Girl in NJ threatening suicide saved by California teen who saw her ominous blog post
Searching social media and calling the police eventually led to a girl in Union Township who had overdosed on prescription drugs.
Comments (1)By Sasha Goldstein / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 8:42 PM
Courtesy of Omar Ornelas/Desert Sun
Officer Heather Olsen, left, and Cathedral City High's Karen Dimick helped thwart a potential suicide.
Related Stories
- Jon Bon Jovi donates $1M from band to Superstorm Sandy relief in his native New Jersey
- Late NJ pol Lautenberg’s family back Pallone over Booker
- Reward money floods in for capture of N.J. home invasion perp caught beating woman on nanny cam
- Goat escapes from truck headed to slaughterhouse, causes accident on Pulaski Skyway
The post wasn’t even a veiled threat, and the teenager typing on the
other end meant it when she said she was going to kill herself.
Jackie Rosas, an 18-year-old from Cathedral City, Ca., knew she couldn’t let it happen. She called a national suicide hot line. But she had virtually no information about the other girl, who was somewhere in the World Wide Web, to file a report.
RELATED: VIDEO: MAN'S BROOKLYN BRIDGE PLUNGE THWARTED
Little did Rosas know the girl was in Union Township, N.J., 2,700 miles away, preparing to follow through on the threat.
“She blogged, saying she was going to end her life,” Rosas told The Desert Sun. “She had been fighting this depression, and when she posted that, my instinct was that she was serious. She wrote something like: ‘I’m going to kill myself. There is no other option.’”
RELATED: TEXAS AIRPORT SHOOTER BATTLED ‘MONSTER’
Rosas had followed the girl’s Tumblr blog for some time and seen other posts indicating depression. Other users on the site relentlessly bullied the girl, whom Rosas only knew by her first name.
But the girl’s threat to kill herself was too much. Without a lead after the suicide hot line call, Rosas continued her search, next calling the local police department to report the incident. The girl, though, had such a common first name that too many results returned. The officer sent the information on to school resource officer Heather Olsen, who also did not recognize the girl but sent it on to Principal Karen Dimick of Cathedral City High School.
RELATED: TEEN COMMITS SUICIDE AFTER RAPE AND ENDLESS BULLYING – FAMILY
“We were kind of at a dead end,” Olsen said. “But then, after a little bit, Karen texts me back. She said she found (the girl’s) Twitter account, with the same picture on it, and that gave us a last name. And she sent me the link and I just went to town.”
On Twitter, the detective duo found the name of the girl’s high school as an acronym, UHS. As Olsen continued to dig on YouTube and in newspaper articles, she found it, Union High School in Union Township, N.J.
RELATED: BULLIED MIDDLE SCHOOLER HANGS HERSELF
Five hours after the search began, about 1:30 a.m., Cathedral City police called their New Jersey counterparts. The 16-year-old girl was tracked down, and an ambulance was sent to her home. She had overdosed on prescription drugs but was taken to the hospital in time to save her life.
“I kind of cried,” Rosas said. “I was happy to know that I saved someone’s life. It happened at random, and it’s an amazing feeling knowing you are able to help someone from thousands of miles away.”
Jackie Rosas, an 18-year-old from Cathedral City, Ca., knew she couldn’t let it happen. She called a national suicide hot line. But she had virtually no information about the other girl, who was somewhere in the World Wide Web, to file a report.
RELATED: VIDEO: MAN'S BROOKLYN BRIDGE PLUNGE THWARTED
“She blogged, saying she was going to end her life,” Rosas told The Desert Sun. “She had been fighting this depression, and when she posted that, my instinct was that she was serious. She wrote something like: ‘I’m going to kill myself. There is no other option.’”
RELATED: TEXAS AIRPORT SHOOTER BATTLED ‘MONSTER’
Rosas had followed the girl’s Tumblr blog for some time and seen other posts indicating depression. Other users on the site relentlessly bullied the girl, whom Rosas only knew by her first name.
But the girl’s threat to kill herself was too much. Without a lead after the suicide hot line call, Rosas continued her search, next calling the local police department to report the incident. The girl, though, had such a common first name that too many results returned. The officer sent the information on to school resource officer Heather Olsen, who also did not recognize the girl but sent it on to Principal Karen Dimick of Cathedral City High School.
RELATED: TEEN COMMITS SUICIDE AFTER RAPE AND ENDLESS BULLYING – FAMILY
“We were kind of at a dead end,” Olsen said. “But then, after a little bit, Karen texts me back. She said she found (the girl’s) Twitter account, with the same picture on it, and that gave us a last name. And she sent me the link and I just went to town.”
On Twitter, the detective duo found the name of the girl’s high school as an acronym, UHS. As Olsen continued to dig on YouTube and in newspaper articles, she found it, Union High School in Union Township, N.J.
RELATED: BULLIED MIDDLE SCHOOLER HANGS HERSELF
Five hours after the search began, about 1:30 a.m., Cathedral City police called their New Jersey counterparts. The 16-year-old girl was tracked down, and an ambulance was sent to her home. She had overdosed on prescription drugs but was taken to the hospital in time to save her life.
“I kind of cried,” Rosas said. “I was happy to know that I saved someone’s life. It happened at random, and it’s an amazing feeling knowing you are able to help someone from thousands of miles away.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/teen-thwarts-suicide-thousands-miles-article-1.1345314#ixzz2a3vk9wQZ
No comments:
Post a Comment