Grieving Illinois mother fears scolding she gave daughter, 10, may have driven youngster to hang herself

A grieving mother is struggling to understand why her 10-year-old daughter took her own life. 

Harmony Rose Washington, a fourth grader at Prairie Trails Elementary school in Chicago, died by suicide after she hanging herself from a tree out the front of her home on February 20, days after her 10th birthday.

Her mom, 36-year-old Mayolita Gaines, had been planning Harmony's birthday party inside just hours before making the horrific discovery.

Seven months on, she still can't comprehend her daughter's death, and is overcome with questions about Harmony's mental health.

There were no warning signs that Gaines' 'friendly and bubbly' little girl was struggling. 

She'd been scolded for making disrespectful comments toward her uncle, Gaines told the Chicago Tribune, and the family thought she'd taken herself up to her bedroom.

About 9.20pm, while Gaines was on the phone to Harmony's father, who is incarcerated, some of her other children began screaming for her attention.

'They're screaming. The way that they scream — it was one of those like somebody was getting killed when they called out my name,' she said. 

'My oldest came inside, and they're just screaming 'Mommy, mommy, mommy.' You can hear the pain. You can hear the hurt. You can just hear everything in 'mommy.'

The children had found Harmony's limp body hanging from the tree outside their home. 

As someone took her down and brought her inside, much of the evening from then became a blur for Gaines. She remembers calling 911, as other members of the family performed CPR.

Harmony was officially pronounced dead at the hospital, about an hour later.

Gaines is still trying to work out what Harmony's motive could have been. 

With the benefit of hindsight, she questions whether she was struggling with her father's incarceration, or if she was inspired by something she'd seen on social media. 

Gaines wonders whether her daughter 'maybe wanted attention', or if she was tipped over the edge by bullying at school or the argument they'd had that evening.

'It could be so many things I've thought about, but we'll never know,' Gaines said. 

'As parents, we don't know that we're doing anything wrong. We think that everything is OK. I learn now that I try to not yell as much, because I know it may be a trigger to them.' 

The mother-of-seven said Harmony's favorite subject at school was math, and she loved swimming and the beach.

Dr. Aron Janssen, who works in psychiatry at the Lurie Children's Hospital, said suicide is the second-leading cause of death among kids aged 10-14 in Illinois.

It's a crisis spurred by the lack of research, funding and infrastructure in helping provide mental health support to children that young.

'I think partially it's that a lot of the interventions and processes that we have in place to screen for suicide have historically been built for older adolescents and adults,' he said. 

He added that while it was once a 'very rare event historically' for children so young to end their own lives, it is now becoming more common.

Beyond that, just 10 per cent of young people disclose their plans, while only 20 per cent are considered depressed at the time of thei death.

'For a lot of kids, what we see is that suicide is an impulsive act. It's not something that many of these kids are thinking about and planning out in a structured way,' he said. 

'It's something was overwhelming in the moment, and you have access to means that are lethal.'