A Halloween prank led to heartbreak for one Kentucky family, whose teenage son accidentally hanged himself while trying to scare his little sister.
Jordan Morlan, 16, of Louisville, died early Monday after falling into a coma following the horrific accident, local WHAS 11 reported
His grieving mom, Ginger Rodriguez, said Jordan tried to play a prank on his sister on Sunday by slipping his head through a noose they’d hung in the front yard for Halloween.
Rodriguez said she was doing laundry when her daughter came inside and said Jordan was hanging from a tree and not moving.
“I said well he’s probably playing a prank on you because he was pranking us on other things that day putting up Halloween decorations,” Rodriguez told WHAS 11.
“And she said, ‘no, he’s not moving and he’s got drool hanging from his mouth.’ I ran out and his back was facing me,” she said.
“Then I turned him around and I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t lift him up. He was hung,” Rodriguez said.
Paramedics rushed the boy to a local hospital, where he was placed on life support.
He died from organ failure at around 8 a.m. Monday, some 12 hours after the accident, WHAS reported.
Investigators declared the death an accident, saying the boy became disoriented after putting the noose around his neck and then passed out after it tightened.
Rodriguez said the teen was a hard-working sophomore honor student at Fern Creek High, where he participated in the ROTC program.
He dreamed of becoming a Marine, she said.
“He was my entire life,” Rodriguez said. “He just loved his family.”
“It’s just heartbreaking that I couldn’t be there at every minute,” she said.
The boy was laid to rest in a funeral service on Thursday, according to his obituary.