The parents of Stanford soccer star Katie Meyer have spoken out for the first time since her tragic passing earlier this week.
Steve and Gina Meyer have confirmed that their 22-year-old daughter died of suicide. The couple are speaking out in the hope of preventing other parents from facing the same tragedy, per NBC.
Meyer was found dead in her Stanford dorm room on Tuesday, just months before her expected graduation.
“She died by suicide,” Gina Meyer told NBC News’ Stephanie Gosk on TODAY Friday. “The last couple days are like a parent’s worst nightmare and you don’t wake up from it. So it’s just horrific.”
“I don’t even think it’s hit us yet,” she added. “We’re still in shock. But we had no red flags.”
Katie’s parents believe that fear of possible disciplinary action from the school may have contributed to her death. In search for answers, the couple say they believe she received an email highlighting potential disciplinary action from the university.
“Katie, being Katie, was defending a teammate on campus over an incident and the repercussions of her defending that teammate (were possibly resulting in disciplinary action),” Steven Meyer said.
“We have not seen that email yet,” Gina Meyer added. “She had been getting letters for a couple months. This letter was kind of the final letter that there was going to be a trial or some kind of something. This is the only thing that we can come up with that triggered something.”
The university responded to the belief that Meyer faced disciplinary action from the school.
“Our entire community is devastated by Katie’s death, and we share our deepest condolences with Katie’s family and everyone who knew her at Stanford, across the country and around the world. Katie touched so many lives. We are not able to share information about confidential student disciplinary matters. We as a university community continue to grieve with Katie’s family and cherish our memories of her,” Stanford’s statement to NBC TODAY reads.
Gina and Steve said they spoke with Katie on FaceTime just hours before she took her own life.
The parents of Stanford University soccer star Katie Meyer are speaking out about her death by suicide with the hopes of helping other families. @stephgosk reports. https://t.co/hXTTpM7RWS pic.twitter.com/sPJReGPSD3
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 4, 2022
“She was excited,” Gina said. “She had a lot on her plate. She had a lot going on. But she was happy. She was in great spirits.”
“Just the usual, jovial Katie,” Steven added.
This is obviously a devastating time for the Meyer family.
“We’re just we’re struggling right now,” Gina said. “We are struggling to know what happened, and why it happened. We’re just heartbroken, so heartbroken.”
Our thoughts are with the Meyer family through this difficult time.
The post Katie Meyer’s Parents Speak Out On Her Tragic Death appeared first on The Spun.