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SYDNEY — Australian officials and family members of Melissa Joy Dietzel, whose decomposing body was recently identified in a suburb of Sydney, have confirmed her death was suicide.
The news came as a severe shock to her family and her home community in Redlands, Calif., where Dietzel, 22, was described as happy, gregarious and upbeat.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Dietzel was found Jan. 12 hanging 30 feet up an oak tree in Randwick. Officials said she had been dead at least two weeks before her body was discovered in among the branches. She was identified this week through dental records supplied by family.
Dietzel had flown to Australia in November to nanny, but was fired by her employers later that month due to strange behavior.
Dietzel had flown to Australia in November to nanny, but was fired by her employers later that month due to strange behavior, according to the Huffington Post UK. She had complained of hearing voices.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News, Dietzel's family confirmed that Melissa suffered from bipolar disorder.
"Bipolar (disorder) is a condition that runs in our family. It doesn't kick in 'til they're older, but I never thought she was bipolar (until recently)," Vickie Gunther, Dietzel's mother, told the Daily News.
CLICK HERE to read more about the history of mental illness in Dietzel's family and reaction from her parents in the Deseret News.
