An 83-year-old man who apparently had just been told he had a terminal disease shot himself in the stomach with a .38 caliber pistol Aug. 9, then hailed a cab to the morgue, where he paid the taxi driver, got out of the taxi and died.
According to the daily La Nación, the man, identified by the last name Vega, hailed the taxi at 7:30 a.m. approximately 600 meters from the morgue in San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia, north of San José, and convinced the driver to take him the last couple blocks. The driver told the daily he was unaware that Vega was injured.
“He paid me ¢350 ($0.68) and got out without saying anything. He looked a little lost. Then he walked toward the door of the morgue and fell,” Efigenio Bermúdez, the taxi driver, told the daily.
Officials found the pistol and a note on Vega’s body in which he explained he had been told in a medical exam days earlier he had a terminal illness.
