A 4-year-old UK girl hanged herself in a tree accidentally just days after becoming a sister to twins – and her mom has now spoken about her “hellstorm of grief” following the tragedy.
Freya Thorpe was wearing a bicycle helmet when she climbed a tree near her home in Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, in September 2019, South West News Service reported.
She slipped and fell but her helmet strap caught on the tree and she died despite efforts by emergency responders.
“I am a broken individual, caught in a hellstorm of grief,” Freya’s mom Elise said, The Sun reported.
“We live every day and night in hell, torture, sheer shock and grief that can’t be comprehended,” she said.
The devastated mother told SWNS that she and her husband “were on cloud nine after the long-awaited arrival and difficult pregnancy” of twins Kiera and Zack — and added that she would have taken her own life had she not given birth 10 days earlier.
“A brother and sister that Freya had awaited so patiently for nine long and difficult months to become a big sister,” she told the outlet.
“In the early afternoon daddy had to go off to collect the special milk from Boots Pharmacy in Cowley for the twins as they were allergic to cows’ milk,” Elise recounted.
Freya had been invited to a play date at a house a “10-second” walk away on a cul-de-sac where parents “‘confidently let their children out to play,” the mother said.
But on the fateful day, Freya ventured outside without her mother knowing.
“I had a gut feeling I wanted her home. Shortly after, I saw an ambulance at the end of the road – I panicked, at the time not knowing why I was panicking,” Elise told SWNS.
“I called my husband to say I was going to get her back from the house behind. He said, ‘No, I’m five minutes away, stay with the babies,’” she said.
“I saw his car go past and not return from the little cul-de-sac. I knew something was wrong,” she added.
When she saw her husband with a firefighter, she grabbed the twins and rushed to a cordoned area where she saw first responders working desperately on Freya.
After waiting at John Radcliffe Hospital for two days, she and her husband were told their daughter could not be saved.
“I never stepped foot inside my home again. This is something I also lost and miss to this day — my home,” Elise said.
“Had I not given birth only 10 days before we would have taken our lives in the hospital that night, without a shadow of a doubt,” she said.
“We have had so much support over the last 18 months and we can’t tell you all how much that’s helped us through and for that I can never thank everyone enough for the support, kind words and donations – even from those we’ve never met,” the mother continued.
“But we’ve also experienced scrutiny and abuse from people who’ve asked, ‘Where were the parents? How could they let her out alone?’” she added.
“It has caused family rifts from relatives and judgment all because people didn’t know Freya wasn’t in our care when this happened.”
