Kameron Jacobsen

Kameron Jocobsen

Meet Kameron Jacobsen, age 14.  Kameron committed suicide in January of 2011.  He was a freshman at Monroe Woodbury High School n New York.  Although Kameron was not believed to be gay, bullying based on the perception that he was, played a role in his death.

From the story:

MYFOXNY.COM - A community in Orange Country, N.Y., is in mourning and in shock after a 14-year-old freshman took his own life and Facebook bullying may have pushed him over the edge.

Sources said that Kameron Jacobsen of Monroe Woodbury High School was tormented by Facebook bullies who taunted him about what they thought was his sexual orientation.

His fellow students and parents are devastated.

...

An excerpt from an article written by his father:

It is a very difficult process to write about my son’s life, but my hope is that you become a bit more familiar with him and you realize that he is the same as any young boy. They are all loved, they are all our sons. They all have dreams, they all have fears. They sometimes cry and sometimes hide their tears.

-Kevin Jacobsen Sr.

UPDATE 3/20/2012

A reader alerted me to some heart-breaking news.  From the article:

Kevin Jacobsen

MONROE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — It is an unimaginable loss for a Hudson Valley family.

A father who became an anti-bullying advocate after losing his son to suicide, has now taken his own life, reports CBS 2′s Tony Aiello.

A shadow of grief is once again upon a house in Orange County, following the weekend suicide of Kevin Jacobsen.

“That whole family to go through this twice now, I just can’t believe it,” neighbor Jacqui Vega said.

“There’s never an answer to it. It’s sad, you know. That’s all I can say. Just keep ‘em in your prayers and hope the wife can carry on,” added resident Bill Hale.

Back in September, Wanda and Kevin Jacobsen spoke about the suicide death of their son, Kameron, who suffered physical, verbal and cyber bullying.

...

Sources:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/01/10/n-y-anti-bullying-crusader-takes-his-own-life-near-anniversary-of-sons-death/
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/new_york_state/sources-teenager-kills-himself-after-facebook-taunts-20110119
http://www.kindnessabovemalice.org/meet-kameron/
http://www.towleroad.com/2011/01/jacobsen.html
http://www.askthejudge.info/freshman-made-lots-of-people-smile-and-laugh/8476/

Jadon Higganbothan

Meet Jadon Higganbothan, age 4.  Jadon was shot in the head by his "stepfather" (and suspected cult leader) Peter Lucas Moses sometime in October of 2010 because Peter thought Jadon "might be gay".

From the story:

Prosecutors laid out the case Friday against a Durham man charged with killing a 4-year-old boy and 28-year-old-woman, saying he led a “religious” group of women and children who called him “Lord” and feared him.

Peter Lucas Moses, 27, faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Jadon Higganbothan, 4, and Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, 28. Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against him. Defense attorneys didn't speak in his behalf at a court hearing Friday.

Prosecutors said Moses killed Jadon because he thought the child was gay and McKoy after he learned she couldn't have children and wanted to leave the group.

Prosecutors said the case came to police's attention in February when a young woman escaped from a house at 2109 Pear Tree Lane house, where she had lived with McKoy, Jadon, eight other children and three women charged in connection with the two slayings – Jadon's mother, Vania Rae Sisk, 25, Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 40, and Larhonda Renee Smith, 40.

...

Moses feared that Jadon might be gay because his father had left Sisk, and Moses told her to "get rid" of the child, prosecutors said.

"In the religious belief of that organization, homosexuality was frowned on," Cline said.

Sometime in October 2010, Smith told Moses that Jadon had hit another child's bottom, and Moses became angry and started walking around the house with a gun that belonged to Sisk, prosecutors said.

"He starts screaming, 'I told you to get rid of him!'" and told Sisk, "'How am I going to do this?'" Cline recalled the witness' account.

Moses ordered two of the women to set up computers and speakers in the garage, prosecutors said they were told by the witness. They said he started playing music with the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, took Jadon in the garage and shut the door, and the women then heard a gunshot.

Prosecutors said the witness told them that the women helped clean up the body of Jadon, who had been shot in the head, and put it in a suitcase in Moses' master suite. He later told them to get the body out because it was beginning to smell, prosecutors said.

...

Sources:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9836148/
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/08/DA_Man_Kills_4_Year_Old_Boy_He_Thought_Was_Gay/
http://www.gazette.com/articles/missing-115801-mother-boy.html

Adam Wood

Meet Adam Wood, 19.  Adam was attending the University of California in Merced, when he committed suicide by hanging himself from a 75-foot-high utility tower just outside the city on March 23rd, 2011.
Adam was openly gay, and had dealt with depression and 'personal demons' before he came to Merced.

From the Merced Sun-Star:

An infectious smile that made a room radiant, a gregarious wit and an intellect that beamed with endless possibility.

That's how UC Merced students including Saema Adeeb remembered Adam Wood, 19, a sophomore who committed suicide last week by hanging himself from a 75-foot-high utility tower just outside Merced.

