According to Wikipedia, Carter was depressed about a lot of things he had seen and how his life wasn't going well. He left a suicide note that read "I'm really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. ...depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners ." According to Wikipedia, the child survived and lived about 20 more years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_girl