The girl had been harassed on the social media website ask.fm, according to her parents. Credit: Metro file photo
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today that the NYPD is investigating the suicide of 12-year-old Gabriella Molina in Queens.
Kelly said the girl left a suicide note indicating that she had been a victim of cyberbullying.
Two computers from the girl’s home have been seized and will be analyzed by detectives, Kelly said.
When asked who, if anyone, would be held responsible, Kelly hedged, saying the NYPD is “just gathering information now.”
Molina was found in her room by her 15-year-old sister about 2:27 p.m. Wednesday, cops said. She had reportedly hanged herself from a ceiling fan using a cloth belt.
Molina’s aunt cut her down from the fan, cops said. When police arrived, EMS personnel performed CPR on Molina, but she was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at 3:33 p.m. at Long Island Jewish Hospital.
Cops said Molina left a suicide note saying that she was sorry and she loved everyone, and that she was being cyberbullied. Police said she also had marks on her left arm that indicated she may have tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists before resorting to hanging.
Molina lived with her sister, aunt, parents and grandparents, and the cops said that no one in the family had any history of criminal activity or domestic violence.
According to police reports, Molina’s parents were at work when she killed herself. Her grandmother reportedly saw her last at 10 a.m. inside the house. Her grandmother reportedly told police that she called her granddaughter for lunch at 11 a.m., but Molina did not respond.
Molina had stayed home from school that day. It was her third absence of the month, and the sixth this year. Her family told police that she told them that since January, she had been bullied on the social media website ask.fm.
After a series of anti-gay hate crimes in Manhattan over the last couple of weeks, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced an initiative requiring anti-bullying programs in all schools before the end of the year.
Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat
