In April 2011, when Noah Henry of Camp Hill, Cumberland County decided to take his own life, he left with his family in mind. He wrote them a letter.
Four years later, his mom Conny Henry remembers how much she wanted to read it.
"If you're unlucky enough to join that club of parents who've lost a child, you really do clutch, especially moms, clutch at everything, because you try to bring them back," says Henry.
Noah suffered from a severe anxiety disorder for years. He planned his suicide. But he didn't realize his family wouldn't be allowed to take his letter home. The Cumberland County Coroner's office keeps suicide notes as evidence.
The family hadn't had a chance to read Noah's letter after they found him dead inside his car. The coroner told them they could have a copy of the letter.
"He's not a copy, so I wasn't going to read a copy. If I didn't have the original today I would not read a copy," says Henry. "To know that something that personal was being kept by someone who couldn't care less about my child ... It was some of the worst frustration I've ever encountered."
After fighting for months, the Henry family finally received Noah's original note, which he had written in different colors of ink, on his own paper with a design on it.
"I couldn't wait to get home because it felt like I had him home again," says Henry.
Charley Hall became the Cumberland County Coroner after that incident but the policy is the same. The state has no regulation about suicide notes, and some coroners release them earlier than others.
But Hall says he considers them evidence, if a suicide turns out to be a homicide. The note can be analyzed for handwriting.
"We have to maintain suicide records indefinitely. And in my opinion a suicide note is part of a suicide record," says Hall. "Once the evidence is gone, it's gone. There's no getting it back and even if you would get it back the attorneys would have a free for all."
Henry says she hopes for some kind of regulation that will help grieving families get their loved ones' original letters.