Tragedy Touches Miami Beach Youth

published April 27, 2010

MIAMI – Two days ago, Tommy Kramer, a resident of Miami Beach, was found dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Police responded to an emergency 911 call Sunday morning. Kramer’s body was found by his mother. Based on a note the 16-year-old left on his nightstand, his suicide was the product of a life that even at his young age, had become “too frustrating to bear,” which drove him to “take [his] life with his own hands.”

Teen suicide is nothing new, as young men and women historically struggle with new social expectations and as new feelings emerge with young adulthood. But in a twist that is less startling as the members of their ranks grow, Kramer’s death has been deemed a “masturbacide” – a recent, disturbing trend in which young men (and less frequently, women) end their lives by inducing cardiac or respiratory failure through masturbation.“I had no idea that Tommy was capable of this,” said Mrs. Virginia Kramer, Tommy’s mother. “I am still in shock, the loss is so great.”“No mother should ever have to experience this. To lose your only son, and only child, the pain is too much.”Authorities found the body after his mother tried to awaken him Sunday morning for church. “I normally just let him get ready on his own, but he didn’t respond after several knocks. I got worried and…. Horrible, just, this feels so horrible.”In a scene paramedics described as “straight out of a horror movie,” Tommy Kramer was found face down on his damp mattress. Only the note he had left on the nightstand gave any insight into what had happened or his motivation for doing it. Pamela Svenson, first paramedic to arrive at the scene, was still, three hours later, visibly shaken by what she had seen.“I couldn’t tell if he had been dead three hours or three years,” Svenson explained. “His body showed signs of decomposition that we almost never see in corpses that fresh.”“It was totally desiccated, dried up like some vampire had drained him of all his blood.”“We had to cut the fingers off his hand just to…” Miss Svenson said before being overcome with emotion and breaking into tears. “They don’t prepare you for that in EMT training.”Tommy’s father, Frederick Kramer, described his son as “Just a normal kid. He did well in school, he had a lot of friends, seemed to be happy. He always did his homework, never complained an iota about anything. Mostly he just stayed in his room when he wasn’t out with friends, either watching cable, or maybe on the Internet, like so many kids today. He was just… normal.”His mom and I are taking it pretty hard, obviously,” said Mr. Kramer. “That was our only child, it took us a long time to have him, but he was the happiest part of our lives.”Students at Tommy Kramer’s school were also devastated by the tragic event. School teachers have been staying late with medical staff to help students with their grief.Brittany Ashton was described by most of the school as Tommy Kramer’s best friend.“We were so close, he was like a brother to me,” said Ashton. “He was like a brother to so many, kind and gentle, we never felt he would hurt anyone, let alone himself.”“The way he would look away and smile when he made you laugh, I will always remember that.”“I mean, we talked about everything,” said Ashton. “We talked about my job as a model and salesperson at Vanessa’s Secret in the mall. He knew all my friends there, they all liked him as well. We had sleepovers even, with a few of the girls, just having him there always made us feel safe.”Kramer had no previous history of mental or emotional problems. His classmate and teammate on the football team, Tyler Dreiden, was at a loss to explain the tragedy.“It’s horrible, he was a great friend, I mean, he had problems like we all do, but …” After a pause, Dreiden added, “Have you spoken with Brittany? She was the one who knew him best. I mean, we played sports together, but he and Brittany, they seemed to be very close.”The Kramer family doctor, Dr. Erlich, had little to offer in terms of insight into the matter.Dr. Erlich echoed the words of Dreiden, saying, “This is a very hard loss for his family and out of respect I won’t comment too directly. But have you talked to his friend Brittany? Because she may have some answers. I usually see her up at the mall, whenever I happen to be up there, you know… in case you need to know where to find her.”Unfortunately, Kramer’s brief note left few clues. “I have been feeling a lot of internal pressure,” said the note. “The more I see my friends around me, they seem so happy. It’s like they just turned off the faucet of emotion that, for me, has been a source of great unhappiness.”“Seriously,” Dr. Erlich added, “You should see Brittany. As his best friend, she may have some deep insight into his motivations.”“He was so generous, as a person and as a friend,” Ashton said in a fourth interview, “there was nothing we wouldn’t share.”Kramer is the third boy from South Beach High to take his own life in this way this year.“It’s a very disturbing trend to us young people,” Ashton said in another interview the day after the tragedy at her workplace. “I just have no idea why he would choose to end his life in such a horrible way.”# # #