15-year-old Tovonna Holton from Florida shot herself using her mother’s handgun, after a video of her naked in the shower was taken and posted on Snapchat.
The video was widely shared amongst friends and their outer circle online, and she killed herself hours after. She had told her mother earlier in the afternoon that she was worried about nude images which had been taken without her permission, but did not tell her the full details.
She said, “Tovonna would say, ‘Mommy, I owe them; I owe them’. I said, ‘What do you mean you owe them?’ I couldn’t understand what was wrong.”
Tovonna’s Aunt, Angel Scott, said that the family only found out the full details of the event after they asked Tovonna’s friends for information online after she had taken her life.
Scott said she asked the teenagers, “‘If anybody knows anything, what happened? Have you heard of anything? Do you know who these kids are who have the pictures?’
“I thought it was just pictures and then the kids started inboxing me.
“Everybody was out there talking about her and calling her names and they said it went up on social media, Snapchat.”
Tovonna’s mother, Levon Holton-Teamer, told WFLA news station that her daughter had been targeted by bullies at her high school.
A picture of Tovonna is being shared on social media with the hashtag #stopbullying, while her family hope that those responsible will receive punishment for their bullying.
“I want them to pay, to feel what we’re feeling, even if their child is convicted or in trouble they can go visit their child,” Ms Scott said.