Daisy Coleman Biography
Catherine Daisy Coleman was an American rape victim turned sexual abuse victim advocate. She was a subject of the 2016 documentary film Audrie & Daisy which chronicled her experience dealing with the assault and the aftermath. She died of suicide on August 4, 2020.
Daisy Coleman Age
Coleman was born on March 30, 1997 in Maryville, Missouri, US. She died at the age of 23.
Daisy Coleman Family
Daisy is the daughter of Melinda and Michael Coleman. Her father was a physician who died in 2009 in a traffic accident. She had three brothers. Her younger brother Tristan died in June 2018 in a car accident at the age of 19.
Daisy Coleman Rapist – Matthew Barnett and Daisy Coleman
Daisy was raped by Matthew Barnett, a high school football player in January 2012. She alleged that she was drugged, raped and dumped. During the night she was raped she revealed that she was spending the night with an old friend, Paige. At the time she was 13 and Paige was 14. She was on the varsity cheer squad. Her older brother would not let her go out with Matthew Barnett, a popular senior boy who she has been texting with. So around 1 AM together with Paige they sneaked out the bedroom window.
“I was texting with a boy that my older brother had warned me about, but I didn’t listen. Looking back, I wish I did. I trusted Matt.”
Matt picked them and drove them back to his house, where they crept in through a basement window. In the basement area, there were bedrooms and four of Matt’s friends.
“Matt emerged from one of the bedrooms with a bottle of clear alcohol he wanted me to drink, which they labeled the ‘bitch cup’. I drank it. I guess I didn’t know how badly it would mess me up. But the boys who gave it to me did. Then it was like I fell into a dark abyss.”
She said she doesn’t remember what exactly happened next, except the boys “discarded me in the snow”.
“Waking up, I had to be carried into my mother’s bedroom, in total confusion. I was freezing and sick and bruised, my hair in icy chunks weighted against me.”
Her mother bathed her and noticed abrasions and damage to her genital area. She was taken to the hospital where she underwent tests and they found out she had been raped and her friend was also raped.
After Daisy reported Matt she was bullied together with her family. She was suspended from the cheerleading squad, her mother lost her job and their house was burnt down. She was bullied on Facebook and Twitter.
“I was called a skank and a liar and people encouraged me to kill myself. Twice, I did try to take my own life.”
One day she went to a dance competition and saw a girl who wearing a homemade T-shirt. It read: “Matt 1, Daisy 0”.
Daisy Coleman Rape Case – Daisy Coleman Assault
In January 2012 Barnett was charged with sexual assault but the charges were dropped in March 2012 by prosecutor Robert Rice, who cited lack of evidence.
“The state does not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that those two defendants committed the charges that were originally filed against them after concluding our investigation. We did have all the medical, and all the information where we could make a decision based on the evidence, and I am absolutely convinced it was the right call to do, and it was the right decision to dismiss it.”
An online petition on Change.org claimed the charges were dropped before forensic results were returned. The petition states that the real reason for the dropping of the charges was Barnett’s family’s influence in the town of Maryville.
In 2013 the case was reopened and Barnett later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment. He was sentenced to two years probation.
Daisy Coleman Tattoo
According to her Instagram page, Coleman worked as a tattoo artist in Colorado.
Daisy Coleman Death
On August 5, 2020 Daisy’s mother, Melinda Coleman announced through her Facebook account that Daisy had committed suicide saying she never recovered from ‘what those boys did to her.’
“My daughter Catherine Daisy Coleman committed suicide tonight. If you saw crazy/ messages and posts it was because I called the police to check on her. She was my best friend and amazing daughter. I think she had to make make it seem like I could live without her. I can’t. I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair. My baby girl is gone.”
Her platform SafeBAE, which she co-founded, an organisation dedicated to ending sexual assault on middle and high school students and helping survivors also shared several tweets about the loss.
As press are beginning to reach out, we wanted to release a statement so that we can all remember her for the legacy of her work: “Through our shock and sadness, we are releasing a statement about our loss of Daisy.
— SafeBAE (@safe_bae) August 5, 2020
Daisy Coleman Suicide
According to her mother, Daisy died of suicide. She had previously attended suicide on January 5, 2014, and was rushed to the hospital. Daisy had attended a party with her friend where she stayed for an hour and a half. When she came home two girls she considered her friends had abused her on her Facebook page.
Her mother told MailOnline; ‘I had let her go to a party with a friend, she was there for an hour and a half. Then she came home and saw Facebook. (One girl) decided to write something saying “you’re a fake and a phoney,” “you wanted it” and “you’re a slut” because she went to the party.’ Another girl chimed in calling her a ‘hypocrite’ for going to the party.
‘I was just really angry. I couldn’t believe these girls were writing such horrible things to my daughter and defending it. She has been through so much and she has done so little. All the other kids are out partying and doing all this stuff and she isn’t, she’s at home with me all the time. The second they see her at a party for five minutes drinking a Redbull it’s all over Facebook and they’re tearing her to smithereens… They just won’t leave her alone, Literally, I have a large grocery bag full of the messages that I’ve printed off Facebook. Full of them. F*** you comments, get out of town, all of it.’
She added that the victimization got too much and she overdosed. ‘She was in her room (Sunday night) then she walked into her brother’s room and said she was seeing ghosts and she was freaking out. She was acting very strangely.’
The mother said she and her sons got Daisy to vomit then they rushed her to the hospital where doctors pumped her stomach and put her on an IV.
How Did Daisy Coleman Die
Daisy died by committing suicide.