"If you handcuff yourself to a tree you would die fairly quickly but maybe not as quickly as you would like."

When I clicked to this story from Drudge ("Artist died 'handcuffed to tree'..."), I assumed it was about an art project that had gone terribly wrong, but it turns out to be a suicide by a mentally ill man who happened to be an artist. His sister is quoted: "His idea was to kill himself but he couldn't do it because he couldn't upset everybody, including the people who would find his body." She speculated that he chose this method, selecting a very remote place, so that no one would ever see his body. In fact, only his skeleton was found. How do they know it wasn't murder? He tried the same method of suicide before -- and spent four days freeing himself after he changed his mind. Indications are that he changed his mind the last time too. Very sad.