Three teenagers stand accused of driving a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl to suicide after she began talking to one of their ex-boyfriends. The young teen who died, McKenna Brown, of Pinellas County, Florida, ended her life in August after she was relentlessly harassed by a trio of bullies who she had previously been friends with for years. Within five days of the start of the bullying, McKenna took her own life.
Now, the three bullies, who were teammates with McKenna in the hockey league, have been kicked out of the league and suspended for driving their former friend to end her life. Authorities unearthed a bunch of abusive text messages that showed how her former friends and teammates tried to “cancel” her after she chatted with one of their ex-boyfriends.
The three female bullies have not been identified publicly due to their young age. However, all three girls have been kicked out of the Lightning High School Hockey League following their abusive treatment of the teen.
Now, McKenna’s parents Cheryl and Hunter Brown, claim that their daughter was harassed relentlessly by the three bullies who had been friends with McKenna only days before they started bullying her. She had actually hung out with the girls in the days leading up to her suicide and the abuse that came before that incident.
Although the three bullies were responsible for McKenna’s death, they attended her funeral services. However, they did not speak to McKenna’s parents out of fear. McKenna’s parents were disturbed that the bullies who drove their young daughter to suicide were present for the funeral service.
The bullying began after McKenna and the other girls ran into one of the girl’s ex-boyfriends at the beach. The boy started “flirting” with McKenna, and so McKenna asked her friend if it was okay with her if she spoke to the boy. Her mom said that the friend initially told McKenna that it was totally fine that she speak to the boy but grew jealous when the pair started chatting.
Afterward, McKenna received a “barrage of texts and phone calls from the girl,” the Browns told Dr. Phil.
“McKenna had asked the one friend/teammate if she’d mind if she talked to her ex-boyfriend from two years earlier, and she said it was okay,” Cheryl told Fox 13. “She then realized a few days later that it wasn’t okay with a friend based on how she retaliated.”
McKenna apologized to her friend for “crossing the line.” She then discussed the bullying with her mother, who her daughter said was her “best friend.” When the Browns went to dinner later that night, McKenna saw a social media post from the other girls that showed them all together without McKenna. Her “face went white,” Cheryl said.
The next morning, Cheryl entered McKenna’s room and found the teen “face down” on the floor.
“I thought she was sleeping. I went over to her and went to turn her over, and she was cold and stiff, and I knew that she was gone,” the mother told Dr. Phil.
McKenna left a “thoughtful” suicide note that failed to identify the culprits, but her mother “knew that it had to have had something to do with these girls.”