Two suicides linked to Ashley Madison leak include Texas police chief
Two people have taken their own lives after their details were leaked by the Ashley Madison hackers, it was disclosed today.
Captain Michael Gorhum, who served for 25 years with the San Antonio Police Department in Texas, was named as one of the suicide victims.
And at a press conference on Monday, Canadian police confirmed a second suicide of a person also believed to have been using the extramarital affairs website.
Police are investigating if the deaths are as a direct result of the leak of Ashley Madison users.
The website has now offered a $500,000 bounty to anyone who names the hackers and helps police secure a conviction against them.
The death of Capt Gorhum in San Antonio, Texas, came just days after his official email address was linked to an Ashley Madison account.
One of his colleagues posted a moving tribute on Facebook, saying:
Rest in Peace Captain Mike Gorhum. You truly are one of the guys I’ve most respected in my Law Enforcement Career, no task too big, no goal too loafty.
‘Never met a stranger, never backed down, always had your partner’s back or, when you were in charge, your Officer’s back. Whatever it was, I wish one of us could have reached you, could have told you, “regardless, it will be OK”.
‘Love you Mike. This is a hard day. God bless you, and your Family and the Department.’
The San Antonio Police Department announced Cpt Gorhum’s death on Thursday afternoon, stating that he oversaw the San Antonio Regional Intelligence Center (SARIC) Unit.
His was one of three San Antonio city official email addresses which were leaked as part of the Ashley Madison, San Antonio Express news reports.
Two of the email accounts are reportedly linked to members of the SAPD – the late Capt. Gorhum, and a detective – but Ashley Madison does not verify email addresses, so it is possible to use the site with someone else’s email.
San Antonio city officials say that as a result of this, they ‘cannot confirm whether these (two) addresses were legitimately used to access the site’, adding that Ashley Madison is blocked on City officials’ computers.
Hackers released a cache of data about 37million Ashley Madison members, some of whom were using email addresses of U.S. government officials, UK civil servants, and European and North American corporations.