Daisy Coleman, Sexual Assault Survivor Featured In ‘Audrie & Daisy,’ Dies By Suicide At 23

Sexual assault survivor Daisy Coleman has passed away after taking her own life at just 23 years old. The activist’s mother, Melinda Coleman, confirmed the sad news in a heartbreaking Facebook post on Tuesday.

“My daughter Catherine Daisy Coleman committed suicide tonight,” she wrote. “If you saw crazy messages and posts it was because I called the police to check on her. She was my best friend and amazing daughter. I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can’t. I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair. My baby girl is gone.”

In 2014, Coleman alleged that Matthew Barnett sexually assaulted her at a party in their Missouri hometown two years earlier when she was 14. According to multiple reports, Barnett claimed the incident was consensual and pleaded guilty to child endangerment after an initial felony sexual assault charge was dropped. He received two months’ probation in lieu of a suspended four-month jail sentence and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service in addition to routine drug testing, substance abuse treatment and paying for Coleman’s counseling, per TIME.

Coleman and her family went public about the backlash they faced in their community during the case in addition to social media harassment, which reportedly led to Coleman attempting suicide multiple times. She later shifted her focus to helping other survivors through the national campaign SafeBAE and was one of the subjects of the 2016 Netflix documentary “Audrie & Daisy,” which explored how internet culture affects teenage sexual assault victims.

Coleman told People in 2017 that she didn’t harbor ill will toward Barnett and wanted to move on from a longtime cycle of difficult emotions she’d experienced throughout the ordeal.

“I honestly don’t have any vindictive feelings toward him,” she shared at the time. “I feel like all of that negativity that he put onto me was passed down to him at one point, so I felt the need to stop that kind of transaction of negativity and hate.”

Coleman went on to reflect on the “years of self-loathing” she endured until realizing she wouldn’t achieve closure until she was ready to embrace a difficult but necessary mindset about what had happened.

“I just decided one day that I was done being negative about it. I needed to forgive myself for what happened,” she added.

SafeBAE issued a Facebook statement on Coleman’s death on Tuesday, saying they were “shattered and shocked” over her loss and pledged to maintain her legacy as a victim advocate.

“She would want young survivors to know they are heard, they matter, they are loved, and there are places for them to get the help they need. And she would want everyone else – peer allies, educators, parents, legislators, religious leaders – to come together to help stop sexual violence and help save teen lives,” the post read in part.

— Erin Biglow