A complete tragedy.
My mother asked me crying, if I knew how she could console her best friend after her daughters death this last Sunday. After losing a child herself my mother knew that there was no good way. Tragic story. I knew this girl.
Suicide is a very important topic.

A family asks, 'Why?'

11-year-old girl hangs herself

BY ELVA RAMIREZ, TONY SCLAFANI and NANCY DILLON DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Liangie Cruz Stunned family members were struggling to come to grips yesterday with the death of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl, a straight-A student and altar girl who took her own life. Little Liangie Cruz didn't leave a note before locking herself in her family's East New York bathroom and hanging herself Sunday. "That's the creepy part about it, you know," said her brother Roger Carrion, 28, who discovered her body. "We have no idea [why]. That's a mystery that will stay with us forever." Friends and family described the altar girl at St. Sylvester Catholic Church as shy and respectful among adults but outgoing among friends. Her brother struggled to recall any warning signs leading up to the death. He said the girl had been trying on her new school uniform with her grandmother downstairs before heading up to the bathroom. "She didn't say a word. She just went upstairs quietly," he said. He said Liangie suffered from asthma but was in a good mood early Sunday, with plans to hang out with friends and swim in the family's backyard pool. "Shy as she was, she was certainly not a withdrawn girl," said the Rev. Anthony Raso, pastor at St. Sylvester. "She made mistakes on the altar rarely. And when she did, she took them to heart." The youngest daughter of Nicaraguan immigrants, Liangie took dance lessons at the Joanette Dance Studio in Ozone Park and was a member of a prayer club called Mary's Group. "She wanted to be a singer and a dancer," said Principal Ana Maria Ricciardi. "This is so unexpected. We're in a fog." Suicide takes the lives of hundreds under 14 Suicide is rare among children under 14, but hundreds of kids in this age group take their lives every year. Experts say spotting the depression that can lead some children to suicide requires the vigilance of adults. Stressful events such as divorce, a move or an illness or death in the family can bring about despair in kids. Other warning signs of depression include changes in everything from appetite to sleeping patterns and an inability to concentrate. Still, it's often difficult to diagnose depression in children. "Children keep much more inside," said Dr. Andrew Slaby, a psychiatry professor at New York University. "What one looks for is a family history of depression or suicide, and that's often an uncomfortable topic." In 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available, some 264 kids 14 or younger killed themselves in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That number was down from the 315 kids in this age group who committed suicide in 1993. "This is still a big public health issue, but we're starting to see a fall in rates that grew twofold to fourfold from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s," said Slaby. He added that the decrease over the past two decades appears to be in direct proportion to the number of prescriptions written for anti-depressant drugs. Nancy Dillon