Micki Steele / The Detroit News
Mourners gathered fora visitation Saturday afternoon for the 14-year-old Huron Township girl who hanged herself Monday after withstanding taunts from schoolmates about a non-consensual sex act with an 18-year-old senior.
Samantha Kelly's cream casket was topped with a large spray of pink flowers and surrounded by floral arrangements as family and friends consoled one another and talked in a chapel of the Michigan Memorial Funeral Homein Flat Rock.
Photos of the girl along with stuffed animals and mementos were displayed on the back wall.
"It's not even imaginable to think that she felt she wasn't worth being here," said Shaunna Reynolds, 30, a former neighbor of Samantha's mother, June Justice, when she lived in Flat Rock's Walnut Creek Apartments.
ReynoldssaidJustice seemed numb during the visitation.
"She's here, but her mind is not really here," she said.
Justicetold police on Sep. 27 that her daughter, a Huron High School freshman, had sex with Joseph Tarnopolski the night before in his parents' mobile home, eight doors down. Both youths told police and school officials the act was consensual.
But Tarnopolski was charged Oct. 12 with one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, because children under 16 cannot consent to sex under Michigan law. He was released on bond and allowed to return school, where administrators agreed to keep Samantha and Tarnopolski apart.
When the girl and her mother later appeared on WJBK-TV (Channel 2) to express concerns about slow justice and efforts to transfer Samantha to another school, students and neighbors openly took sides.
Samantha tried to commit suicide with prescription drugs in late October, her family said, and she missed a week of school, returning Monday.
The felony charge against Tarnopolski was dismissed Wednesday due to insufficient evidence — the victim's testimony.
Samantha's funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Michigan Memorial Funeral Home in Flat Rock. 313-222-2620
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