Tragic Twist For Maryville Rape Victim

One of the teens involved in the ongoing Maryville rape case, Daisy Coleman, tried to commit suicide on Sunday, her mother reports. Melinda Coleman took to Facebook to relay her daughter's subsequent hospitalization and to encourage the hacktivist group Anonymous to broadcast her case. Her mother says that Daisy went to a party last Friday for a short time, then overdosed on a drug at home after being bullied via Facebook. This is Daisy's third suicide attempt, according to Melinda Coleman.

The MailOnline suggests that Daisy may have suffered brain damage.

"I had let her go to a party with a friend, she was there for an hour and a half. Then she came home and saw Facebook. (One girl) decided to write something saying 'you're a fake and a phoney,' 'you wanted it' and 'you're a slut' because she went to the party," Coleman told the MailOnline. "She's not coherent, she makes no sense, she's like a two year old. I asked the nurse if she thought she would get better and she said there was no way of telling."

The Maryville rape case was widely broadcast in October after the Kansas City Star reported that the charges against then-17-year-old Matthew Barnett —whom Daisy accuses of raping her and leaving her outside in freezing cold weather when she was 14 —were dropped due to a supposed lack of evidence. Barnett is the grandson of a prominent Missouri representative. As Bustle reported:

On Jan. 7, 2012, Daisy and a 13-year-old friend were drinking and snuck out to be with Barnett and a group of friends at his house. Daisy says the last thing she remembers drinking was a “big glass of clear stuff.” After her friend was allegedly forced to have sex with a 15-year-old boy, they were brought back to Coleman’s house, where the boys said they’d look after an incoherent Daisy until she was sober again. Daisy was crying, the girl says.

Since that time, Daisy has tried to commit suicide twice, her mother says. Their house in Maryville, Mo., burned down (the questionable causes of the fire are still under investigation). The Coleman family, who lost their father in a car accident, moved back to the town where his death occurred, to escape relentless bullying. Melinda Coleman was fired from her job at a veterinary clinic because, as her former boss told the Kansas City Star, her “style of medicine didn’t jive.”

Hacktivist group Anonymous jumped on the story, demanding #Justice4Daisy and her friend Paige Parkhurst — who was also allegedly sexually assaulted that night — and the Maryville case was reopened in October. Daisy herself wrote an xoJane article about her experiences. She described her prior suicide attempts:

Why would I even want to believe in a God? Why would a God even allow this to happen? I lost all faith in religion and humanity. I saw myself as ugly, inside and out. If I was this ugly on the inside, then why shouldn’t everyone see the ugly I saw?

I burned and carved the ugly I saw into my arms, wrists, legs and anywhere I could find room...My scars only come to the surface when I’m tan or cold now. It’s as if over time my body learned to heal some of the ugly, but it will always be a part of me.

Just like this case. It will live with me forever.

After the media firestorm died down, Daisy's mother says they were forgotten. The girls felt like they had a global support system, she says.

Anonymous has since responded on its Twitter, reopening the #OpMaryville hashtag.

Melinda Coleman has been very vocal on her Facebook page, particularly with one girl whom she believes targeted Daisy.

One thing is certain: Online bullying — no matter what age you are — is never OK.

Image via Facebook