This is part 4 of a series. On Monday morning Robert Thompson, a freshman at Gateway High School, was pronounced dead at Cardinal Glennon Hospital following a suicide attempt the previous Wednesday night. Thompson, a resident of the Carr Square Neighborhood, was 16 years old.
According to Caroline Reed, a spokesperson for the family, Thompson was an acquaintance of Maurice Johnson, a 14-year-old freshman at Sumner High School who took his own life on February 3 at the City of St. Louis Family Court Juvenile Detention Center.
From August 9 to Sept. 9, 2004, the two boys were both in juvenile custody, though housed in different units, according to Kathryn Herman, assistant court administrator for the Family Court, Juvenile Division.
When Thompson saw a television news report about Johnson’s suicide, he acknowledged their friendship to his great-grandmother, Rachel McFarlin, telling her, “I knew the little guy.”
McFarlin, who herself is battling leukemia, said that Thompson’s suicide attempt, which occurred at her home, came as a complete surprise to the entire family.
“We talked about any and everything, but mostly spiritual things. Me and my grandson talked about God and the Bible and how to get to heaven and how to live the right life,” she said.
“We had been talking about that that very night. He would bring the Bible to me and say, ‘Granny, I want you to read this. You are sick, and I want you to get well.”
Dr. Daniel Mamah, a psychiatrist at the Washington University School of Medicaine, said that it is not uncommon for individuals with thoughts of suicide to hide their feelings.
“We tend to be very worried about the people that internalize their feelings of suicide, because they tend to be the most dangerous,” Dr. Mamah said. “All of a sudden, they just kill themselves.”
According to Elizabeth MaKulec, executive director of Kids Under Twenty-One, a non-profit suicide prevention organization, teen depression and suicide are more serious problems than most people think.
She said, “Teen suicide for those 15-24 is the third leading cause of death for young people, not only in the United States, but also in the state of Missouri.”
McFarlin said, “We were talking recently, and I told him, ‘Boy, I would never go to your funeral if something happened to you.’ I told him that I just would not be able to take it.”
Now, McFarlin and the family are left with the morbid task of arranging for a funeral for a loved one that they can ill afford. Their insurer will not pay for the funeral because the boy’s death resulted from suicide.
And his great-grandmother is left thinking about the conversation she had with Robert about his funeral when he was still alive.
“It’s hard to understand,” McFarlin said. “I didn’t think anything of it, because we talk about everything. After it happened, though, I thought about it.”
The family will accept donations to pay for Robert Thompson’s funeral c/o Carolyn Reed, 1910 E. Grand, St. Louis MO 63107.