This is a slightly edited copy of a post I made to 'alt.tasteless' on USENET. Allen and I had been denizens of that newsgroup since it's humble beginnings years ago. Several of the other locals had inquired with me as to why Allen was not posting anymore. What follows is my best effort at an explaination.

From Peter Bell:
>Oh, and Mike -- you were going to give us an update on Wintermute at some   
>point.  If it ain't too much of a open wound, I'd be interested in hearing
>more. Email's fine if you'd rather not post, or you can tell me to shut
>the fuck up.
 
Peter is right, I have been putting this off for too long.  I have enough
of a grip on things now to be able to let the rest of you know exactly
what happened...
 
So grab a snack, a warm cup of coffee, or a glass of your favorite
beverage, get comfortable and listen to this interesting, exciting find! 
 
just kidding...
 
It all starts with a phone call awaking me from blissfull slumber and
dreams... a phonecall at 6:40 in the morning. Did I mention I work a swing shift?  
6:40 is 3 in the morning to me, I was way beyond anything resembling understanding 
or comprehension...
 

 
(buh)whatheFUCK?!"uh... what?"
 
'hello, who is this? is this moo-kee?'
 
"Uh, I don't know anyone named moo-kee... you have the wrong number"
 
'Do you know Allen Stuart?'
 
"Uh, yeah... Allen is a friend of mine, why?"
 
'This is Officer (somesuch) with the San Jose Police Department, do you
know how we can get ahold of his parents'
 
(lying like a motherfucker) "Uh, no... I do not, why... is he in trouble?"
 
'Well, there has been an accident, and we need to contact his family, are
 you SURE you do not know how to get ahold of anyone who can contact his
 family?'
 
"Nope, sorry... wish I could help"
 
'Well, thank you'
 
(click)
 
At this point I was thinking that either Allen had been involved in a   
hit-and-run and had fled the scene, or that he had beat the crap out of 
someone again.  So being the good friend that I was I covered for his ass
to buy us both some time.  I figured he was at his parents house, because
when Officer Friendly was looking for him that is usually where he would
kick back.  So just to check things out I called Allen's apartment to see
if he was there...
 

 
'Yes, hello?'
 
At this point I realized the cop who had just called me is answering
Allen's phone.  So now I was a bit worried... at the time I was thinking
"man, what did he do now?  They are in his apartment looking for 
evidence or something"
 
"Uh, hello Officer, you are at Allen's apartment?"
 
'Yes, why did you call here?'
 
Well, I was not going to tell the cop that I wanted to tell my friend to
get the fuck out of Dodge because Officer Friendly was looking to give him
a wood shampoo again.
 
"I was going to see if Allen was home so I could have him contact you..."
 
'Well, we still need to contact his parents'
 
"Uh, ok... (lying) I'll dig around and see if I can find anything, it
 sounds important"
 
'Thank you'
 
(click)
 
So right from there I figure Allen is at his parents house, So I called
there to let him know that Officer Friendly was taking Allen's calls for
him while he was away.  And that a temporary relocation to somewhere far
South might be in order.  I called up his parents, and they had not seen
Allen for a couple days... I let them know that something was up, and I
was going to try and find out more.
 
At that point I called a friend of mine who was the other member in the
circle of three.  He informed me that Allen and his brother had been at
his house for a small get-together to watch some movies and do some
drinking and such, and that his brother was still there, but Allen must
have left sometime after everyone passed out.  I gave him the story so
far and said I would get back to him with more details later.
 
I woke up my roomate and had him drive me over to Allen's, all of about   
two miles away.  When we drove by, there were a couple patrol cars out
front. I had my roomate swing around for another pass, and on the second
pass I saw  the County Coroner's car.  At that point I knew that my first
instinct when Officer Friendly answered Allen's phone was probably correct.
As luck would have it the Coroner was comming out of the Apartment 
Complex with a couple Officers. I jumped out of the truck and identified 
myself to the Officers.  That is when the Coroner informed me that Allen 
had decided to put a gun in his mouth and end his life...
 
At that moment I was in little more than a state of shock...  I always
knew something like this would happen, but I did not expect it so soon.
If anything I expected Allen to drive his motorcycle into the SJPD
Station and take out a couple busloads of cops in a blaze of glory.  I had
my roomate drive me back home and I rang up my friend again.  He informed
me that the police had contacted Allen's parents and informed them of
what had happened, and that his brother now knew.  At that point, both
of us switched into automatic.  We are both WAN NetAdmins, and we had
switched into 'open a ticket and track the problem' mode.  He agreed 
to meet me at my house with Allen's brother in tow so we could work 
out exactly what the hell to do.
 
