The mystery of the live on-air suicide of news anchor Christine Chubbuck

Above: Not actual photos of Christine Chubbuck

I have never heard of this story before but apparently, it is one of the most sought-after pieces of lost media that is known to exist. The media in question is the video of the live on-air suicide of Christine Chubbuck on the morning of July 15, 1974 as she was doing a newscast for WXLT-TV in Florida. The two images above show actresses playing depictions of Christine in movies that came out after her death. One of those movies was screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival (People Magazine spoke with Christine's brother and he said the tape of her suicide will never be released to the public). 

What strikes me as most interesting about this story is how different this case is from any modern, horrific news segment caught live. It was a different time in 1974 when the chances of anybody recording anything on live television was slim to none which meant that if you weren't actually watching Christine's show that morning, you wouldn't see her live suicide. And yet, reports are that this tape exists somewhere, kept in hiding for years either by the television station itself or by Christine's mother.

While it wasn't a suicide, this case of Christine Chubbuck's suicide on-air reminds me of the deranged man who shot his co-workers live on television late last year and how widespread that shocking video was. It was horrible. Just downright atrocious. So maybe it's a good thing that the only "video" we have of Christine's suicide is movie depictions. After all, the written descriptions are terrible and sad enough. You can read about it here.