A memorial for Wood is scheduled for 7 p.m. today at the university's recreation center.
...
Wood was highly intelligent and wanted to become a doctor, Adeeb remembered. "He had very high hopes," she said. "He had a lot of things going for him. He really had a lot of potential to do something in the world."

Wood wasn't a wallflower during his brief time at UC Merced. Case in point: He was the university's Bobcat mascot his freshman year. Most recently, he joined Sigma Chi fraternity and had made several friends.

Nick Nakamura, a UC Merced alumnus and the fraternity's adviser, said Wood joined the fraternity last March. He said Wood had been trying to deal with personal demons before he came to Merced, but he was seeing a therapist. Nakamura didn't elaborate on what those demons were.

Nakamura said he'll be missed. "Adam is going to stick with us," he said with tears in his eyes. "He was a good kid."

Three of Wood's four female roommates, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was "the life of the party" and a generally happy person who was "in love with music." He enjoyed dancing, cooking and playing the piano. "He was amazing at everything," said one of his roommates.

Alex Luong, a UC Merced student and close friend of Wood, said he will always remember Wood's pink sweater, which he would often wear. Wood was openly gay. "He wasn't ashamed of who he was," he reflected.

Sources:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/03/24/1823957/merced-body-found-atop-tower.html
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/03/24/1824834/19-year-old-man-hanging-from-tower.html
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/03/29/1830154_p2/students-suicide-shakes-uc-merced.html

Dominic Crouch

Meet Dominic Crouch, age 15.  Dominic committed suicide in May of 2010 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK.

From the story:

Public schoolboy Dominic Crouch, 15, plunged from the six-storey building near the exclusive St Edwards School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in May of last year, just days after coming back from a four-day art class trip to the Forest of Dean.

Dominic appeared to be happy after returning from the trip, the inquest in Cheltenham heard.

However, on he Tuesday after the expedition the 'carefree' rugby-loving schoolboy left the school at lunchtime and went to a locked block of flats nearby called Withyholt Court.

He managed to gain access to the roof and threw himself off.

Paul Harvey, the school's current headmaster, told the inquest a helper on the trip, Lucy Evans, had reported after Dominic's death that the Year 10 children had been playing 'spin the bottle' on the trip and that it was said Dominic had kissed a boy.
This led to gossip that he might be homosexual.

From The Advocate:

“Dominic was clearly upset about rumours that he believed were being spread about him,” Dominic’s father Roger Crouch told the inquest. “We need to realize that what may be a laugh to some young people are deeply upsetting to another.”

Gloucestershire's deputy coroner David Dooley has ruled the death a suicide.

UPDATE 4/2/2011:

Via a comment from Dominic's mother, Paola Crouch:

I have been so moved by your website. The utter needlessness of loss of life caused by bullying or worse (I see with sadness that one young man was beaten to death). I am Domi's mother. Dominic was not in fact gay but was instinctively opposed to all forms of discrimination. He was driven to his death by taunts which he confirms in his last notes to us, were not true. Dominic was tough and physically fearless which I fear contributed to his undoing. He was also tremendously kind and compassionate and would never have participated in a similar hate campaign against a fellow pupil. We, his family, and the world in general have lost the sort of person that made life worth living, a boy without a single bad bone in his body. Rest in peace my beautiful child.

UPDATE 12/6/2011:

Roger Crouch, Dominic's father, who had spent his time since Dominic's death fighting bullying in schools, committed suicide on November 28th, 2011.  Apparently he had never come to terms with his son's death.

Read more here.



Sources:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/12/05/father-who-set-up-anti-gay-bullying-campaign-after-son-s-suicide-hanged-himself-inquest-hears-115875-23612446/
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/859523-gay-rumours-schoolboy-dominic-crouch-jumped-off-block-of-flats
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/31/Gay_Rumors_Led_Teen_to_Suicide/

Anthony Collao

Meet Anthony Collao, age 18.  Anthony, who was not gay, was beaten to death by five suspects yelling anti-gay slurs at a party.  The party was hosted by two gay friends.

Anthony died when he was removed from life support on Moday March 14th, 2011.

From the story:

Party crashers yelled anti-gay slurs, then beat and stomped a teen to death at a Queens birthday bash, sources and witnesses said.

Anthony Collao, 18, a recent high school graduate who wanted to help run his family's ice cream business, died Monday at Jamaica Hospital.

It's not clear why Collao was targeted. Friends said he had a girlfriend and was not gay - though the two men who threw the party are openly gay.

...


The crashers flashed gang signs, yelled anti-gay slurs and scrawled epithets in red marker on the walls, the two party hosts said.

"They called us homos and all kinds of stuff," said one of the men, who was celebrating his 20th birthday.

Sensing trouble, Collao left with a friend and was chased, sources said. The gang caught up to him, pinned him against a car and "beat him to within an inch of his life," a source said.

