The recent death of a Lady Lake teenager is being viewed by police as a suicide.
Lady Lake police officers were called to a home in the 200 block of Skyline Drive on July 13 after the 17-year-old’s friend received a text message that read: “hey bro I’m sorry but this is goodbye.” The text was sent at 5:32 a.m. and the friend discovered it when he woke up shortly before 8 a.m., a Lady Lake police report states.
The friend said he quickly “skateboarded” to the teenager’s house and when no one answered the door, he knocked on a window to wake up the teenager’s uncle’s girlfriend, who also lives in the home. When she opened the door, they rushed to the teenager’s room and found his body lying beside a 12-gauge shotgun, the report says.
When officers arrived, the friend told them that the two would occasionally “joke around” about committing suicide, but he didn’t think the teenager was ever serious about it.
The uncle’s girlfriend told police that she had last seen the teenager on the night of July 12 at dinner when “everything appeared normal and she did not notice anything out of the ordinary” about his behavior, the report says.
Officers also made contact with the teenager’s mother and uncle at their workplaces in Lady Lake. His mother told officers that she also had last seen him at dinner. She said she got up for work at 4 a.m. and didn’t see him or hear from him that morning.
Police also talked with the teenager’s uncle, who lives in the residence. He said he saw his nephew at dinner the night before and then had gotten up for work around 6:45 a.m. He added that he hadn’t seen or heard from his nephew that morning.
Officers reported finding a note on top of the teenager’s dresser that was labeled as a “will.” It was collected and put into evidence along with the shotgun and ammunition that was found in his room.
Officers also noted in the report that there didn’t appear to be any signs of foul play and the teenager’s death is believed to have been caused by a self-inflicted shotgun wound.
The report added that the medical examiner took possession of the teenager’s body shortly after 10 a.m. following their investigation.
