Many people prefer to live a subtle and decent life, but others wish to have fame.
Novi Amelia, an Indonesian adult model, worked to get the fame she wanted. However, she didn't like how she lived her life, nor how she had to lie to herself to pretend to be someone she was not.
And for those reasons among others, she suffered depression.
One night, she was driving alone.
At that time, nothing was out of the ordinary, until suddenly she crashed her car, injuring seven people.
Passersby who happened to witness the incident at Hayam Wuruk, West Jakarta, swarmed the road to help the injured, and to stop the red Honda Jazz, in order to bring whoever was driving the city car to justice.
But they were all surprised when they found a young woman at the driver's seat, half naked, intoxicated, mumbling and screaming hysterically.
Novi Amelia, whose real name was Linda Astuti, began her modeling career in 2004.
When she moved to Indonesia's capital Jakarta, she became an adult model, and was famously featured in men's adult magazine POPULAR. Novi was also offered the chance to become a pop dangdut singer in the later 2000s, in which she declined because she felt she wasn’t ready to become a musician.
While her career as a model was certainly what she was after, Novi had long battled mental health.
And it was on October 2012, that Novi made headlines in the country after she crashed her car.
The police who was dispatched found that she was driving under the influence of alcohol and narcotics.
At that time, she was wearing only her underwear.
When she was brought the police station for questioning, the depressed Novi even scolded the police, threatened them, and even asked them to rape her.
Novi's medical tests found that she was positive for alcohol and ecstasy, indicating that she consumed the drug within the previous three days.
While the incident of Novi crashing into seven people already made the news, it was her photos taken by the police that went viral on the web.
The photos showed Novi half naked at the police station, handcuffed, lying on a air mattress, with some of the photos showing her stripping bare.
After Novi's naked jailhouse photos were leaked, several police were questioned according to reports.
The police said that they were only documenting her behavior, realizing how Novi was acting crazy.
At the time, Novi was the one removing her clothes and flashing the police.
The police never forced her.
Despite some may be sitting around and watching, and might be indirectly encouraging the drunk Novi to put on a show.
It was unfortunately that the photos were leaked by some irresponsible people.
Novi was sentenced to six months in prison.
"To all Indonesian people: I, Novi Amelia, deeply apologize for the accident that happened on Thursday [Oct. 11],” she told journalists. "I know I drove the car recklessly and went out without wearing a polite dress." she said.
"It was unexpected and unintentional."
For more than many times, Novi had shown that she suffered depression.
In fact, Novi had battled depression through most of her adult life, as she was reported to have undergone treatments at a mental institution and a psychiatric hospital in Jakarta.
Not long before injuring seven people with her Honda Jazz, a few months earlier, Novi drove her Honda CR-V recklessly before crashing it in an alleged suicide attempt.
Before that, Novi also showed her hostility when she went angry at a police station at one moment, and went furious at her boarding home that the landlord had to force her to leave.
Making her condition worse, was her drug use habit.
In several reports, it was said that Novi consumed a number of prescribed drugs, as well as some illegal substances.
Doctors who took care of her, said that her mental issues were not caused by addictive substances but by strictly psychological problems. It is confirmed by her old medical records that she has a history of mental illness.
“The symptoms are hallucinations and feeling depressed,” said Henny Riana, head of the psychiatric unit of the hospital Novi frequently visited.
According to her family, Novi's mental illness was apparent when she was in Jakarta, and away from her family in North Sumatra.
Every time Novi returned home to her mother, she showed no hostility nor mental illness issue.
Novi battled mental illness most of her life, and the culmination of everything, was her suicide.
On February 2022, Novi was found dead at the Kalibata City apartment complex, South Jakarta, after allegedly leaping to her death from the eight floor.
She was 35 years old.
Police said that before she jumped, Novi was seen sitting on the balcony of her apartment on the Raflesia tower.
Abdullah, who heads the Pancoran Sub-Precinct Crime Investigation Unit, said that Novi only had on her undergarments when she jumped.
"Not long after the call to prayer for the dawn prayer, the victim jumped from the eighth floor, hitting the canopy on the first floor on her way down. Then, she fell on a parked car, hitting the rear window," Abdullah explained.
"She was only wearing underwear and a white bra," said Abdullah.
When found, Novi was already dead, with wounds found on her body.
"There were wounds on the right thigh due to the impact, bruises around her left eye, and bleeding from the back of the head," Abdullah said.
After the police investigated the case to find the motive behind the incident, the police came to a conclusion that the suspect Novi committed suicide due to depression.
Novi was buried at a cemetery in her hometown of Tebing Tinggi, North Sumatra.