Suicide was the act of willingly ending one's own life. It was done for a variety of reasons, ranging from emotional despair to martyring oneself for a cause.
Suicides[]
Before Day 1[]
- Tabitha Cofell committed suicide by drug overdose six months after the death of her son Theodore Cofell.
- Saaid jumped off the Rossum Tower to prevent capture from Jack Bauer.
- Katya committed suicide by swallowing a suicide capsule after she was captured by Jack Bauer.
- Richard Lesser committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule when faced with imprisonment.
- Nikolai Manos and Nawaf Sanjore killed themselves when CTU TAC team found them in their hidden base under the Angeles National Forest.
- Judy Campbell hanged herself sometime before Day 1, after her husband Seth Campbell was sent to jail and she was left with four children to raise.
Day 1[]
- Ted Cofell began to have a heart attack after Jack Bauer punched his chest in rage. Jack tried to force-feed Ted his pills, but Cofell resisted and died.
Day 2[]
- Joseph Wald locked himself inside his panic room after Jack killed his crew, but shot himself in front of Jack later.
- Mohsen, after being captured by Jack, used a suicide capsule to prevent his own capture.
- George Mason, as he was dying of radiation poisoning, took over the doomed Cessna from Jack and flew the plane to the designated area in the middle of nowhere, which detonated the bomb, killing himself after Jack parachuted from the plane.
Before Day 3[]
- Wendell Adams deliberately crashed the plane carrying the president of McGuckin Petroleum Joseph McGuckin and a personal friend of his into the mountains, killing all aboard.
Day 3[]
- Ted Packard shot himself in the head while his ex-wife Anne Packard watched in horror.
- Several guests at the Chandler Plaza Hotel chose to consume suicide capsules which Tony Almeida brought to avoid the agonizing death of the Cordilla virus.
- Julia Milliken, after murdering Sherry Palmer, shot herself in front of her lover Wayne Palmer.
Day 4[]
- Kalil Hasan realized he was being followed, and slammed straight into an oncoming truck, dying instantly in the resulting explosion.
- Lucy Stiles decided to take her own life when the San Gabriel Island Power Plant melted down and she was faced with certain, lingering death through radiation exposure.
- Maya Driscoll slit her wrists while at CTU medical, causing her mother Erin Driscoll to leave CTU out of distress.
- Joseph Fayed detonated a bomb in his car to help fellow terrorists in Marwan's cell.
- Habib Marwan threw himself over the Global Center parking lot. Jack grabbed his left hand and attempted to save him but Marwan pulled out a knife and sliced Jack's hand. He fell sixteen stories to his death.
- Christopher Gerber chose suicide over capture when CTU agent Martin Kail interrogated him during the events of Conspiracy.
Day 5[]
- Chevensky swallowed a suicide capsule at Ontario Airport when he was discovered by Jack Bauer.
- Anton Beresch attempted to shoot himself in the head, in order to avoid capture. His first attempt failed when Jack shot his hand. However, he went to one of his fallen comrades, and detonated his explosive vest, killing him.
- Polakov, after setting off a nerve gas bomb at the Sunrise Hills Shopping Mall, was chased by CTU. After learning that he had been followed, Ivan Erwich instructed him to kill himself, and he did.
Day 6[]
- Several suicide bombers working for Abu Fayed blew themselves up during attacks in America throughout an 11-week period before Day 6.
- A suicide bomber blew up a bus in downtown Los Angeles, killing twenty-two people.
- Nasir Trabelsi planned to blow himself up in the Los Angeles Subway to kill many but was kicked out of the train by Jack and he detonated alone.
- Masheer Abu-Marzuq, Nasir's handler, killed himself with a hand grenade to avoid capture.
- Hasan Numair detonated one of the nuclear bombs due to CTU's sudden raid on their safehouse; he killed himself and many thousands of others in the blast.
- Phillip Bauer voluntarily refused to exit the oil rig that was under attack by F-18 Hornets as he was cornered by Josh and Jack Bauer.
Day 7[]
- Bill Buchanan sacrificed his life for Jack Bauer to save President Allison Taylor during the White House siege led by General Benjamin Juma by causing an explosion which engulfed numerous other Juma militia soldiers.
Day 8[]
- Tarin Faroush drove his car over the edge of the parking garage while Omar Hassan was believed to be inside.
Day 9[]
- Adam Morgan, husband of Kate Morgan, was framed by Steve Navarro for selling U.S. state secrets to China sometime prior to Day 9, and committed suicide before his trial once he realized that Kate no longer supported him.
- Karl Rask, was captured by an MI5 tactical team, but stole a grenade from an agent and killed himself and at least three MI5 agents in the blast.
Day 10[]
- Gabriel slit his own throat upon realizing that he was cornered by Eric Carter and his team.
- Amira Dudayev martyred herself while blowing up the George Washington Bridge.
- Donald Simms shoots himself in the head to avoid prosecution for his part in kidnapping and keeping Ara Naseri held prisoner for a year.
Attempted suicides[]
Day 2[]
- Danny Dessler was in a relationship with Carrie Turner sometime prior to the events of the day. He left his family for her but she broke off with him. He attempted suicide after that.
- Syed Ali almost swallowed a suicide capsule but Jack Bauer forced it out of his mouth.
