Texas City Teen Commits Suicide In Front Of Her Family

TEXAS CITY, TX -- An 18-year old girl shot herself to death in front of her family after she was allegedly relentlessly cyber-bullied by classmates at Texas City High School.

Brandy Vela died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to her chest Tuesday.

Brandy Vela's final text to her family was: "I love you so much just remember that please and I'm so sorry for everything."

Her sister, Jacqueline Vela, 22, told KPRC that she heard Brandy upstairs crying moments before she pulled the trigger.

She went up to her sister's bedroom and found her standing with her back to the wall and a gun pressed to her chest.

"I was the first one here," said Jacqueline Vela, Brandy's older sister, said.

Before long, other family members came to Brandy's room to try and stop her.

Jacqueline left her sisters room, weeping and moments later she heard the gunshot and her father screaming for someone to help.

Brandy Vela was taken to Clear Lake Regional Hospital by EMS, but died on the way.

For much of her high school life, Brandy Vela endured instances of bullying online about her weight, and instances of her image being used to set up fake profiles on dating websites, with graphic sexual descriptions.

"They would make dating websites of her and they would put her number and they would put her picture and lie about her age and say she is giving herself up for sex for free, to call her," Jacqueline told KPRC.

The family filed numerous reports with law enforcement, alerted the school but no arrests were ever made.

"School was a safe environment for Brandy," Melissa Tortorici,Texas City Independent school District's director of communications, said in a statement. "She had a lot of friends and was thought of warmly by her
peers and teachers. She did bring it to the school's attention before Thanksgiving break that she was getting harassing messages to her cellphone outside of school. Our deputy investigated it and the app that
was being used to send the messages was untraceable. We encouraged her to change her phone number."

Brandy's family did follow through with changing her phone number, but cyber-bullies still managed to obtain her number.

Meanwhile, investigators with the Texas City Police said they are still actively investigating the cyber-bullying allegations.

Family members said they have a good idea who may have been behind some of these attacks and have been assisting in the investigation.

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