bullycide

Lance Lundsten, Gay 18-Year-Old High Schooler, Takes His Life (Update: Death May Not Have Been Suicide)

After a brief recess in a string of horrible losses comes word 18-year-old Jefferson High School senior Lance Lundsten, of Miltona, Minnesota, has taken his own life. UPDATE: A preliminary autopsy says Lance’s death may not have been suicide at all, but the result of cardiac edema, a condition caused by an enlarged heart. UPDATE 2: The original “enlarged heart” theory was floated by his father. The medical examiner now says this was not the cause of death.

undsten, who was openly gay, was bullied in school because of it, his friends claim on the young man’s Facebook memorial page, which is closed to the public.

(In a separate incident, Tiffani Maxwell of Pennsylvania reportedly shot herself on Saturday morning after being tormented in school, though it appears it wasn’t related to her sexuality.)

Authorities responded on Saturday evening to an emergency at Lundsten’s house; he was pronounced dead later at a hospital. His suicide follows fellow Minnesotan Justin Aaberg, the 15-year-old who took his life in July.

With friends claiming he was tormented at Jefferson High, I’m waiting for Principal Chad Duwenhoegger to make a statement.

His funeral will be Tuesday at 7:30pm in Alexandria. We’ll have more as more details come in.

UPDATE: It’ll take at least six weeks for a toxicology report to come back, but for now Lance’s family is saying no drugs or alcohol was involved in his death, and “preliminary autopsy results that were shared with the family [conclude] he died from cardiac edema, a condition caused by an enlarged heart,” reports the Echo Press.

UPDATE 2: The medical examiner’s preliminary autopsy report reveals Lance did not die from an enlarged heart; while his heart was slightly enlarged, it was not the cause of death.

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