‘I lost a little piece of me,' Texas mother shares grief, search for answers in 11-year-old's death by suicide

A mother shattered by the sudden death of her 11-year-old daughter to suicide is speaking candidly about her loss and her search for answers.

Jocelynn Rojo Carranza's death has sparked outrage over claims of bullying including threats allegedly made by students warning the sixth grader they would contact authorities to have her migrant parents deported and leave her parentless.

Jocelynn's mother, Marbella Carranza, has found the strength to share her story beginning with getting a call at work.

“[My friend said] you need to come home it’s an emergency and I asked what happened,” recounts Carranza. “She say your daughter. I said what happened with my daughter? Who? Jocelynn. What happened with Jocelynn? She tried to kill herself.”

She says she flew home to find her daughter, who loved dancing and dreamed of becoming a cheerleader, laying in an ambulance out of view.

Called to the home for an attempted suicide, first responders were desperately trying to save the child.

Despite their efforts -- transporting Jocelynn to a children’s hospital in Dallas -- she died several days later.

While most would be left to grapple with the ‘why’ of it all, this mother asserts, she has since discovered the awful truth.

Her daughter, she claims, had been subjected to bullying at school a few weeks leading up to her death.

Bullying in the form of racist harassment, she claims began on the school bus with an unknown number of students telling her they would be calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agents to detain and deport her Mexican mother and father, leaving her all alone.

Bullying, she says, led her daughter to seek out school counseling services twice a week, which Jocelynn’s mother and father, who separated five years ago, say they did not know until Gainesville police began investigating the girl’s death.

The city’s chief of police and the school district have each declined multiple requests for interviews on the matter, but Superintendent Dr. DesMontes Stewart did speak to a Gainesville radio station this week.

Editor’s note: NBC 5 does not have access to the full interview, or the questions asked of Stewart during the interview.

NBC 5 radio media partners 1080-KRLD shared snippets of the interview with KGAF radio where Stewart disclosed Jocelynn was part of a peer group to help with coping skills, though he either did not expand on what she was reportedly trying to cope with or was not asked by the radio station.

“That is correct, in the fact that she was part of a group that helped with coping skills,” said Stewart. “She wanted to go for coping skills. There was nothing related to bullying. There was never a bullying report. She was not being seen for bullying.”

In another portion of the edited radio interview, Stewart disputes a major claim made by Jocelynn’s mother.

 “The parent may mention that she had no idea at what point she was being seen by a counselor, we have a sign, we have signed documentation showing her signature,” he said. “All these things that have been said that are not taken place. Once the statement is released, it will clarify all what had been done and by GISD, what GISD knew as well as things that were not done on the other party.”

When asked if the district leader is lying about her signature acknowledging her daughter receiving counseling, Carranza said, “I think he is lying because I never signed any paper.”

She insists she never knowingly signed any such documentation.

Whether the documentation was sent home with Jocelynn or was provided in Spanish, Carranza’s native language, is unclear.

The district did not release the alleged evidence to the public on Friday.

Gainesville ISD director of communications Leslie Crutsinger declined NBC 5 and Telemundo 39’s request for an interview saying: ‘We have no additional comment at this time. Once the investigation is complete, we will release an updated statement.’

The district has responded to media inquiries with the same statement outlining the district’s zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying.

The superintendent’s allegations leveled against Carranza are something she is taking special exception to, especially she says, because she has yet to receive a call from the district’s leader.

“He don’t ask me [tell me] nothing about that what happened with my daughter,” she said. “Why he speak to the radio? I want answers.  I have a lot of questions, and I want answers.”

She is demanding all of her daughter’s school records, including any trips to the guidance counselor and information about the peer group.

Carranza acknowledges her daughter was indeed well aware of the anti-illegal immigration climate and ICE raids on undocumented migrants across the state and country, but insists the topic was not discussed at home nor did Jocelyn bring to her attention as something she feared.

In an interview with Telemundo 39 on Thursday, Jocelynn’s father recounted receiving a strange message from his daughter a few days before her suicide attempt where she begged him not to go to work, fearing ICE agents would detain him.

Carranza says Jocelynn did not share the same plea whenever she went to work.

Carranza did share something many parents in the migrant community have long done out of fear: Two weeks before the incident, she chose to keep her kids home from school after rumors circulated that ICE agents were in town and could come to her school, something she says she did not share the reason for keeping them home with her children.

The morning of Monday, February 3, according to Jocelynn’s mother.

Reader discretion advised.

Carranza agreed to share tragic details of her daughter’s final hours of life.

Carranza was at work and texted Jocelynn at about 10 a.m. asking if she was up, how her little brother was and if she would cook breakfast, to which Jocelynn replied: ‘ok’

“She loved cooking,” she said with a smile. “She always make scrambled eggs in the morning, pancakes for her brothers.”

Jocelynn loved showing off her cooking skills on social media pages like Snapchat, she said.

Nothing appeared “off” she said.

Carranza confirmed her daughter was on Facetime with at least one friend and went outside.

Approximately 30 minutes later, her 8-year-old brother went looking for her and discovered Jocelynn with something around her neck, Jocelynn’s parents said in separate interviews.

He yelled for his 10-year-old brother and together they tried unsuccessfully to free their sister.

At one point, the older boy reportedly realized someone was on his sister’s cell phone and tossed it away.

The boys ran to two neighbors’ homes for help, one person was home and rushed to help leading to several calls to 911.

Carranza says she has searched Jocelynn's backpack, but has yet to find a 'note' of some kind that may explain why this happened.

When asked if this could have been a tragic accident, given the friend(s) on the phone or other cases across the country of social media ‘challenges’ ending in tragedies, Carranza says she believed it possible, until she heard from police.

She also does not believe her separation from Jocelynn’s father five years ago played a role because, while she was affected at the time, her home life improved.

Carranza believes the ‘principal reason’ for her daughter ending her own life was because of her fear of losing her parents and because of the harassment endured at school.

She says the last update she received from police was that detectives had Jocelynn's cell phone but had not yet managed to 'unlock it' without knowing the passcode.

Carranza tells NBC 5 she does not know the code.

Gainesville police did not respond to NBC 5’s request for comment on Friday.

In a press release Thursday, GPD said the investigation into Jocelynn’s death is ongoing.

The department is asking anyone with information to come forward, calling 940-669-7777, through the department’s Facebook page, and for those wishing to remain anonymous tip hotline: 940-612-0000.

The chief of police said the school district is handling the allegations of bullying.

Carranza said she and her children started therapy sessions on Friday.

She admits she has no idea what’s next and says she hasn’t even come to terms with her loss but says she hopes this case will at least lead to accountability and changes saving other young lives.

“My heart is broke,” said Carranza through tears. “I lost a little piece of me.”

Carranza shared a GoFundMe with NBC 5, where tens of thousands of dollar have been raised by the community.