His voice rose, whip-cracking righteous outrage. Another memorial service for a teenager who died by her own hand. Teen suicide is an epidemic. The death rate has tripled in the last few decades. It is estimated that 500,000 adolescents try to kill themselves each year - and 5,000 succeed.
Every story has a unique, tragic plot.
The Tucson youth dropped out of high school after she became pregnant. As she struggled to raise her son without the father's support, friends say she began to see life as hopeless. She battled depression. Experts say young people are more vulnerable than adults to thoughts of killing themselves because they often don't comprehend in a rational sense that death is final. They see suicide as the end of their problems, not their existence.