Tragedy struck a New York Latino family when their 12-year-old daughter took her own life after relentless bullying by her classmates, both online and in school.

Gabrielle Molina's body was found hanging in her bedroom in a small apartment in Queens Village, N.Y. on Wednesday. A suicide note, which detailed the bullying she was constantly subjected to, was found at the scene. The note included an apology to her family.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police are investigating the matter.

"There was information in the suicide note concerning cyberbullying," Kelly said.

"Detectives have taken two computers from the home and they will shortly be analyzed. It's a terrible tragedy."

Gabrielle's family was aware that she had some issues at school, but claim to not have known the troubling extent of the problem. The 12-year-old recounted in her journal how she was constantly called names, like "slut" and "whore," according to an interview her mother gave to the New York Daily News.

Molina did not attend school on that fatal day and locked the door of the bedroom she shared with her sister. When Georgia Molina returned home from school, she and her grandmother forced the door open to discover the heart-wrenching scene.

Molina's suicide comes as part of a disturbing rise in suicide attempts among young Latinas, according to a report published by the Center for Disease Control.

The report states that 25 percent of Hispanic teens indicated having suicidal thoughts, while 15 percent of them tried to actually kill themselves -- according to Fox News Latino.

The most vulnerable group, according to the study, are Latina girls between 12 and 17 years of age who seem at greater risk of attempting suicide than any other racial group of their age.

"The numbers are increasing and alarming," said Beatriz Coronel, head of The Life is Precious program in the Bronx, where the CDC found that one-in-six Latinos have attempted suicide at least once.

According to Coronel, there are several reasons why Latinas are often emotionally fragile -- among those factors, the process of adapting to a new culture and depression stand out in particular.

Among Hispanics, the trend is to be more interdependent and everything is focused on the needs of the family. American culture tends to be more focused on individual goals and aspirations and family life revolves around the children, the report concludes.

"What we see is a clash between Hispanic and American cultures," said Coronel.

"These young Latina have big responsibilities when they come here and sometimes they just can't handle it."

(Source 1 / Source 2)