Authorities in St. Paul released details Thursday about their investigation of a Minnesota man in connection with a Canadian college student's suicide last March.
The Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force got information on a tip line in March that the man, a 46-year-old licensed practical nurse from southern Minnesota, may have used the Internet to encourage, advise and assist people to commit suicide, according to a news release.
Authorities quickly figured out who the man was and have been in contact with him. The Star Tribune is not naming the man because he has not been charged with a crime or arrested.
Investigators with the task force and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension recovered "a large amount of information" from the man's home computer, the news release said. That led them to contact police in Ottawa, Canada, confirming that the student, 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji, had been in contact online with the man just before to her March 9 disappearance. Her body was found weeks later.
St. Paul Police Department spokesman Peter Panos said the man is not under arrest. Authorities are still trying to determine whether there could be charges against him.
Kajouji's parents said Wednesday that transcripts from their daughter's Internet chats show an online correspondent telling Kajouji the best way to commit suicide was to hang herself. The writer asked if she had a Web cam and offered to instruct her through it, the girl's father Mohamad Kajouji said. "He wanted to see her dying,"
The parents said that Canadian authorities told them the man was a Minnesota nurse.
Records show the man had his nursing license temporarily suspended two weeks ago by a state board, and had previous license problems.
