60 Year old twins, Grace & Helen Mincer, committed suicide by stepping in front of an Amtrak train

[raisedbywolves]

I saw a story in our local newspaper that mentioned this story. I never saw it when it initially happened. They were talking about what an issue we have in Central Florida with people committing suicide via the Amtrak and light rail trains we have in our area. I had no idea suicide by train was more than an occasional occurrence.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/po...in-winter-park

Police: 60-year-old twin sisters commit suicide by train in Winter Park


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...t-suicide.html

[Defy Gravity]

We just had someone do this here in my town last night. It always seems to pick up this time of year. I don't mean to sound callous but this is so hard on the ppl on the train and the engineer. It leaves a lot of them with so much guilt in a situation that they had no control over at all.

[raisedbywolves]

We just had someone do this here in my town last night. It always seems to pick up this time of year. I don't mean to sound callous but this is so hard on the ppl on the train and the engineer. It leaves a lot of them with so much guilt in a situation that they had no control over at all.

That's why I posted the 2nd part that was in our local paper. It really made an impression on me. These poor people that are on the train, and unable to prevent the suicide and then have to live with it, are obviously traumatized and never the same. I couldn't imagine having to live with that, even though it is totally out of your control.

[pinkhair4me]

That's why I posted the 2nd part that was in our local paper. It really made an impression on me. These poor people that are on the train, and unable to prevent the suicide and then have to live with it, are obviously traumatized and never the same. I couldn't imagine having to live with that, even though it is totally out of your control.

Exactly. Suicide is a tragic mistake in most cases, but suicides that involve innocent people are the epitome of selfishness.

[Boston Babe 73]

I never promote suicide, but this strikes me as caring and loving in a sick way. Twins have a special bond. We've all heard stories of twins losing their siblings and that they feel like they're literally missing part of them. They have a special bond that only twins feel. I can't judge because I'm not a twin.

[pinkhair4me]

I never promote suicide, but this strikes me as caring and loving in a sick way. Twins have a special bond. We've all heard stories of twins losing their siblings and that they feel like they're literally missing part of them. They have a special bond that only twins feel. I can't judge because I'm not a twin.

It IS understandable that they didn't want to be seperated, but if they both had to die, they should have done so without involving other people.

It would be interesting to know how they both ended up on that track. Was one twin suicidal and the other codependent? Were they encouraging each other? Why and how did they both end up ending it?

[marycontrary]

60 and living month to month sounds like people barely getting by. Maybe they are being effected by changes to healthcare laws and know social security and medicare cuts are coming and they see a bleak future. Plus being 60 sucks.

[raisedbywolves]

60 and living month to month sounds like people barely getting by. Maybe they are being effected by changes to healthcare laws and know social security and medicare cuts are coming and they see a bleak future. Plus being 60 sucks.

I took it more as they were here on a month to month basis, like a lot of snowbirds and people that are in Florida for awhile but don't put down permanent roots. I might be wrong though. They were lawyers and had real estate licenses, so I would figure they would be able to make some kind of living between the two of them. I wonder if one of them got sick and the outcome wasn't optimistic, and the other one didn't want to be by herself, so they made a pact.

[Josephine]

...
I wonder if one of them got sick and the outcome wasn't optimistic, and the other one didn't want to be by herself, so they made a pact.

I thought the same thing. I was looking for any updated articles, family interviews, whatever, to see if there was something like this or a reason why, but all I found (besides regashings of the articles found here) were Grace's Pinterest page and an article from 1985. It would appear that, while they both completed law school with a focus on tax law, only Helen ever practiced. Grace got into a fight with her achool over plagerism accusations in her final quarter; she had someone who wasn't even her professor look over a paper which she opposed the grade on and *that* person accused her of plagwrism. She won on appeal, but the school honor board re-filed the claim and she failed to respond in a timely manner, resulting in a second finding which prevented her from submitting to the BAR.

