California teenager saves the life of a New Jersey girl, 16, who talked about killing herself online - just knowing her first name



Jackie Rosas, 18, read the girl's suicidal message on her Tumblr blog

She contacted police, sparking an against-the-clock search for the girl

Thanks to web sleuthing by teachers and police, her identity was found

Police went to her home in New Jersey and found her unconscious after taking a bottle of pills; she is now recovering in hospital



A teenager in California who only knew the first name of a girl who posted suicidal thoughts online has saved her life after calling police and sparking an against-the-clock search.

Jackie Rosas, from Cathedral City, California, alerted her local authorities at 5pm on May 6 after she saw the girl write on Tumblr, a social networking site, that she was going to kill herself.

Armed with just the girl's first name, local police and school staff carried out tireless web sleuthing to uncover the identity of the girl - who was found in Union Township, New Jersey eight hours later.

The 16-year-old girl, who has not been named, was found unconscious after consuming a large quantity of pills, taken to a medical facility and put on a psychiatric hold, according to police reports.



Haunting message: Jackie Rosas, 18, saw a message on Tumblr from a 16-year-old girl saying she was going to kill herself and contacted police. After eight hours, they found the girl in New Jersey

'I kind of cried,' Rosas said. 'I was happy to know that I saved someone's life. It happened at random and it's an amazing feeling knowing you are able to help someone from thousands of miles away.'

Rosas knew the claims were serious; she had been following the stranger's Tumblr posts for about a year and had witnessed her receiving bullying messages from other users.

'She blogged, saying she was going to end her life,' Rosas told USA Today . 'She had been fighting this depression, and when she posted that, my instinct was that she was serious.

'She wrote something like: "I'm going to kill myself. There is no other option".'

Rosas immediately contacted a suicide hotline, but they told her to contact police, where she spoke with patrol Officer Kelly Nava, a 14-year veteran of the department.

Sleuth: A high school officer Heather Olsen used social media to help track down the girl 2,000 miles away

All Rosas could so was give the girl's first name and a link to her blog. The only lead it gave to the girl's identity was that she was a color guard at her school.

'It was really nothing to start with,' Nava said. 'My first thought was to run [the girl's] age and name through our local system... and it came back with so many matches.'

She contacted Officer Heather Olsen, a school resource officer from Cathedral City High School, in case the girl attended the school - but the officer did not recognize her.

To be certain, Olsen then sent the details to Cathedral City High Assistant Principal Karen Dimick, who also didn’t recognize the girl - but who began her own web sleuthing.



Making the call: She contacted Cathedral City police department, pictured, who began internet sleuthing along with local teachers - before they tracked down the girl's last name

'We were kind of at a dead end,' Olsen said - until the assistant principal messaged her back to say she had found a Twitter account matching the girl's picture and that she had found her last name.



'It's an amazing feeling knowing you are able to help someone from thousands of miles away' Jackie Rosas



'She sent me the link and I just went to town,' Olsen said.

Olsen trawled through Twitter posts, YouTube videos and online articles. She eventually came across a newspaper article mentioning a marching band that the girl had written about in one of her tweets.

It said the band was in Union Township, New Jersey - finally giving authorities a name and location.

Olsen called Nava, from the Cathedral City police, who in turn handed the information to the Union Township Police Department at 1.30am.

Officers were sent to a nearby address and found the 16-year-old girl, who was unconscious after swallowing a bottle of prescription pills.

Found! She was discovered to be a high school student in Union Township, New Jersey

She was taken to hospital, Lt. John Daubner confirmed. She had taken enough pills for authorities to put her on a psychiatric hold, Cathedral City Police records noted.

The women in California - Nava, Olsen, Dimick and Rosas - said they were left speechless by the news. When Nava learned of the recovery, she got 'the chills', she said.

'Life is so precious,' Olsen added. 'It is worth every effort to save.'