ON a freezing cold evening in January 2012, “All American” teenager Daisy Coleman and her best friend snuck out to meet some boys. Straight A student and school cheerleader Daisy, 14, was plied with drinks by the high school athletes until she was comatose and then allegedly raped. Wearing just a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, […]
ON a freezing cold evening in January 2012, “All American” teenager Daisy Coleman and her best friend snuck out to meet some boys.
Straight A student and school cheerleader Daisy, 14, was plied with drinks by the high school athletes until she was comatose and then allegedly raped.
Wearing just a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, the teenager was then dumped unconscious outside her family home.
She was later discovered by her mum Melinda scratching pitifully at the family’s front door.
Veterinarian Melinda remembered: “She was just pretty much not moving, couldn’t really speak.
She was just pretty much not moving, couldn’t really speak. She had frostbite on her feet… they were starting to turn like grey
Melinda Coleman
“Her feet – she had frostbite on her feet. Her feet were starting to turn like grey.
“And it wasn’t until we went to the hospital and the doctor examined her and said that she’d been assaulted that we really started to figure things out.”
What followed was a shameful saga of victim bullying captured in gut-wrenching 2016 Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy.
Tragedy has been heaped on tragedy.
In August, traumatised Daisy, 23, died by suicide. Now it has emerged that 58-year-old Melinda also took her own life on Sunday as her grief became unbearable.
SafeBae – a sex assault prevention group started by Daisy – announced on Instagram: “We are in shock and disbelief to share with our SafeBae family, that we lost Melinda Coleman to suicide this evening.”
It added that the deaths of Daisy – as well as her husband Michael and youngest son Tristan – had left her with “bottomless grief” which was “more than she could face most days”.
It’s the devastating culmination of events for a family that has experienced barely imaginable anguish.
Born in 1997 to vet Melinda and her husband Dr Michael Coleman in Albany, Missouri, Daisy had three brothers, Charlie, Logan and Tristan.
Michael was a successful medic who bought an old Victorian family home to renovate.
But in 2009, tragedy struck. Michael was driving to watch Charlie compete in a wrestling tournament when his motor hit black ice and plunged into a ravine.
Daisy and Logan, nine and 10 at the time, managed to escape through a back window but Michael perished in the crash.
Grieving Melinda decided to move her young family 40 miles away to idyllic and close-knit Maryville to forge a new life.
Melina recalled: “Even though it was sad to leave, in some ways it was a huge weight off our shoulders. Just to be anonymous, in a way.”
The family settled in well with Charlie and Logan becoming accomplished sportsmen at Maryville High.
Attractive blonde Daisy won a clutch of trophies at local beauty pageants and became a member of Maryville High’s cheerleading team.
Soon she was flattered to have attracted the attention of popular senior football player, the then-17-year-old Matthew Barnett.
Then on Saturday, January 7, 2012, Daisy invited her best friend, a 13-year-old girl from Albany, to the family home for a sleepover.
Sipping from a stash of booze, they watched TV while Daisy texted “tall and handsome” Burnett, a friend of her brother Charlie who was from a prominent Maryville family
Charlie later recalled: “I told her to stay clear of that kid but honestly, what teenage kid wants to listen to her older brother?”
Although Melinda checked on the girls shortly after midnight by around 1am the youngsters slipped out a bedroom window to be met by Barnett and another boy.
They drove them three miles to Barnett’s home where more teenage boys were waiting.
Daisy said Barnett gave her two large glasses of alcohol which the boys encouraged her to down.
She would later tell cops that’s the last thing she remembered.
A lot of people knew what these boys were like. My son had told me about this b***h cup thing that they took to parties and gave to girls. Apparently it was a way to get girls drunk
Melinda Coleman
Melinda later explained: “A lot of people knew what these boys were like.
“My son Charlie who was in their year at school had told me about this b***h cup thing that they took to parties and gave to girls.
“Apparently it was a way to get girls drunk. Daisy definitely drank out of it that night. It is a big cup with graduated shot glasses all the way down.
“The shot glasses are supposed to show how much people have drunk. Of course the boys encourage people to down the whole thing.”
It was minus 5C the following morning when Melinda heard scratching at the family front door which she took to be a dog.
Instead Melinda found a barely conscious Daisy sprawled in the front porch.
The mum carried her daughter inside for a warm bath but found red marks on her body.
When Daisy began crying, Melinda said: “Immediately, I knew what had happened.”
Barnett – whose grandfather had been a leading local politician – was arrested and charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He insisted the sex was consensual.
