Nakia, a petite 14-year-old with long hair and a sweet smile, killed herself overnight Sunday while live-streaming the event. The child welfare administrators and the Miami Gardens Police Department were investigating the suicide death of “a child … in the care of a foster family.”
“We are absolutely horrified and devastated by the news of this young girl’s death,” said DCF Secretary Mike Carroll. “We will do everything we can to support this family and all those who cared for her as they begin to heal from this tragedy. We will conduct a comprehensive, multidisciplinary special review to examine this child’s history and the circumstances related to serving the child.” It said the teen attached her scarf to a “shower-glass door frame” to end her life at around 3:03 a.m. and was declared dead “at a local hospital.”
One of Nakia’s friends saw the live feed that showed her hanging in the bathroom, but efforts to save the girl were hindered by a series of mishaps. The friend called Miami-Dade Police. Officers showed up at the friend’s house. She then gave them an incorrect address in Miami. The residents at that address gave police the address of her foster home in Miami Gardens, Miami Gardens police spokeswoman Petula Burks told the Herald.
Miami Gardens officers found her hanging there — while her foster parents were asleep in their bedroom. They tried to resuscitate her, as did a fire-rescue crew. Efforts to revive Nakia were unsuccessful and she was taken to Jackson North Hospital, Burks said.
“Nakia was smart academically, loved to smile and [had] lots of charisma,” said a close family friend, Gerta Telfort. She said Nakia was her mother’s first child and only girl
Three weeks before Nakia’s death, on Dec. 30, 12-year-old Katelyn Nicole Davis of Cedartown, Ga., killed herself in a 40-minute live video. The video was posted through a site called “Live.me” and was taken down by family members as soon as relatives became aware, reported McClatchy, the Herald’s parent company. While the video was live, viewers saved versions of it and posted them elsewhere, including on Faceook.
In recent months, two other suicide attempts in France and Thailand were thwarted when viewers alerted police.