FRISCO, Texas — Ellyse Suarez was funny.
She had a dark sense of humor, looked out for the underdog and stood up for people being picked on.
Ellyse’s mom, Azucena, who asked to withhold her last name to try to protect what’s left of her family’s privacy, called her daughter a giver.
And unfortunately, she said, not enough people gave back to Ellyse.
“She was not the kind of person who wanted to be a burden on anyone,” Azucena said.
At 17 years old, Ellyse took her own life. Police found her body in a pond in Frisco Commons Park on Nov. 20. Her death was ruled a suicide.
But on Feb. 18, Ellyse’s long-time, on-again off-again boyfriend, Zander Tashman, 18, was arrested and charged with aiding that suicide.
Frisco Police said the charge is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The department said the evidence collected by detectives indicated that Tashman’s actions met the elements of the offense found in the Penal Code. But more details about the case were not released.
In a statement Wednesday, Tashman's attorney, Reynie Tinajero, said Tashman "and his family wish this horrible tragedy had never taken place either."
"I’m sorry authorities made a poor and probably emotional choice to blame Zander and to do so in a public way," Tinajero said. "We’ll be making our case in a court of law. Zander is an exemplary college student with no prior history of criminal behavior. Zander is innocent."
Azucena said she doesn’t know anything about the police investigation or the evidence they gathered.
She isn’t sure she really wants to know, because she said she doesn’t want to feel anger or resentment when she thinks of Ellyse.
“I hope and I pray that the justice system does what they need to do to make kids understand that saying nothing is not OK, and doing something to help someone that you know is not OK, is also not OK. Your words, your actions matter,” she said.
Azucena said her daughter began dating Tashman when she was a sophomore.
Ellyse was a senior at Frisco’s Centennial High School when she died.
About six weeks before her death, Ellyse came to her mother and said she needed help. She was depressed.
“And I minimized it,” Azucena said.
She got her daughter into counseling and therapy, but Ellyse told her mom it didn’t feel like it was making an impact.
Azucena thought spending more time with her daughter and having long talks with her would help.
Now she reflects and realizes she didn’t understand depression and feels like no one helped their family recognize the despair Ellyse was feeling.
She hopes parents who read about Ellyse or hear about their story will act, and wants parents to remind their children that if a friend is struggling, they need to tell someone.
“It is the right thing to do,” Azucena said. “It might feel like a betrayal at that time, but you have tomorrow with them. I cannot say the same thing. She does not have tomorrow with her best friend. She does not have tomorrow with us, because she depended on someone she could not count on.”
She also begs moms and dads to ask questions about their kids’ relationships, ask if they’re OK and not minimize it if they aren’t.
“My main message is, if your child has the courage to ask you for help, please help them. Please help your child because it takes so much for them to admit how they feel,” she said through tears. “You can’t make excuses. You can’t say 'we’ll talk it out, we’ll spend more time.' Get them help, please.”