- Alex Hewitt attempted to kill himself when he was in custody before Day 2.
Day 3[]
- Kyle Singer tried to hang himself when he learned he may be infected with the Cordilla virus, thinking he would take the virus down with him. However his girlfriend Linda saved him.
- Nina Myers attempted suicide during torture, by driving a hypodermic needle into her neck. She was taken to the clinic, but used the opportunity to attempt an escape. After murdering at least five people, she was cornered by Kim Bauer and shot by Jack Bauer.
- After Stephen Saunders ordered his death, Ryan Chappelle asked for the chance to take his own life. However, he could not bring himself to do it, so handed the gun back to Jack Bauer who then killed him.
Day 4[]
- James Heller and Audrey Raines ruptured a gas pipe to suffocate during their captivity by Omar. Their plan was foiled by the terrorists. Earlier, Heller had urged his daughter to strangle him to avoid the humiliation of the United States on live television, but she refused.
- Dina Araz attempted to shoot herself in the neck when a CTU TAC team raided her hotel room. Jack Bauer prevented her from doing so.
Day 5[]
- Charles Logan was moments away from suicide, but a call from Miles Papazian saved him.
- James Heller drove his car into a lake in an attempt to kill himself to prevent Christopher Henderson from using him as leverage. Henderson had a helicopter flying over Heller's car and was threatening to kill him if Jack Bauer didn't release him from custody.
Day 6[]
- Abu Fayed attempted to detonate one of his Suitcase nukes during a shootout with Jack Bauer, but Jack got to him before he could detonate it.
Day 7[]
- Jonas Hodges attempted to kill himself with a suicide capsule after Cara Bowden threatened his family if he refused to do so.
Day 8[]
- Renee Walker had attempted suicide in the time between Day 7 and Day 8, as Jack Bauer noticed cuts on her wrists during his conversation with her.
- Marcos Al-Zacar attempted to detonate the bomb on his suicide vest in order to kill Farhad Hassan, but failed.
- Charles Logan attempted to kill himself again with a gunshot wound to his head. The doctors gave him a positive prognosis of survival, but likely with severe brain damage.
Day 10[]
- After being kidnapped by Ibrahim Bin-Khalid, Rebecca Ingram attempted to cut her wrists with a piece of broken bottle. However, Asim Naseri noticed her blood and saved her life by staunching the wound.
Deaths staged as suicides[]
Day 1[]
- The death of Lyle Gibson was covered up as a suicide, despite him dying due to a fight with Keith Palmer.
- Jamey Farrell was discovered to be a CTU mole working for Ira Gaines. She was found by Tony Almeida and Nina Myers and it looked like she had slit her wrists. (In fact, Nina had murdered Jamey by tasering her, then making it look like suicide.) Jamey died in the hospital later.
Day 5[]
- Walt Cummings was found, hanging by his tie, by the Secret Service. In actuality, he was murdered under President Logan's orders.
Day 7[]
- Roger Taylor allegedly killed himself at some point between Redemption and Day 7. However, it was revealed that Brian Gedge was his killer. Furthermore, Gedge attempted to kill Roger's father, Henry Taylor, and make it look like a suicide.
Miscellaneous[]
- Jack Bauer staged suicide plans on at least seven occasions; later events transpired which rendered these plans unnecessary:
- During Day 1, he offered to trade himself to the Drazens and face certain death for his daughter's sake.
- During Day 2, he volunteered to pilot a Cessna out to the Mojave Desert to isolate a nuclear bomb blast; this was instead accomplished by George Mason.
- During Day 6, he willingly gave himself to Abu Fayed to be killed in exchange for Hamri Al-Assad's location.
- During another incident on Day 6, he wired a shack with explosives to kill himself, Cheng Zhi, and destroy the FB subcircuit board.
- During Day 7, he prepared to cause a suicidal explosion that would save President Allison Taylor; this was instead accomplished by Bill Buchanan.
- During another incident during Day 7, he was a moment away from immolating himself with gasoline to destroy the prion variant in his body, but was stopped by Tony Almeida.
- On Day 8, Jack was a moment away from shooting himself in the head because Chloe O'Brian initially refused to shoot him in the chest.
- On Day 3, Buchanan, a prison guard, was forced to play Russian roulette and died during the game.
- Also on Day 3, Dorman was killed by a bomb planted by Stephen Saunders. Given the loyalty of Saunders' followers, it is conceivable (but not certain) that Dorman was aware this would happen.
- On Day 6, Reed Pollock and Bruce Carson briefly discussed killing Tom Lennox and staging it as a suicide, but never followed through with their plan.
- During Redemption, Carl Benton unintentionally stepped on a land mine in Sangala, but was able to choose the time of his death by triggering the bomb near Iké Dubaku and his men.
Suicidal decisions[]
Several characters made decisions that they almost certainly knew would end up resulting in their deaths. Examples of this include Ira Gaines, Ostroff, and Benjamin Juma; all of these characters motioned to turn a gun on Jack Bauer before being shot by him.
Background information and notes[]
- During the finale of 24: Live Another Day, Jack is informed of the murder of Audrey Boudreau. In shock and grief, he briefly handles a pistol in a manner that was interpreted by some reviewers and fans as a suicidal gesture. If this was his intention, however, he changed his mind a moment later to seek revenge against Cheng Zhi.