13 Year Old Girl Who Caused the Death of Her 11 Year Old Boyfriend Faces Criminal Charges

The Washington Post tells the sad story of how cyber bullying has claimed the life on an innocent 11-year-old boy. Tysen Benz was in his room when he received a text message saying someone he knew had committed suicide. His alleged 13 year old girlfriend, whose name has been with held, was texting and talking on Snapchat with Tysen. She was using someone else’s account when she told Tysen that his girlfriend had died. Unknown to him, it was a prank, and sadly, the distraught boy hung himself in his closet a few minutes later.

His mother, Katrina Goss, who just happened to be checking on her three sons went into Tysen’s room, only to find him hanging dead in his closet.

“I went in and I thought he was being silly, i ended up finding him in the closet . … I tried to hurry up and lift him up. I was screaming. I told my oldest son to call 911. My littlest one was bawling,”  Goss told The Post.

The boy was hospitalized for three weeks, after being revived by paramedics before he died on Tuesday.

The involved girl has now been charged with malicious use of telecommunication service, punishable by up to six months in juvenile detention; and using a computer to commit a crime, which carries up to a year in punishment. Both are misdemeanor charges.

Katrina described her son’s death as the result of “a twisted, sick joke”  in the form of cyberbullying on social media. She now wants to raise awareness about how social media platforms influence children’s actions.

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“I want him to basically be the face of the cause. It’s a serious issue that I feel is completely skirted, The way that children are using social media currently in this day and age is just terrible,” Goss Said

The girl’s family is yet to comment about the case.