It also emerged one of the boys at the house had filmed the incident on an iPhone.
Soon Maryville sheriff Darren White was confident he had compiled a case that would “absolutely” result in prosecutions.
He said: “Within four hours, we had obtained a search warrant for the house and executed that. We had all of the suspects in custody and had audio/video confessions.”
Mum Melinda recalled to ABC in 2014: “They only had her for 55 minutes. And all of the boys – I have copies of the police report – they all admit she was unconscious, she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t walk and they carried her to the car and they carried her to the yard.
“It had to be obvious she wasn’t able to give consent.”
However in the coming days the Coleman family were subjected to a social media onslaught and whispering campaign in which one bully labelled Melinda and Daisy “crazy b***hes”.
There were reports the iPhone footage of the incident was being passed around.
Two weeks after the incident Melinda says she was sacked from her job at a local vet’s practice without explanation.
Melinda also said a girl arrived at a local dance competition wearing a homemade shirt saying, “Matt 1, Daisy 0”.
The mum said of the ‘net trolls: “They started a hashtag called ‘daisyisaliar’ and they tried to do a Twitter storm on it. And then they put ‘Daisy is a… S-L-*-T and started a hashtag with that.
“They did one of ‘Colemans need to leave’, you know, all that kind of stuff. Then everybody would jump in and start doing a Twitter storm and talk about how we needed to leave town or that Daisy lied about everything and just on and on and on.
“And you can be strong for a while but after a while it wears you down.”
You can be strong for a while but after a while it wears you down
Melinda Coleman
Two months after the alleged rape, prosecutor Robert Price dropped all charges citing lack of evidence.
Shortly before the announcement, Melinda reportedly received a telephone call from a friend with political connections telling her that “favours were being called in” to ensure that charges were dropped.
Barnett’s grandfather, Rex who was a Missouri’s Highway Patrol Trooper before serving four terms as Republican State Representative, denied using his influence to have the charges against the boys in this case dropped.
He dismissed the events of the night as a case of “incorrigible teenagers” adding: “There weren’t any consequences.”
But for Daisy and her family the consequences would loom large for the rest of their lives.
The online abuse continued. One tweeted: ““F— yea. That’s what you get for bein a skank : ).”
The harassment of the Coleman family got so bad that they left Maryville but the family home they left behind mysteriously burned down.
The online bullying left Daisy traumatised.
Melinda said: “She was hospitalised four times, two times for self-mutilation and the last two times she tried to kill herself.
“And it got to a point where I had to quit working ’cause I had to keep her with me always.
“She slept with me and I watched her constantly because I was so afraid she had internalised so much of the negativity that she just didn’t see any help anymore.”
Daisy decided to waive her anonymity, writing a first-hand account online and doing TV interviews about her .
As a groundswell of support for Daisy developed, the case was reopened.
In 2014, Barnett, then 19, pleaded guilty to a charge of endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to two years’ probation. No charges were brought over the rape allegation.
Daisy said: “Today, I am grateful that the defendant took responsibility by pleading guilty to the charges. I am ready to move forward.”
Daisy gets stopped in the street by women who are literally in tears, saying how much she has helped them face their own problems
Melinda Coleman
But Melinda vowed to keep on fighting using the Sunshine law, which allows the public access to certain government records, to prove the rape charges were dropped for political reasons.
The mum added: “Daisy’s tough, she’ll get through this. She’s such a good kid. She just needs to get back to doing the kind of things she enjoyed.’
“It makes her really happy when she helps other girls. She gets letters; she gets stopped in the street by women who are literally in tears, saying how much she has helped them face their own problems.”
In 2016, Daisy’s plight was given global prominence when she was featured in Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy.
Daisy co-founded the non-profit organisation SafeBAE in 2017 which aims to prevent sexual assault in schools.
The Coleman family faced fresh heartache in 2018 when her younger brother Tristan, 19, died in a car accident in Western Kansas.
In an Instagram post, Daisy said Tristan was her “best friend”, adding: “I don’t understand why the universe decided today was the day to let you go.
“But I’ll never stop loving you. You’ll never stop being my best friend. My baby brother you’ll always be.”
Daisy – who had been diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) – took her own life in August.
Melinda said at the time: “My baby girl is gone. She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair.
“She was my best friend and amazing daughter. I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can’t. I wish I could have taken the pain from her!”
Now, four months on, Melinda has died by suicide too. A mother and daughter reunited in the most tragic circumstances.