Shortly thereafter they arrived,  We contacted the Coroner and we were
informed that we would be allowed access to the residence at around 9 AM.  
It was still a bit before 8, so we decided to kill time by getting some 
coffee at the local Carrows just up the street from Allen's.  Allen's
brother was very very hungover.  Almost to the point of being a bit like
the walking dead himself.  So we get to Carrows, and they go in on the
history of the past night.  It seems everybody got seriously drunk, to
the point that Allen's brother got to the "maybe if I eat lots of stuff,
I wont puke" stage.  He went into great detail about how he had eaten
almost a whole package of Oreos, and then realized that he was not going
to keep them down.  And not being able to even think about crawling to
the bathroom without getting the heaves, he did what anyone would have
done... and grabbed an empty Almond Roca container that was sitting on
the coffee table in front of him, and filled it to capacity.  He did
mention that he was polite enough to replace the lid.  He said the whole
package looked not unlike 'a quart of Oreo icecream'.  So what breakfast
we did order finally got to the table... and I proceded to make everyone 
who was hung over at the table dry heave and gag by promplty chugging 
all the Maple Syrup 'shots'.  Tasteless to the end I tell you...
 
So after a scene not unlike the beginning of 'Resivor Dogs' we cut out of
the dive and headed for Allen's apartment.  None of us knew what to
expect, so we steeled ourselves and went into the apartment.  The first
thing I noticed was a lack of any kind of death 'smell'.  It just smelled
the way Allen's apartment normally smelled.  Right by the front door
there is a bit of tile, probably 4' by 4' square.  That entire tile
surface was covered by about an inch of congealing blood and matter.
Suprisingly there was hardly anything on any of the walls.  Just a trace
amount where the bullet, after exiting Allen's skull, went through a
wall.
 
Let me talk a bit about the power of a gun.  I am sure most a.t'ers know
what a 9mm slug comming out of a Glock 22 can do.  And I am sure some of
you actually have pictures of what it can do.  Well, after that bullet 
left Allen's skull, it punched through a sheetrock wall (thats two 1/2
inch sheets of sheetrock AND the 2x4 stud kids) through the metal rail on
a closet door, and it kept cooking right up through the ceiling.  I
will never again question the power of a handgun.  Allen owned guns, I    
own a lot of guns, and I have put many rounds through my guns at the
range.  But that day I deveoped a new level of respect for the power
of my guns.
 
Strangely enough, the blood did not bother any of us.  It was almost like
I was just sitting at my terminal staring at another .jpg online.  I guess
we all just tried to ignore it and get on with the business of deciding
what to do with all of Allen's stuff.  The first thing we did was move
'bovine'.  Bovine is the site that Allen and I have been running for a
long time now.  It had my twisted pages, as well as a collection of
Allen's own works which have graced a.t in the past.  For all the locals,
I will have bovine back online shortly,  I have a cablemodem wired up,
and my rack is due in shortly, everyone will be able to grab a bit of
Allen's past out of the Archives.

 
That was pretty much it for what happened that morning.  Now here is what
happened that led up to that morning....

 
As I mentioned earlier, everyone had gathered for a little drinking and 
movie watching at a friend's house.  Allen had called me earlier in the
day and asked if I wanted to go, but I had to turn him down because I was
pulling a solo shift at work and I could not cut out early.  (that part
right there has been eating at my soul like hell-maggots for a long time
now, and probably will forever)  So quite a bit of drinking ensued with
little movie-watching.  Around 2 AM Allen decided that it would be a
good idea to call his ex-girlfriend who he was still chasing after.
 
I had been with Allen since the beginning with this particular female.
She had been my girlfriend at one point, and after we broke up... Allen
picked right up on her.  And I do not blame him, she was fresh and nubile
and just his type.  Over the last two years, they had been together and broken
up more times than I care to remember.  And the whole time I was playing
'goalie' between the two of them.  Lately things had been going bad
between them.  Allen wanted her back, and she wanted to get on with her
life.  It seems that he had caught a cab from said friend's house to 
where he 'thought' she lived.  Well, he was nowhere close to where she had
moved to.  So he called her up to come pick him up.  She picked him up and
took him back to his apartment, he wanted her to stay the night.  They 
had an arguement, and I guess at that point Allen had gotten his gun and 
was threating to kill himself... it was not the first time Allen had 
made such a bluff.  She thought he was bluffing again, and promptly left.  
She got on the other side of the Apartment Complex when she heard a shot
ring out.  A few hours later, I would get my wake-up call from the police.
 
She stopped at a payphone up the street and called his house to see if
he was bluffing.  His answering machine was the only thing that picked up.
Her message begging him to pick up was still on the answering machine 
when we were packing up Allen's things later that morning...
 
Now here is the part in the story where I your Humble Narrator would
normally go in about how Allen was such a wonderful person and how could
a tragedy like this happen to someone so young, well... that is not going
to happen.
 
Anyone who knew Allen knew he was different, to say he was a geinus would
be an understatement.  His mind worked on so many things at speeds that
chip-designers franticly grind their synapses to dust to in their
deepest masturbatory dreams.  He had a way of telling a story that would
captivate everyone in the area.  Allen and I had quite a few adventures
together, many of which are still pending some sort of investigation I
assume.  I'll miss him, he was a good friend... and the net, as well as
the world, is a bit more empty now that he is gone.  
 
All of us are going to die, if you are reading this now... your going to
die, and there is nothing you can do to escape it.  It is all just a
question of when and how.  I do know that I feel quite a bit more mortal
these days...
 
 
I'm done,
-Mike-