Daisy Coleman, the northwest Missouri woman whose sexual assault case as a teenager in Maryville garnered national attention, has died by suicide, her mother said Tuesday.

In a Facebook post, Melinda Coleman said her 23-year-old daughter was found dead after she asked police officers to check on Coleman’s well-being Tuesday night.

“She was my best friend and amazing daughter,” Melinda Coleman wrote. “I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair. My baby girl is gone.”

Daisy Coleman’s case gained national notoriety following a 2013 story in The Star detailing the alleged sexual assault, and the harassment that Coleman and her family received after making the allegations.

In the story, Coleman’s family said she previously had attempted suicide twice in the wake of that harassment, much of it on social media, some at Maryville High School, where she was a freshman.

The case centered on a January 2012 house party in which Daisy Coleman and a friend — ages 14 and 13 at the time — alleged they were sexually assaulted at the home of Matthew Barnett, then a 17-year-old Maryville High senior and the grandson of a former state representative.

Barnett was arrested on charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, the latter for allegedly leaving Coleman incapacitated by alcohol and barefoot in her yard in 30-degree temperatures.

The case of a 15-year-old boy, who admitted having intercourse with the younger girl despite her repeated refusals, was handled in juvenile court.

A third youth initially faced a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor after admitting to taking a cellphone video of Daisy and Barnett. Authorities never found the video.

Two months later, however, Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice dropped the felony charges against the two older youths, citing a lack of evidence and, later, a lack of cooperation on the part of the alleged victims’ families.

The mothers of both girls had insisted they were willing to cooperate with authorities until the felony charges were dropped.

Jean Peters Baker, the Jackson County prosecuting attorney, was appointed special prosecutor in the case.

In 2014, Barnett pleaded guilty to a charge of misdemeanor child endangerment, not a felony sexual assault.

That same year, Coleman attempted suicide when she was 16, but she survived.

Coleman’s case was also featured in a Netflix documentary, “Audrie and Daisy,” in 2016. The cautionary tale about sexual assault and cyberbullying won a 2016 Peabody Award.

After the documentary, Daisy Coleman helped create SafeBAE, an organization to end sexual assault at schools.

In a statement, SafeBAE said it was “shattered and shocked” by her death.

“She had many coping demons and had been facing and overcoming them all, but as many of you know, healing is not a straight path or any easy one. She fought longer and harder than we will ever know,” the organization said. “But we want to be mindful of all the young survivors who looked up to her. Please know that above ALL ELSE, she did this work for you.”

The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed to this reporting.

This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 4:15 PM.