Boy, 11, killed himself after girlfriend, 13, faked suicide. Now she’s been charged

Tysen Benz was in his room when he read text messages saying someone he knew had committed suicide. Shortly after, the 11-year-old boy from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula hanged himself.

Now, a 13-year-old girl is facing criminal charges in connection to his death. Marquette County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Wiese said the girl posed as someone else when she faked her own death during a text conversation with Tysen. And the boy, for reasons still unclear, believed it and killed himself within two hours of receiving the messages, Wiese said.

Wiese said he could not confirm the relationship between Tysen and the girl, but media reports say she was his girlfriend.

“The impact that it had on the boy - there’s a logical connection,” Wiese said. “He did this within hours of the conversation happening via text.”

The girl, whose name was not released, has 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 misdemeanour charges.

The incident happened on March 14. Nothing seemed amiss when he came home from school earlier that day, said the boy’s mother, Katrina Goss, of Marquette, Michigan. He seemed happy and was proud that he had gone to his tutoring session without being reminded, Goss said. She baked him some treats as a reward. After dinner, Tysen went up to his room.