Student Kills Self Hours After Beloved Pet Dog's Death

A woman in India killed herself hours after her beloved pet dog died of natural causes.

The dog, a five-year-old German Shepherd named Babu, succumbed to illness in Gorkha village in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday night.

The bereaved family stayed up until late, following which, the deceased woman, a 23-year-old college student, eventually went to sleep.

"The deceased went off to sleep with her sister in a room at around 1 a.m., while her parents slept in a separate room of their house," police officer DP Bhardwaj told the news daily Hindustan Times.

The following morning, her family members found her hanging from the roof of her room with a suicide note beside her.

"She was found dead on Wednesday morning. A suicide note, which recounted her grief over the irreparable loss and pain over Babu’s death, was recovered," the officer told the newspaper.

In the suicide note, the woman had mentioned that she wanted to be buried beside her beloved pet dog. However, the family members did not fulfill her wish and cremated her on the outskirts of the village as per the Hindu customs while her pet was buried on the family’s farm.

Neighbors told the newspaper the woman was greatly attached to the canine.

"Babu was a mixed breed of the German Shepherd. Everyone is shocked in our village. She was a humble soul and generous toward animals and children. She would teach the children of the village for free," one of her neighbors said.

A police case was registered and an investigation was ongoing.

In a similar incident in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a teen killed herself after her pet dog died. The canine died from health complications after it consumed a cosmetic cream. Hours after the dog’s death, the 13-year-old girl locked herself in her bedroom.

When she did not come out for hours, the parents broke open the door and found the teen hanging from the roof. She was rushed to a local hospital by her parents where she was pronounced dead by the doctors.