Brazilian Teen Killed Herself After Ex-Boyfriend Posted Intimate Photos Online

A Brazilian teen was found dead earlier this month on the back porch of her home in Nova Andradina, about 500 miles west of Sao Paulo. Karina Saifer Oliveira, 15, killed herself after being plagued by rumors that her intimate photos were posted on social media by an ex-boyfriend and bullied by her classmates about her hair.

Buzzfeed reported Oliveira’s parents claimed their daughter was smart and wanted to study law. They said they had no idea she was in distress and that she was thinking of suicide.

"I wouldn't wish this on any mother," Karina’s mother, Angela Saifer, 46, said. “We don't know what was going to happen in our lives. If I'd known..."

The last contact Saifer remembers to have had with her daughter was a WhatsApp message Nov. 7 afternoon, the day the girl killed herself. That afternoon, Oliveira had lunch with her stepfather and her mother said apart from being a little worried that she hadn’t replied to Saifer's last message, she didn’t sense anything was wrong.

When her mother returned home from her job at a sugar factory, she found Oliveira’s body on the back porch.

Saifer said to the Buzzfeed, “Her cell phone was on her bed. I called, ‘Karina!’ She didn't answer. I saw the back door was open. I left my backpack on the table. By the time I got to the back [where the porch is], I'd come upon the scene."

Her father, Aparecido Oliveira, said his daughter had mentioned about the rumors of the intimate photos two months ago, according to the New York Daily News.

He said, “She came to talk to me, saying that she was feeling like a trashy person because this had happened to her. I said it didn’t have anything to do with her.”

It is believed the teenager had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old when she was 14. Police are investigating the matter to find whether or not the photos actually existed and were they posted on social media.

Karina, who was biracial, was also being teased by other students about her appearance, especially her curly hair which she used to straighten.

“She didn't like her hair because people kept criticizing her about it. That’s racism,” said her father, who worked as a security guard at her school. “After she died, we saw messages from students on her WhatsApp, hateful ones, from students teasing her about her hair because it was half-afro, because she used a hair straightener. They’d been sending them for over a year.”

The principal of the school, Acácio Sampaio, said the school was aware Oliveira appeared sad and had an isolated look but they were unaware she was being bullied.

“We didn't know what was going on. The problem with bullying is the silence,” Sampaio said.

The family has filed a complaint with local authorities, although police commissioner Luiz Quirina Antunes Gago denied the photos were leaked by the police.