The Heartbreaking Story of Riley Crossman

What did this 15-year-old do to meet such an end?

Shenbaga Lakshmi
8 min readDec 9, 2021
A sad girl
Photo by Brynden on Unsplash

[Trigger Warning: Child violence]

Riley Crossman was a gorgeous 15-year-old child from West Virginia, USA. Even though Riley was a typical teen with a stubborn and drama-filled attitude, people adored her contagious laugh. She strived to keep everyone happy.

In 2019, Riley was dating her schoolmate, Haydn, who cherished her. Riley’s parents adored him and were so happy that Riley had found a sweet kid.

Now Riley’s parents were divorced. While she spent time with both her parents, she mostly stayed at her mother’s place and went to school there. She lived with her mother and her boyfriend, Andy McCauley.

Life seemed good for the 15-year-old. Until it didn’t.

The calm before the storm

On May 7, 2019, Riley returned home from school at around 3:30 pm. She saw her mother taking a nap on the couch.

Riley’s mother, Chantel, worked two jobs to make ends meet. On that day, Chantel wasn’t well. So, she left early from her first job to catch some sleep before starting the next one.

After her mother went to work, Riley spent the evening with her grandmother. Then, she went to her room…

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Shenbaga Lakshmi

Software engineer chasing cultural stories. 4x Top Writer. Best life tip: Text your friends back! Contact: shenbawrites@gmail.com