Minnesota investigators believe the hanging death of a 6-year-old girl at her foster home was a suicide, having ruled out foul play and learning she had a history of suicidal thoughts rare for a child her age, the Star Tribune reported.
Kendrea Johnson was found with a jump wrope around her neck at her Brooklyn Park foster home on Dec. 27. Police said she was in the bedroom alone, and with no witnesses or evidence of foul play, investigators have wrapped up the investigation with the grim conclusion she could have killed herself.
"We just did our due diligence to tear this case apart and look at every angle," Deputy Chief Mark Bruley told the newspaper Wednesday. "It's hard to believe that it was even possible. We may never know if it was suicide or an accident."
Kendrea, who arrived at her foster home in March, was undergoing treatment for homicidal and suicidal thoughts, according to police reports reviewed by the Star Tribune. A June evaluation learned she "showed severe guilt, as she does not feel lovable or acceptable and reports felling guilty and responsible for out-of-home placement."
Hennepin County child services placed Johnson in foster care in 2013 after accusing her mother of abusing drugs. From then on the girl began exhibiting violent behavior, threatening to kill her foster mother with a screwdriver, the foster mother told police.
"Nobody likes me," Kendrea once told her foster mother, Adrea Nawaqavou, the newspaper reported. The child also said she wanted to die by jumping out of a window and drew pictures of a child hanging from a rope.
Records obtained by the newspaper did not indicate if Nawaqavou and her husband knew about Kendrea being treated for mental illness when she and her baby brother came to them in March.
When her body was found, two notes were also found on the floor written by a child in purple marker.
"I'm sorry," the first note read. "I'm sad for what I do," read the second.
Only 33 children between ages 5 and 9 committed suicide from 1999 to 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. David Palmiter, a psychology professor at Marywood University in Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press he has never heard of a child younger than 10 having suicidal thoughts in his 25 years of experience.
"If you just think about a 6-year-old and their level of cognitive function, that's a really complex task for a 6-year-old to formulate an evaluation of your place in the universe...decide you're at fault and nothing can be done about it," Palmiter said.
