The homepage contains a statement to the effect that we should refrain from excessive speculation, especially concerning specific individuals. As always, I'd agree.

Comma, subtext, especially about Mr. Harman, who took his own life recently for reasons nobody yet knows. People off themselves for so many reasons. Probably a much more recent disappointment, or a fundamental (possibly biologically-caused) depression that grew out of control, was the reason. What went through his head is beyond our knowing - he may have left a note, but its existence remains speculation, let alone its contents - but those are the main precipitants of suicide.

In the meantime, his family is grieving the loss of someone who probably did nothing seriously wrong to justify his death. I would second the call for caution. He knew Jodi and probably had been very upset about her disappearance over the years, as many people have been. In other moments he had been able to move on with his life. No one knows how this all fit together, but he must have been through a lot - with or without the Jodi baggage - and kept a brave face on it.

While some are speculating, if you want to speculate, google "survivor guilt." Anyone who knew Jodi well probably felt it at some point. There are kind of three reactions, as concerns the lost person. One is to idealize the person, and the other is to become hypercritical of them - essentially, to blame the victim. Both are normal and neither really let us into the factual situation. It's just how human beings deal with something they can't understand or get closure about. The third is to imagine oneself responsible for the death or loss. Chances are, again, everyone who knew Jodi has felt all of these things, whether they did anything wrong or not.

Also, remember the Kuebler-Ross stages of grief: anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance. They can occur out of that sequence and recur over a period of time (in survivors; the dying of course can't experience the cycle forever). In the presence of a depressive disorder they could conceivably be magnified out of proportion. But again, more things cause suicides than you can shake a stick at.

For all that, we don't know why Don is gone, and it's sad. He seemed like a nice enough guy and he leaves a family behind. Only a grade-A asshole would suggest otherwise without a damned credible source. I'll be the first to eat those words if the evidence points another way; I was the first to post the news here and I feel some responsibility. I didn't bring the news to the forum with the intention of having his family get tortured and slandered.