The people who investigate deaths in the Fox Cities say there isn't any single issue that can be pointed to as the cause for suicides.

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Relationships, money, health and other issues have all been blamed, and while there are sometimes spikes, the numbers of suicides have remained stable for several years.

"There is never any rhyme or reason," said Kim Krueger, deputy coroner and administrative assistant in the Outagamie County Coroner's office.

For some reason, she said, suicides in the county doubled from 12 in 2006 to 24 in 2007, but have remained stable the past three years.

However, the three people younger than 20 in Outagamie who committed suicide so far this year triples that age group from the past years. Two of those suicide victims were students at Kaukauna High School, while two other students at the school committed suicide in Calumet County.

The death this month of a fifth teen with ties to the school — a June graduate — also has been ruled a suicide in Brillion, but Calumet County Medical Examiner Mike Klaeser said the young man had other issues and there was nothing school- related.

Klaeser said Calumet's annual total of suicides has remained stable at about six for the past decade.

In the mid-1990s, a half-dozen teen suicides rocked high schools in Chilton and New Holstein, and officials still don't know what caused that cluster.

Some of those teens suffered from depression, he said.

"We really don't know what set it off," he said. "I think we had a couple kids with genuine depression issues and it just took off from there.

"People feel they have run out of options and people to talk to. For our county there is usually some sort of relationship issue and there is a simple thing of 'I'll show you.'"

Once or twice a year someone who is terminal with cancer may commit suicide, and there have been occasional suicides by people with alcohol or money problems, but not anything that can be blamed on the economy, he said.

"We've had individuals who've been like market day traders that have blown it and we had a couple with marital problems and a huge amount of credit card debt, but not any with anyone who was laid off.

"With the elderly it's been more of, 'My family has grown and I am alone and I don't know what to do with myself.'"

Shelley Donner, a paramedic who also is a deputy coroner for Outagamie and Winnebago counties, said he hasn't noticed any recent suicides that were blamed on the poor economy.

"I am thinking I see more with health issues than financial, especially when you get 50 and up and they don't want to be a burden to their family," he said.

People planning suicide often don't leave answers for those left behind, said Ruth Wulgaert, Outagamie County coroner. She said she knows a family who lost a child to suicide a year ago, and they still don't know why.

"They come home and they talk to the parents and everything is fine and 10 or 15 minutes later they are gone," she said. "I wish we had a crystal ball we could look in.

"The only one that can give us the answers is gone. It's a long healing process and in some ways I don't think families ever heal."

John Lee: 920-993-1000, ext. 362, or jlee@postcrescent.com