Moment my world fell apart
Mother’s anguish at discovering teenage daughter’s body after accidental cheating confession
A MOTHER has told how she was led to her troubled daughter’s body by the teenager’s final anguished smartphone message.
Charlotte Guy, 17, hanged herself after accidentally revealing to her long-term boyfriend on Snapchat that she had slept with another man.
Her mother Debbie then used a map embedded in the message to find the student’s body – and then her ‘world fell apart’. Speaking for the first time about the tragedy in September last year, Mrs Guy, 48, said: ‘We followed the map to some nearby woods and after frantically racing to the scene we were greeted by the police, who had already found her body.
‘Despite the hospital working to try and save her for an hour we were told that she hadn’t made it. That’s when my world fell apart.’
Miss Guy, from Wigan, had mistakenly confessed about cheating to boyfriend Jack Hirst just 48 hours after breaking up with him.
She sent the 20-year-old a message that read: ‘Goodbye, please forgive me.’ She added: ‘I love you – knowing you hate me is enough.’ Worried for her safety, he quickly sent a copy of the Snapchat map to Charlotte’s mother. Within hours they had found the teenager, described by her family as their ‘little princess’. She had cocaine and alcohol in her system, an inquest last month revealed.
Only that morning, she had been celebrating her mother’s birthday and helped her open presents.
Mrs Guy said: ‘Charlotte and Jack had broken up days before and it was a chaotic 48 hours which led her to doing this...
‘That evening she told us that she was going to her friend’s house to pick up her clothes. But just one hour later, when Charlotte still wasn’t home, we arrived at her friend’s house and realised she’d never been there.’
Mrs Guy later learned about the message that her daughter had earlier sent to Mr Hirst in error.
She said: ‘She accidentally sent a message to a [Snapchat] group that Jack was in, stating that she had slept with someone else – the guilt obviously got too much and she thought the only way out was to kill herself.’ The college student had suffered from mental health issues from the age of 12 after being bullied at school and had twice attempted suicide. Her family believe health staff could have done more.
Mrs Guy said: ‘I am convinced that Charlotte cried wolf and thought she was about to be found and rescued again – but this time we didn’t. I truly believe that she didn’t know the severity of what she was doing.
‘If she had immediate mental health support when she first felt suicidal in 2013, we’d still have her with us today.’
She now wants to campaign for improved mental health services so the tragedy ‘doesn’t happen to anyone else’s little girl’.
She and husband Martin, 48, and their three sons aged between 15 and 30 have since revisited the spot where Charlotte was found to pray for her. Mrs Guy said: ‘It was nice to feel like we were there with her. Charlotte was a massive family girl and loved her brothers. Also she loved Elvis, so he’s constantly playing in the house.’
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or go to www.samaritans.org
‘The guilt got too much’