A girl of 15 and her Turkish sweetheart ran hand in hand into the path of a high-speed train because they feared his family disapproved of their relationship.
Charleigh Disbrey and Mert Karaoglan, 18, had been together only a month but chose to die together rather than be forced apart by ‘cultural issues’. Mert sent a picture message to a friend of the pair on a bridge over the railway line, saying they would ‘never be together in this life and would rather be together in a different place’.
They then climbed a 6ft fence to get on to the tracks at the busy Elstree and Borehamwood station in Hertfordshire.The driver of an empty London First Capital Connect train saw them running down the line but was unable to avoid hitting them. According to an inquest, they died of multiple massive injuries.
Graham Danbury, Hertfordshire’s deputy coroner, told the hearing: ‘Because of Mert’s background it seems like a relationship between him and Charleigh would not have been approved by his family.
And it seems to me that such was the intensity of their feelings for each other that they ignored the effect that their acts would have on others – their family, their friends and the train driver – and decided that they wanted to be together in death.’
The young lovers attended Hertswood Academy near their Borehamwood homes. Charleigh, who was studying for her GCSEs, had auditioned for the TV shows Britain’s Got Talent and Must Be The Music. She had posted videos of herself on YouTube playing an acoustic guitar and had written on her website that she wanted to become a musician ‘to be remembered’. Mert, who was said to be a talented film-maker and photographer, was studying for his A-levels.
The inquest heard Charleigh had taken overdoses and had expressed suicidal tendencies in the month leading up to her death on June 17 last year.
In a statement, Mert’s father Sukru Karaoglan, 49, told the inquest: ‘Mert got up earlier than usual and went straight out to school without breakfast or speaking to the family.
‘He didn’t get home until after 5 o’clock, got changed and said he was going to meet some friends.’ He was asked to stay to have a meal with the family and joined them for a short while before insisting he had to go. ‘That was the last time the father saw him,’ said Dr Danbury.
Mert’s friend, Harry Whitlock, told the inquest he had seemed normal at school that day. At around 7pm he received the picture of the pair on the bridge and a text moments before they died at around 9pm saying: ‘Find my phone. Find the video. I love you.’
Dr Danbury said: ‘In one of these [videos] they gave some explanation of what they were about to do, which was to end their lives and they referred to family and cultural problems and they felt that they weren’t going to be able to be together in this life and they would rather be together in a different place.’
Harry told the hearing he was at the cinema at the time he received the messages from Mert and was later told by a friend of the tragic deaths. He said the last picture on the bridge ‘was just them two together, just smiling’.
Another friend, Christopher Walker, said he last saw Mert at 1pm on the day of his death and was told he would be sent some internet passwords.
He added: ‘He told me he had met his soulmate. I think this meant the girl I know he had been seeing for the last month. He was happy. He gave me a big hug, and left.’
Charleigh, known as CJ, also sent a number of texts before her death saying sorry and telling them she loved them. In one, she wrote: ‘I have met the most amazing person – he is my life.’
There was no answer at the flat where Mert lived with his family. Neighbours said they returned to Turkey earlier this year and Mr Karaoglan had made occasional trips back.
Dr Danbury recorded verdicts of suicide at the hearing in Hatfield.
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