A memorial was held March 24th, 2011. 

Police have arrested five suspects thus far in connection with the deadly attack on Collao, who passed away after he was taken off life support. At least one of the suspects is a juvenile. All were charged with manslaughter and assault as hate crimes.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was at the vigil, denouncing anti-gay violence.

"That is what happens when hate goes unchecked. That is what happens when you allow homophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments to fester in a society," said Quinn.

Anthony Collao was not gay, but Thursday night he had the full support of the gay community.  And a sister who still can't believe her brother is gone.

"It just broke my heart completely because losing your older brother, blood running through, it just hurt. It's a pain you can't imagine," she said.

UPDATE 6/24/2011:

According to CBS NEWS  6 men have been charged with murder as a hate crime in Anthony's death.

...


Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Thursday the defendants were each charged in a 21-count indictment that includes second-degree murder as a hate crime. Brown said the charges were upgraded after new evidence from witnesses.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said previously that the suspects made "homophobic remarks" and scrawled on a wall with red markers after crashing the party.

The defendants could face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20073784-504083.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/03/15/2011-03-15_teen_beaten_to_death.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/03/16/2011-03-16_5th_suspect_arrested_in_fatal_beating_of_queens_teen_bragged_of_hate_crime_on_fa.html
http://www.queerty.com/queens-remembers-anthony-collao-the-straight-teen-gay-bashed-to-death-20110325/
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Community-Mourns-Teen-Hate-Crime-Victim-118626209.html

Nick Kelo Jr

Meet Nick Kelo Jr.  Nick was 13 when he died of a self inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 in Rittman, OH.

It is not known whether Nick was gay, but bullying based on the perception that he was gay, apparently played a role.

From the story:

At the tender age of 13, Nicholas Kelo Jr. knew what it was like to be relentlessly bullied. It may have been what persuaded him to pry open a safe inside his Rittman home and remove the gun that killed him.

...

''It had been going on for years,'' Jacqueline Kelo said. ''We would talk and he would say [of the bullies] that they were not worth his time.''

Nick played football in middle school but gave up the sport this year to participate in high school band. The switch, Jacqueline Kelo reasoned, resulted in swelling rumors. Some, she said, wrongly assumed that a kid who would prefer to play the tenor sax rather than tossing a pigskin must be gay.

''After that, it [the bullying] spiraled out of control,'' she said.

...

After Nick's mother found him, an emergency squad rushed him to Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital. He then was transported by helicopter to Akron Children's Hospital. But the handsome boy with the incredible mind could not be saved.

Even in the throes of anguish, his parents had the mindset to donate his organs. ''We just wanted something good to come out of this tragedy,'' said the senior Kelo, who lives in Cuyahoga Falls.

Because the boy had worked so hard to earn a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do and held a red-black belt in kumdo, his body was in remarkably good shape.

''They were able to get nine organs,'' Jacqueline Kelo explained.

...

Nick had once told his mother that if anything happened to him, he wanted his organs to be donated. It was quite a selfless decision for a kid his age, but then Nick wasn't an average child.

A while ago, the Kelos had to have Nick's IQ tested for a program at school. His mother teasingly refused to tell her son that he had scored 152, which is classified as superior intelligence.

''Your head would never fit through the door if you knew,'' she joked with him.

He was curious about how to obtain patents for things he had invented, such as a waffle fork to remove hot food from a toaster and an incinerator trash can.

Sources:

http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/117770373.html

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/03/anti-gay-bullying-leads-to-another-tragic-teen-suicide/

http://thepostnewspapers.com/northernwayne/obituaries/obit-kelo-NW-3-5

Lance Lundsten

Meet Lance Lundsten, age 18.  Lance was an openly gay student at Jefferson High School in Miltona, Minn, when he committed suicide Saturday Jan 15th.

Many of Lance's friends say he was bullied continuously in school because of his sexual orientation.

From the story:

Around 10 p.m. Saturday the Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten's residence in Miltona.

When officers arrived, they discovered 18-year-old Lance Lundsten needing emergency medical care. Lundsten was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died.

The Sheriff's Office confirmed to KSAX that they believed Lundsten's death was a suicide. The Sheriff would not confirm the nature of the medical emergency.

According to his Facebook page, Lundsten was openly gay. On a Facebook memorial page in Lundsten's honor, friends said  that Lundsten had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation. Some students who knew Lundsten believed the bullying may have led to his suicide.

Another Jefferson High School student started a Facebook group following Lundsten's death called the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition.

UPDATE 3/7/2011:

According to KSAX, Lance's death has been formally ruled a suicide due to mixed drug ingestion.  There had been some speculation that an enlarged heart might have been the cause of death, but this has now been ruled out.

Sources:
http://ksax.com/article/stories/S2005847.shtml?cat=10230
http://ksax.com/article/stories/s1928689.shtml
http://prideinutah.com/?p=8242