in my life. Thanks, Allegheny. " - Smithsburg "Today is Jan. 11, and I am a staunch Democrat, but I did hear on the radio news this morning from a Hagerstown station that Clinton may pick one-term O'Malley for her running mate. That would be one-term O'Malley and no-term Clinton.

Poor timing of suicide storyh4> To the editor: I am a subscriber, reader, and recently a writer on the opinion page of The Herald Mail. I have never e-mailed, nor have I ever written or called any paper in the many places I've lived in 53 years. However, I must convey my concern and deepest regrets that you chose to run the story about Zachary Burger. The article, front page, above the fold, on the day his grieving family was accepting friends at the funeral home, was inhumane.

A Hagerstown man was sentenced Thursday in Berkeley County Circuit Court to at least one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene of a fatal motorcycle crash in April 2011. Steven Edward Thompson, 47, was fined $500 by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge John C. Yoder and ordered to report to Eastern Regional Jail by 5 p.m. Friday to begin serving the sentence, which requires him to spend not less than one year nor more than five years in prison. Yoder denied the defendant's plea for home confinement Thursday after Thompson pleaded guilty to one felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence resulting in the April 12, 2011, death of Lorena Beth “Lori” Roberts of Bunker Hill, W.Va.

A 34-year-old man fell to his death from High Rock in northeastern Washington County on Monday. Michael Paul Liller of Thurmont, Md., was determined to be dead by medics who descended 100 feet to where he landed, officials on the scene said. Liller jumped from the rock formation's peak to a metal grate used by hang gliders at about 4 p.m. He then jumped to another rock, lost his balance and fell, according to Washington County (Md.) Sheriff's Office Sgt. Daryl Sanders. About 12 people were at the popular lookout spot when the fall occurred, Sanders said.

Police confirm murder-suicide By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer, Waynesboro WAYNESBORO, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police confirmed Tuesday that the shooting deaths of a man and woman whose bodies were found Monday in a Quincy Township, Pa., home were a murder-suicide. Autopsies on Shannon Shockey, 20, of 8319 Mentzer Gap Road, and Jay Wilbur Stouffer Jr., 30, of 23506 Ringgold Pike, Smithsburg, showed that Stouffer shot Shockey twice then shot himself, police said.

A former police officer and fire chief fatally shot his wife and wounded his stepson Tuesday evening before killing himself in a home east of Waynesboro, Pa., Pennsylvania State Police said Wednesday. John Fleagle, 50, fatally shot his wife, Cathy, and himself with a handgun, police said in a news release. Fleagle also shot his stepson, 18-year-old Mitchell Robinson, in the arm, police said. No information was available regarding his condition. Law enforcement authorities said they were called to a home at 13878 Mar Penn Ave. near the intersection with Edgewood Drive shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday among hundreds of army recruits who had gathered near a military headquarters in an attack officials said killed 60 and wounded 125, one of the bloodiest bombings in months in the Iraqi capital. The massive strike just outside a major division headquarters and recruitment center is an embarrassment to Iraqi security forces and casts doubts on their ability to protect themselves and the nation just two weeks before all but 50,000 U.S. troops head home.

WAYNESBORO, PA. - A man who police said was experiencing "domestic issues" fatally shot himself Tuesday evening outside the Washington Township Police Department on Welty Road. Christopher J. Harbaugh, 33, of 11648 Nottingham Road in Waynesboro, put a handgun to his head and fired a single shot around 6:16 p.m., Washington Township Police Chief Barry Keller said. Harbaugh was taken to Waynesboro Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. by an emergency room doctor, Franklin County (Pa.)

By LISA GRAYBEAL Staff Writer, Waynesboro CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police confirmed Tuesday the shooting deaths of a Chambersburg couple on Memorial Day as a murder-suicide. Trooper Ed Asbury said police determined that Lawrence W. Cuff Jr., 52, a former part-time Chambersburg police officer, shot his live-in girlfriend, Janine R. Goodyear, 33, with a handgun and then shot himself at their home at 4453 Sycamore Grove Road in Greene Township sometime early Monday.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - West Virginia State Police still were investigating the Friday night death of a woman whose body was found Friday night in a Tie Run Road house, but said that preliminary indications are that she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sgt. Geoff Petsko said Saturday that police are awaiting the results of an autopsy and laboratory tests, but "there are indications the wound may have been self-inflicted. " Police and the Berkeley County Ambulance Authority were called to the house at 8:40 p.m. after receiving a call about a possible shooting, police said.