An 11 year old boy, Tysen Benz, was at home when he saw social media
posts indicating that his 13-year-old girlfriend had committed suicide.
The posts were a prank, but the 11-year-old boy apparently believed them
and thought his girlfriend had really died.
Using a cellphone he had bought without his mother's knowledge, Tysen on
March 14, read texts and other messages about the fake suicide of his
and decided he would end his life too, his mother Katrina Goss said.
After seeing the posts about his girlfriend, Tysen
replied over social media that he was going to kill himself, yet no one
involved in the prank told an adult or even told Benz that it was a
joke, not even the supposed girlfriend, Goss said.
Moments later, his mother found him hanging by his neck in his room in
Marquette, Michigan.