A freshman at Rutgers University is believed to have committed suicide after his roommate allegedly set up a live-stream video feed of him having sex with a man.
Eighteen-year-old Tyler Clementi’s body had not been found as of Wednesday afternoon, but police had identified an abandoned car, parked on the George Washington Bridge, as his.
Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Ravi’s friend Molly Wei, both 18, were arrested this week and charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for allegedly setting up a hidden video camera to film Clementi’s sexual encounter last week in the boys’ dorm room on the New Brunswick campus. Ravi was charged with an additional two counts of invasion of privacy for attempting to transmit another live feed Sept. 21.
On Sept. 19, Ravi created a Twitter post describing that Clementi had asked to be alone in the room until midnight, and Ravi turned on his web cam and viewed Clementi “making out with a dude” from Wei’s room. He allegedly directed followers to his iChat account, where he streamed the sexual encounter live. Ravi allegedly unsuccessfully attempted to air another broadcast two days later.
Ravi turned himself in on Sept. 28 and was released on $25,000 bail, and Wei surrendered the day before and was released without having to post bail.