What we can learn from the tragic death of Sunil Tripathi

Guests:  JUDY TRIPATHI, SANGEETA TRIPATHI and RAVI TRIPATHI

Last spring, the body of 22-year old Sunil Tripathi was found along a riverbank in Providence, Rhode Island. The Radnor High School graduate and Brown University student had been struggling with depression and was taking a leave of absence from school when his family lost contact with him. The Tripathis searched for Sunil using YouTube and Facebook, but after the Boston marathon bombing, some overeager Reddit and Twitter users misidentified online photos of Sunil as one of the bombing suspects. Within hours the story had exploded all over the web and the Tripathi family, still desperately searching for Sunil, was bombarded with hundreds of calls from media outlets asking if their son was one of the bombers. His body was identified just a few days later. This hour, Marty talks with Sunil’s mother, JUDY TRIPATHI, sister SANGEETA and brother RAVI about Sunil’s life, the need for more mental health resources, and what we can learn from the tragic events of this spring.

The Facebook page that the Tripathi family created in their search for Sunil remains a place for conversation and memories.  You can take a look at it here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Help-Us-Find-Sunil-Tripathi/403275636436466