Harrowing sound that alerted mother to her teen daughter’s suicide

Warning: This article may contain some distressing information.

A chilling sound led a mother to the heartwrenching discovery of her teenage daughter’s suicide.

Isabel, 15, died by suicide in October 2023. Credit: Memories

Katherine Nugent’s 15-year-old daughter Isabel tragically took her own life in October 2023, Daily Mail reported.

The bright and talented teenager was well-liked by her peers at school in Washington, D.C. She excelled in various fields, including art, soccer, swimming, and poetry, and had a remarkable IQ of 160.

Despite her struggles with depression and chronic pain from fibromyalgia, which led to a suicide attempt at age 13, she had recently shown signs of improvement through therapy and medication.

Isabel’s sudden death was a devastating shock to her mother, as the young girl was in the middle of planning a sleepover with friends and a school fundraiser.

The teen’s mom believes her daughter was scrolling online before she tragically died. Credit: Memories

The grieving mom spoke to USA Today about the horrifying moment she found her lifeless daughter.

She revealed that the first sign that something was off was the haunting sound of her alarm clock. “I don’t know why it didn’t strike me as weird that it was just ringing and ringing and ringing,” Katherine shared.

“The light was on in the bathroom, and I thought she was getting ready for school. And then I said, ‘Isabel,’ and she didn’t answer. And so I thought, ‘She must have her headphones on.’ And so I pushed the door, and it wouldn’t push open. And then it pushed open, and she was dead on the floor,” she added.

Isabel’s death deeply affected her classmates, who turned out in large numbers to honor her memory at her memorial service. One classmate with disabilities shared how the teen was among the few who befriended him at school.

“She was not like this fallen apart, depressed person,” Katherine said. “When you saw her at school, she was interacting. She was laughing. She was joking. She was engaged. … And she told me she wasn’t depressed anymore.”

“It was like she had a double life that she didn’t tell anybody,” she continued. “She didn’t tell any of her friends the day that she did it. She was laughing and talking with her friends at school, talking about huge plans to have a sleepover and go to March for the Arts that weekend.”

 

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Despite the late teen’s intellectual abilities, she struggled with self-esteem issues, her mom revealed.

“She was in the 99.99th percentile in terms of her intelligence, and she was in the 2nd percentile in terms of her self-image,” Katherine said. “She just thought she was worthless.”

The unpredictable nature of suicide is a complex and often misunderstood topic. The bereaved mom, who fears her daughter’s death may have been connected to her social media use, feels compelled to raise awareness after her beloved child’s tragedy.

“It’s almost like it’s heart disease,” the mom said. “Sometimes you have a heart attack and you survive and you get medicine and you get treatment, and you live the rest of your life.”

“And sometimes, you then have another heart attack and another heart attack, and then you have one that kills you,” she continued. “And sometimes you live a long time, and there’s no sign of anything, and then you have a heart attack and you die. I think it’s much more complex than we understand.”

Our thoughts are with Isabel’s loved ones at this time