GREENFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — The death of 10-year-old Sammy Teusch was a suicide and he did experience bullying inside and outside school, the Greenfield Police Department said Friday.

In a release, Deputy Chief Brian Hartman said the investigation into Teusch’s death is complete and he shared insight into what detectives discovered.

Additionaly, Hartman says there will be no criminal charge filed by the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office.

“Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of blame and finger pointing. Any time there
is a tragic event, we, as a society, want to place blame on someone or something to help take
away the pain we are experiencing and get some understanding. There is enough blame that we
all probably own some of this. Through our investigation it is believed there was some bullying
taking place in this child’s life. Through our investigation the child did encounter some bullying
at school, school records show these incidents were addressed. It was also found that bullying
was taking place outside the school and sometimes in a place where the child should have felt
safest. Bullying is an issue in our society, whether you are a child or an adult. No one is allowed
to be different or have a different opinion anymore without someone somewhere being
disrespectful and saying hurtful things.

We as a community need to understand we have a problem, no matter the reason for this tragic
and untimely death. We have children who feel their lives are so bad that it is not worth living.
We need to come together and give these children a life worth living. Children now a days have
so many stressors in their lives that they forget to be a kid. We as a society place so much
pressure on them through social media, sports, school work, having to get a job, as well as
helping around the house that we forget they are just kids and have their own stress and so little
life experience to deal with it all.”

Chief of Police Brian Hartman

Mental health resources

• Be Well Indiana
• Indiana Suicide Prevention
• Indiana Department of Child Services’ Children’s Mental Health Initiative
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988 or 800-273-8255
• More resources