Receipts: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/198...ova-plagiarism

Helen passed the BAR and, at one point in time, held a license to practice law in Florida; Grace never did.
https://www.floridabar.org/directori...le/?num=726990

There's also an interesting post on legacy,wherein a friend from school was looking for them through the guestbook of a deceased family member. He posted looking to make contact with them on 11/29/2017, so about a month or so after they died... I've seen multiple dates listed, with one article dates 10/27/2017 saying the deaths occurred "last month" - so in September - but another one dated 10/25/2017 says that the incident had occurred only days before.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nam...view=guestbook

I wonder if it was a case where, since she was never actually licensed to practice and some other stuff I picked up in comments and articles, Grace sort of "lagged behind" and relied on Helen for help and support all of their lives. The article on her plagerism accusation specifically stated that Helen was already practicing and had planned on bringing Grace on board with her firm, were it not for that final-quarter plagerism and subsequent failure to take the BAR. Maybe she just never recovered from that, and then if Helen became ill and it wasn't looking good; well, Grace would be left without her protector and so they decided to check out together. I have no receipts on any of that, it's just conjecture based on what I have been able to find and my own experience working with elderly twins in LTC. You'd be amazed at how many pairs of twins wind up in snf's as older adults, sharing a room. Without fail, there is one "dominant" twin who takes care of everything. If the less dominant twin dies, the surviving twin usually hangs around for a while; if the more dominant twin becomes very ill or dies, they both tend to die either together or with the less dominant twin dying within hours or days after their "lead twin" goes. Again, based solely on my experience seeing sets of twins in LTC/SNF facilities at the end of their lives.

[Morbid_much]

I'll never forget an article in which a train engineer described the last time he saw someone step on the track in front of his train. How he pulled the emergency brake and just sat down on the floor unable to see yet another person hit by his train. He quit his job after that.

Anyway, maybe they were just done with living, it happens. Not everyone plans on getting way old.

[Nic B]

I thought the same thing. I was looking for any updated articles, family interviews, whatever, to see if there was something like this or a reason why, but all I found (besides regashings of the articles found here) were Grace's Pinterest page and an article from 1985. It would appear that, while they both completed law school with a focus on tax law, only Helen ever practiced. Grace got into a fight with her achool over plagerism accusations in her final quarter; she had someone who wasn't even her professor look over a paper which she opposed the grade on and *that* person accused her of plagwrism. She won on appeal, but the school honor board re-filed the claim and she failed to respond in a timely manner, resulting in a second finding which prevented her from submitting to the BAR.

Receipts: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/198...ova-plagiarism

Helen passed the BAR and, at one point in time, held a license to practice law in Florida; Grace never did.
https://www.floridabar.org/directori...le/?num=726990

There's also an interesting post on legacy,wherein a friend from school was looking for them through the guestbook of a deceased family member. He posted looking to make contact with them on 11/29/2017, so about a month or so after they died... I've seen multiple dates listed, with one article dates 10/27/2017 saying the deaths occurred "last month" - so in September - but another one dated 10/25/2017 says that the incident had occurred only days before.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nam...view=guestbook

I wonder if it was a case where, since she was never actually licensed to practice and some other stuff I picked up in comments and articles, Grace sort of "lagged behind" and relied on Helen for help and support all of their lives. The article on her plagerism accusation specifically stated that Helen was already practicing and had planned on bringing Grace on board with her firm, were it not for that final-quarter plagerism and subsequent failure to take the BAR. Maybe she just never recovered from that, and then if Helen became ill and it wasn't looking good; well, Grace would be left without her protector and so they decided to check out together. I have no receipts on any of that, it's just conjecture based on what I have been able to find and my own experience working with elderly twins in LTC. You'd be amazed at how many pairs of twins wind up in snf's as older adults, sharing a room. Without fail, there is one "dominant" twin who takes care of everything. If the less dominant twin dies, the surviving twin usually hangs around for a while; if the more dominant twin becomes very ill or dies, they both tend to die either together or with the less dominant twin dying within hours or days after their "lead twin" goes. Again, based solely on my experience seeing sets of twins in LTC/SNF facilities at the end of their lives.

That is pretty interesting, thanks for the info!