Amanda Todd, a Vancouver-area teenager who posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube last month about her ordeal with bullies, was found dead Wednesday night in Coquitlam, Canada.
Todd's death is being investigated by Coquitlam RCMP as a "sudden death", as is typical in cases of suicide, and no details have yet been released, according to Maple Ridge News.
In the chilling video, Amanda Todd stands in front of a camera with her face out of shot, as she shares her story via a stack of cue cards. Todd, 15, says she recalls being severely beaten by classmates and having nude photos of her circulated on the web. She entitled the video "My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm."
She documents a painful tale of being harassed through Facebook and shunned at school, leaving her feeling alone and suicidal. At one point she talks about harming herself and going home and drinking bleach.
Amanda developed anxiety, depression, and anxiety disorders, she says in the video, followed by a path into drugs and alcohol.
Soon after, the bullying started again and she began to cut herself. Amanda moved to yet another school, where, after a boy began flirting with her, a troupe of girls from her first school came and beat her up. "Kids filmed it," she writes. "I was all alone and left on the ground."
"Teachers ran over but I just went and layed in a ditch and my dad found me." When she went home with her dad, she drank bleach in an attempt to kill herself, but was saved after a rushed trip to the hospital.
"I'm struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply," Todd wrote as the description for the video. "I'm not doing this for attention. I'm doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong."
She changed schools and found a new group of friends in an effort to leave behind the bullies. Then the man created a Facebook profile, using her uncensored photo as his profile picture. "Cried every night, lost all my friends and respect people had for me... again... then nobody liked me," she wrote in the video.
A Facebook page called "Rest in Peace Amanda Todd" was created Wednesday, and now has dozens of posts offering condolences.
"RIP Amanda, now nobody can hurt you ever again. On the same note, we are sad, because the ones that loved you can never hug or kiss you again. Thank you for leaving such a powerful message behind, even though it wasn't on time to help you, hoping it can help others out there. RIP," reads one comment.
Watch the heart-wrenching video of Amanda Todd's story below:
