Boy, 12, driven to suicide after cruel schoolyard bullies tormented him over the death of his father who also killed himself

Boy, 12, driven to suicide after cruel schoolyard bullies tormented him over the death of his father who also killed himself

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A schoolboy was driven to suicide after bullies who taunted him mercilessly about the death of his father who also killed himself.

Joel Morales, 12, was found by his mother hanging in the bathroom of their apartment in East Harlem, New York, on Tuesday.

The boy's father had committed suicide about 12 years ago when he jumped off a rooftop in New York's Bronx borough, it has been revealed.

Today, neighbours told how the boy's mother Lizbeth Babilonia let out a 'blood-curdling scream' as she cut down her son's body with a knife before plunging the blade into herself.

Relatives said the boy was teased for being short and brainy but the final tipping point were taunts about his dead father.

Joel was 4 months old when his dad died.

Now the boy's mother is dealing with a loss eerily familiar to the death of her son's father, family members told the New York Post.

Richard Salazar, 25, Babilonia's other son said to the Post: 'She’s going through the same thing she went through then.'

The boy's aunt Angelica Babilonia, 23, said he told a friend just hours before taking his life: 'I’m tired of all this bullying.'

His mother had become concerned about Joel's whereabouts on Tuesday and sent out a search party to find her son.