Billy Lucas's Story

GREENSBURG, Ind. (WISH) - Billy Lucas committed suicide September 9th. Some say he'd been bullied and it pushed him over the edge. Others say bullying had nothing to do with the suicide.
I-Team 8 Anchor Karen Hensel spent time in Greensburg talking to those who knew Billy Lucas. Friends describe a life that may have pushed him to suicide.
His Myspace page begins "Well I guess my name is Billy!" He won ribbons showing his animals saying "I love my horses, I love by club lambs. They are the world to me."
He may have lived in a world many are just beginning to understand. He spent his last hours with those animals. His mom last saw him around 8 p.m. that night as he put up the horses. In the police report she says he "was acting strange earlier and called 911...he told the dispatcher he was causing problems for his mom and people should come". She told police she didn't know why he called and told dispatchers there was no problem and not to come.
Billy had been suspended from school that day. Friends say he was fighting back with cuss words against the bullies. They say girls were harassing him in class when he stood up and let the words spew. He was suspended.
Jade Sansing met Billy as he was being harassed a year ago. She tells 24 Hour News 8 of his final days “everything seemed normal, but he did tell me some people were making fun of him and I told him I would help him and I did.” Help from Jade is now memories in the Facebook memorial page she created. She says, “I made a Billy Lucas memorial page so I could say my last goodbyes and everyone could know about the bullying.” She had to make her last goodbyes on the internet because there was no public funeral for Billy. Jade says the bullies would call Billy “gay and tell him to go kill himself.” Karen questions, “You actually heard people tell him go kill yourself?” She answers “yes”.
I-Team 8 has learned of an incident that happened the day before he committed suicide at lunch.
His friend James Kriete was told by Billy’s sister “He had a chair pulled out from underneath him and told to go hang himself.” Kriete was the only friend allowed to see Billy alongside the family at the funeral home. Kriete says, “I've been bullied and that could have been me. That's all I keep thinking about, that could have been me.”
An hour after Billy Lucas called police to come to his house his mother found him hanging from the rafters of the barn. He had wrapped the lead from one of his beloved horses around his neck. There does not appear to be any mention of bullying in the suicide note he left. The coroner and Greensburg school district say there is no evidence bullying led up to the suicide. The school has said authorities were not award of an issue, but the school does have plans in the works to develop a new committee to combat bullying.
Billy's mom told Karen Hensel Wednesday night, "Yes, he was bullied. I don't know why he did this. Yes, I did talk to the school." His sister Abby says, "The community let us down." Friends say the mother didn't want an obituary or funeral because she didn't want those kids who had hurt him to see him. As the story continues to gain national attention Billy's mother and Facebook creator Jade have been invited to appear on CNN with Anderson Cooper.