A hunter and well-known Spanish blogger died in an apparent suicide this week, amid claims she was the target of online abuse from animal rights activists.
Melania Capitan, 27, was found dead at a farm in Huesca on Wednesday, the Guardia Civil said. She reportedly shot herself with a rifle, and left a suicide note, el Mundo reports.
Capitan was known for sharing her hunting lifestyle with her 36,000 Facebook and 8,700 Instagram followers.
She was a passionate hunter, and defended her actions online, posting pictures to Instagram of her posing with guns beside dead deer. Her controversial lifestyle reportedly garnered abuse and threats from animal rights activists.
Since her death, a number of people have posted cruel comments on her Facebook page, with one saying she “thankfully she killed herself, the only good thing she’s done lately.”
El Mundo quotes a close friend of Capitan’s saying she died by suicide, and that it was not related to the threats she received online. "For personal problems, not for the insults she received in social networks," the unnamed friend is cited as saying.
"It is a lie that has been said that she committed suicide because of the threats because she was a very brave woman, very strong, a fighter," she said, adding, “in all social networks, people have done a lot of harm to her and they continue to do so. Take action on this, this should be punished."