Cancer survivor kills herself over bullying

The relentless bullying became too much to handle for an 11-year-old girl with a "crooked" smile, her mother said.

At 3 years old, Bethany Thompson was diagnosed with a brain tumor and battled through radiation treatments. Though cancer-free since 2008, treatment caused nerve damage that changed Bethany's smile. That, and her curly hair, led to bullying, said Bethany's mother, Wendy Feucht.

 

Feucht said after a particularly tough Wednesday with bullies, Bethany told her best friend she couldn't take it anymore, and was going to take her own life.

The Cable, Ohio, sixth grader killed herself that afternoon, October 19.

Her friend's father called Bethany's mom, but it was too late. Bethany found a gun kept in the house, and shot herself one time, police said.

Her stepfather was asleep in another room.

Feucht said Bethany would have had to go searching for a weapon, as she and her husband never told their children where they were and kept the guns out of sight.

"There's a piece missing, I've had this constant in my life for 12 years and now it's gone," Feucht said. "Nothing's going to be able to fill that hole."

"She was my princess, that's my baby girl. Life revolved around her for me," said Bethany's dad, Paul Thompson.

Champaign County Sheriff said they're treating the death as an apparent suicide.