Stratford Mom Speaks Out About Son’s Tragic Death To Help Others

STRATFORD, CT — A Stratford woman is speaking out about her son’s tragic death in the hope that other families will never have to experience such a tragedy. Edith Bell told FOX61 that her son Demarius Bell, 20, told his family a couple of years ago that he was gay. While Demarius was outgoing and happy, she said he was struggling and hurting inside.

The unimaginable happened last week when Edith Bell woke up and was concerned that Damarius wasn’t home yet and she saw him hanging from a tree in the backyard, according to FOX61. Edith and three others tried calling 911 for 20 minutes but couldn’t get through due to a statewide 911 outage, FOX 61 reports. Stratford officials acknowledged last week that there was one known attempt to reach first responders during the statewide 911 outage.

A GoFundMe account has been launched to raise awareness and help the family with funeral expenses. The GoFundMe is titled “Make Demarius the last kid to go unheard.”

“Demarius Bell was my only son and he would have been 21 on February 6th,” Edith Bell wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Demarius was an amazing, wonderful and courageous person who always tried to make others smiles to hide his pain. Demarius struggled with opening up with his sexual preference that caused him to distance himself from his friends and family. Tuesday January 8th Demarius let the discomfort of the worlds judgement cause him to end his pain by ending his life. I come to you all hurting and in disbelief asking for your help.”

See the full report on FOX61 here.

To visit the GoFundMe page, click here.

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