Scary Halloween Story

Every so often I'll hear an unsettling story meant to expose our collective apathy towards others; deaths of homeless people going unnoticed for hours, people in apartment complexes ignoring screams for help of their neighbour, etc.

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this, though:

Suicide Mistaken for Halloween Decoration

The Associated Press
Thursday, October 27, 2005; 7:10 PM

FREDERICA, Del. -- The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said.

The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.

The body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could be easily seen from passing vehicles.

State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body at breakfast time Wednesday but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities were called to the scene more than three hours later.

"They thought it was a Halloween decoration," Fay Glanden, wife of Mayor William Glanden, told The (Wilmington) News Journal."

It looked like something somebody would have rigged up," she said.

Ugh. Not to make light, but they must have some pretty sophisticated Halloween decorations down in Frederica, Del., if a real death scene was mistaken for a holiday one.

Or perhaps people, as they go about their daily routines, really don't like to engage in perfect strangers' lives, let alone their deaths.