A teenager from the Republic of Mari El in Central Russia committed suicide on the morning of May 21st, allegedly because she was deeply afraid of the end of the world, which had been predicted by preacher Harold Camping to occur later that day.
Camping’s prediction was all over the news, and the 14-year-old Nastya Zachinova believed it to be true, her family has said. After returning from school on the Saturday in which the rapture had been predicted to occur, she took her life.
Zachinova’s personal diary reveals her fears that she and her family would only suffer during the apocalypse.
"We are not righteous; only the righteous will go to heaven, and we'll stay on earth and face terrible suffering," she wrote.
Zachinova also sent a farewell text message saying she did not want to die with everyone else and so was taking her life in advance.
"She took this date too close to heart," Zachinova’s mother told the press.
Police suspect that there may be something more behind the story, however, and are currently gathering reports from the teenager’s friends. They believe someone may have been behind the terror the girl lived with in her last days.
After Camping’s prediction did not come true, the preacher said he misunderstood the date as a ‘spiritual rapture,’ and that the physical end of the world would now come on October 21.
(Image is not factual but stylistic).