A despondent 81-year old man, Francis Peter Tovey, designed, constructed, programmed—and used—a suicide robot to kill himself. Tovey, who moved to the Australian Gold Coast from England, lived by himself. His lifeless body was discovered lying on his driveway by neighbors. A series of suicide notes found by police revealed the meticulous plan concocted by the desperately depressed man. The notes disclosed that Tovey was upset over demands made upon him by family members in Australia that he leave his home and enter assisted-living care. The police were able to piece together a mosaic that created an astonishing picture of the elderly man’s last days. Tovey had decided to end it all, but being a creative fellow he rejected all the usual methods of suicide: gas, pills, hanging, a gun, or throwing himself off a bridge. Instead he chose to commit suicide by deathbot. Imagine for a moment the obsessive thoughts that drove the pitiful man onwards as he methodically researched robot designs-a robot that would act as his executioner. Consider his deliberations over how exactly his mechanical man would accomplish the terminal event. After digging deeply into the Internet for schematics that could be modified for his deadly purpose, Tovey constructed the diabolical machine. He jury-rigged some of it using—among other things—a converted power jigsaw rigged to fire a .22 semi-automatic handgun. According to police reports four bullets had been loaded into the magazine. The police believe that Tovey tested the robot with a dry run before committing suicide. When all was ready, he moved the killer robot onto the driveway of his $700,000 home and set the events into motion that would end his life. A police spokesman said that Tovey chose to end his life on the driveway because workmen doing some construction on a neighboring house would find his body. After powering up the robot, the machine obediently fired off several rounds. When Carpenter Daniel Skewes heard the reports of the gun firing he and several others left the construction site and rushed to Tovey’s driveway. “I thought I heard three shots and when we ran next door he was lying on the driveway with gunshot wounds to the head,” Skewes told Australia’s Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper. One of Tovey’s neighbors, who requested anonymity, told the paper that the dead man had lived there since 1984. She stated that “He was a really marvelous man, an ideal neighbor and I will miss him greatly.” Wiping back a tear, the distraught woman added, “He was born in England, like I was, and we used to enjoy our tea together. He had visitors from England and family interstate from somewhere far away in Australia. There was no inkling of anything amiss, it is just very sad.” Later, Tovey’s son Dennis spoke with a reporter at the blog discovery.com, “Dad was born in London England and WWII started while he was a school,” Dennis said. “He was 13, left school at 14 and worked in a war factory. He often slept in a bomb shelter. After the war he worked as a panel beater, built his own modern spots car from parts as a self test…” Tovey exhibited a knack for building things at an early age. “He immigrated to Australia in 1951. He ended up in Darwin, then a frontier town, where there weren’t many non aboriginal women. He lived in a tin shack for some years and built a business. First Panel beating, then car hire cars (still panel beating, but on his own cars) years before there were any hire car companies.” From there, Tovey went on to building up his business, investing in real estate and becoming active in other ventures that led to success as a multimillionaire. Category:Home › Other • Pomegranates: A newly discovered superfood • Where did the joke why did the chicken cross the road come from and why is it funny? • Can mothers diagnosed with bipolar disorder make good parents? • Spiritual evolution of human consciousness • Tips for getting a college basketball scholarship • Living with Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) • Caring for the caregiver • Technologys impact on society
