6-Year-Old Boy Upset Over Parent’s Divorce Commits Suicide So My Heart is Broken On the Floor

shutterstock_125082605__1374068271_74.134.205.46I have a hard time fathoming how a child this young can even understand the concept of suicide. I know this won’t bring back this little boy and other children at such a young age have also killed themselves, but it still breaks my heart and makes me wish that something, anything, could have been done to prevent this. Six is so little! It’s still Yo Gabba Gabba and making Lego guys talk age. It just makes me so sad. From The Argus Observer:

 

According to Clark, the victim was watching cartoons on the TV in the living room with his 7-year-old sister, while another sibling, a 13-year-old, was napping in a bedroom. The young boy’s mother and stepfather were both home at the time and were showering when the incident occurred.

The victim left his sister and went into the kitchen, which was near the living room, and the sister reported to police that she heard her brother making noise in the kitchen, Clark said.

The young boy proceeded to take off his belt, tie it into a makeshift noose and hang himself from the freezer handle of the family’s refrigerator, Clark said. After the cartoons ended, his sister went into the kitchen and found his body. Later, she told police that she thought it was about 20 minutes from the time he left her alone in the living room to the time she found his body.

Clark said that the girl began to scream and ran to find her parents, who immediately rushed to the kitchen, cut the belt and one parent performed CPR in a nearby bedroom while the other called 911.

After investigations with family members, school employees and friends it was discovered the little guy had anger issues that stemmed from his parent’s divorce two years earlier. Investigators weren’t able to tell if he meant to end his own life or if he truly understood the consequences of what he was doing. I feel so awful for his family and his other young siblings. I can’t imagine what all of these people are going through. It’s just so tragic. I have no idea how we can stop kids from thinking suicide is the answer, especially when it happens to ones who are so young. This baby really had his whole life ahead of him and I know divorce is hard on kids but it does get better. Stories like this are so hard. I sometimes wonder if when something like this happens that parents can sense that even though we don’t know them, that we are out here, and we care. I can’t understand the pain they are dealing with but I hope they know we all have them in our hearts.

(Image: umbertoleporini/shutterstock)

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    • Blueathena623

      Where do kids learn this? My heart is breaking, but I can’t help but wonder. I don’t think I even knew was a noose was at that age.

    • Rachel

      Poor child. I really doubt that he grasped what he was doing. My heart goes out to the family, especially the sister.

    • http://sarahhollowell.com/ Sarah Hollowell

      Oh, god. I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. Losing a child is awful enough, but that young, and to suicide? That’s not something you even think about with a 6-year-old.

      I have to believe that he didn’t really understand the consequences of what he was doing, because it just breaks my heart even more if he truly felt suicidal. I know what that feels like and the idea of a child going through that just…ugh. I can’t deal with it.

    • Cee

      Oh my god! Six years old?! I seriously hope he did not understand what he was doing. I mean, I highly doubt he thought this through. How does a child his age know how to do this?! Oh man, this is just so sad.
      Though, I remember that when I was a kid and would be very upset, I would think “I should just go outside and let a car hit me, that’ll show them.” Obviously, I never understood the thought process. I mean, show them? I would be dead. End of my dreams and goals. So maybe, he COULD have thought of hurting or killing himself but lacked the comprehension to know what it really meant.

    • http://www.twitter.com/ohladyjayne allisonjayne

      His 7 year old sister found him? Oh man. That is just awful awful awful….

    • geckomommy

      This is just…terrifying. My heart breaks for them.

    • Annie

      I’ve suffered from clinical depression from about that age, it was genetic but probably triggered by my dad’s deployment. I did things like stay under the bed or on the bathroom floor, motionless, for hours at a time.

      It’s not just a sign of the times, this generation’s problem, thing. People need to take young children’s depression seriously because things like this do happen.

      I’m not saying that this little guy’s parents didn’t, by the by, because it sounds like the adults in his life were aware and being a support system for him. The blame doesn’t go to them. But I hope that people don’t brush this off as a freak occurrence because just because something’s rare, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

    • Abendwind

      This is horrible I’m literally crying

    • meteor_echo

      I’ve been thinking about killing myself from a very early age, mostly because of growing up with abusive parents (and because of being abused at school). The only reason I didn’t go through with it was because our family was poor and I was afraid they wouldn’t bury me properly because of the lack of money. Kids understand the concept of death – maybe not as fully as adults, but they still do. Death is the rest from screaming, from objects being thrown around the house, from having to sit under the bed for hours until your parents shut the fuck up and go to sleep. Even little kids understand this.

    • JLH1986

      Sadly we had several clients at the facility I used to work in that were between 5-8 who had actively tried to commit suicide. Several more who openly discussed it and had a plan. I’m not sure I even knew what suicide was until I was a pre teen. :(

    • Jitendra Sharma

      I feel there an urgent need
      to enact a Law…..”The children of sparring spouses/partners , who have no
      hope to reconcile their differences , will be taken away from their
      care and handed over to those childless couples who are craving for
      children; AND, on parting / divorce, the biological parents will
      forfeit their parental rights over their own children”; Such a
      pre-condition for Divorce, may inter-alia help in reducing the
      number of divorces ; AND force the sparring partners to reach an
      agreement to “Continue to Live under the same roof as Mother and
      Father”…with their other personal relationships kept outside the 4
      walls of the household….THUS we may ensure a happier society for
      future generations !!!

      • BubbleyToes

        I don’t think forcing people to stay married when they are in an unhappy or even volitile relationship is a good solution. It is much better for children to have a happy home, even if that means two seperate happy homes, than it is for them to live with hostility and anger 24/7. This is not his parents’ fault because they divorced. This little boy clearly has a very hard time emotionally and mentally and while he may not have gotten the care he needed in that respect, his mother and father not being married is not what caused him to complete suicide.

      • Jitendra Sharma

        If you had correctly interpreted , what has been proposed, it in reality meets the aspirations of the young kids who far no fault of theirs have to suffer during their formative years of upbringing. Why should children be allowed to be treated as ‘ Natural Properties’ by such mothers or fathers, who care two hoots for their future in any case. Why should not the children of such partners find a much more congenial homely atmosphere of foster parents who crave for ultimate gift of Lord..’Children’. Let those partners part their ways, but without anyone having the right over the children…..these unfortunate children must be made fortunate by getting a happy home in the warmth of foster parents ( Who of course will be always kept under the watchful eyes of Children Welfare NGO’s maintaining a surveillance report , initially monthly over one year of adoption, then gradually tapering off till the age of 16 years).

        However, the proposed clause, may act as an antidote to the differences among the natural parents and even if, a small percentage of such people get deterred to go in for divorce, they will amicably resolve to enter a bilateral agreement of understanding…” For the sake of our beloved innocent children , we shall live together as under the same roof as Mother and
        Father and provide for our kids a sweet happy home,.. won’t ever fight in front of them…. keeping our private personal relationships outside the 4 walls of home”….Child care under the warmth of natural parents is certainly more fruitful than the warmth which the foster parents craving for children can provide…… Lord
        Let it be So !!!

      • S.S. Stokes

        You’re an idiot trying to sound philosophical. Using ‘thus’ and ‘enact’ doesn’t lessen the stupidity of your post.

    • BubbleyToes

      I’ve worked with kids who were this young and suicidal. Some of them were homicidal as well, with a plan. It seems incredible that they can have these thoughts but they do. It’s important to take threats, even those said in passing, seriously. It never hurts to see a mental health professional. I wonder if he had ever been referred to his school’s counselor if, like they said, he had been having such a difficult time for 2 whole years.

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