Teen suicides’ kin: ‘We should have paid closer attention’

Looking back, there were clues â€" signs that the two eighth-graders in rural Minnesota felt isolated, estranged from their classmates, bullied perhaps, alone except for each other, family members said. And there were signs that the two were planning something.

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But no one close to the two 14-year-olds â€" Haylee Fentress, a bubbly redhead, or her best friend, Paige Moravetz, a hockey goalie with an infectious smile â€" had any idea how desperate things had become until it was too late. Just how desperate became tragically clear Saturday morning when, after a sleepover at Haylee’s house, the two girls hanged themselves in what family members and authorities believe was a suicide pact. Their bodies, along with brief suicide notes, were found by Haylee’s mother, Tracy Morrison.
“There had been times that she posted things” on her Facebook page, Haylee’s cousin Hillary Settle told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in an exclusive interview Thursday. Just 10 days before their deaths, Haylee had written, “I’m so nervous and I just want to get it over with,” according to Settle, adding, “I love you, Paige.”
“Maybe we should have paid closer attention,” Settle said. “Maybe everyone should have paid closer attention.”
Paige’s uncle, Brett Behnke, linked into the same interview, agreed: “We need to pay more attention to these things.”
Targets of bullying?
The deaths of the two girls have shocked the small community of Marshall, in rural Minnesota, and raised questions about whether the two had been the target of bullying. Officials at the Marshall Middle School both girls attended have declined to comment on the bullying allegations.
But there is evidence that there was friction between the girls and their classmates. Just weeks before their deaths, family members say, Haylee was expelled from school after getting into a fight to defend Paige when other students allegedly harassed her.

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