On April 6, 2009, Carl came home after an upsetting incident at school. "This is what Carl told me. He said that his backpack had hit the TV stand and that the TV stand hit a girl," Sirdeaner says. "The girl got really upset and threatened to beat him."

Sirdeaner says Carl was afraid he'd receive a suspension. "I tried to reassure Carl," she says. "He just went quietly up to his room, and I continued making dinner."

While making dinner, Sirdeaner decided she would bring Carl to the PTO meeting that night to talk to the principal about what happened. When she went upstairs to get Carl, she says she found him hanging from the stairwell banister. "My niece called 911, and then my daughter brought up a knife and I cut the extension cord myself," she says. "It was the worst day of my life."