Editor鈥檚 note: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Monday night that decriminalizes suicide, abolishing the centuries-old common law crime status.
The timing couldn’t be better for the sister and husband of Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff, who took her own life a decade ago.
“This week marks 10 years since we realized that Nicole was missing, when she didn’t show up for work,” Jennifer Clardy Chalmers, Mittendorff’s sister, said. “A week later, we found her in Shenandoah National Park.”
Mittendorff鈥檚 body was found April 21, 2016, after an intense search in Shenandoah National Park, eight days after she was last heard from.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years,” Nicole’s husband, Steve Mittendorff, said. “Time’s deceptive, and in some regard, it feels like it was yesterday, and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago.”
Speaking to 海角精品黑料 on Tuesday morning, Chalmers and Steve expressed relief that Spanberger approved the bill to abolish the common law crime of suicide, even though there has never been a statutorily prescribed punishment.
“Suicide will no longer be a criminal act in Virginia,” Chalmers said. “It will go into effect in July of next year.”
The bill requires “the Bureau of Insurance of the State Corporation Commission to review the effect and implication of abolishing the common-law crime of suicide on insurance throughout the Commonwealth and submit its findings and any recommendations by November 1, 2026, to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice.”
‘Removes the sting of surviving suicide’
Chalmers said England decriminalized suicide in 1961, “so, we’re literally decades and decades beyond that.”
Previously, bills to decriminalize suicide in Virginia have failed.
“In 2018 鈥� I visited the General Assembly a number of times and testified before the subcommittees in person 鈥� and we continued that in a virtual manner, advocating for the various bills that had been put on by a number of individuals to have this abolished,” Steve said. “There were some years we would get extremely close, and get excited, only for it to later fall on deaf ears.”
Chalmers recalled, “After my sister died, people actually told me that she was a criminal, that she had broken the law 鈥� God’s law and man’s law.”
But in practice, there was no penalty.
“How can you penalize someone who’s dead?” Chalmers asked. “There was the possibility of penalties if you survived an attempt, which is not something you always want to hear.”
“I think society as a whole has come to understand that an individual who attempts to take their own life by suicide is suffering a mental health crisis, and they need more help than they need prosecution under the courts,” Steve said.
Chalmers said decriminalizing suicide “removes, for me personally, that extra sting of surviving my sister’s loss by suicide.”
Steve agreed.
“I think all of us who have been impacted by the loss of a loved one from suicide should consider this to be a victory,” he said.
Grateful appreciation, remembering Nicole
Ten years later, Steve and Chalmers said they often encounter people who remind them of Nicole.
“The biggest one being Jennifer’s daughter,” Steve said, referring to his niece. “She was so young.”
“She was 16 months old,” Chalmers said. “She knew Nicole.”
While Steve and Chalmers have vivid memories of Nicole, he said his niece “doesn’t really have any recollection of her.”
Yet, Steve and Chalmers said they see a lot of uncanny similarities.
“I see things come out at certain times,” Steve said. “And as she continues to get older, I see even more of that resemblance.”
Chalmers said her parents recently finalized聽聽at the Shenandoah National Park Trust, to thank those who contributed to efforts to find Nicole.
“It supports those who supported us during that time, so it supports the search and rescue teams that work in Shenandoah,” Chalmers said. “We’re very grateful that we were able to find her; we have that that a lot of people don’t have.”
The fund provides immediate, flexible funding for everything from lifesaving equipment to small essentials that can prevent emergencies in the backcountry.
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