A beautiful, young, smart and very - loved girl found solace in suicide; but for the ones she left behind, the pain and loss has only begun to sink in.

            On Jan. 30, former Bellaire student Ashley Duncan stunned her family, friends and thousands of social media followers when she took her life shortly after posting what many say were cries for help, including a picture of the gun she used to kill herself.

            Duncan’s brother, Anthony Duncan, said he wish he had seen the posts sooner.

            “I had to get a twitter for one of my classes two days after it happened,” Duncan said. “Once I found Ashley’s twitter and read those messages . . . I was definitely shocked. There were definitely signs there - I don’t know how anybody could ignore it, because it was blatantly there.”

            Ashley’s friends at Bellaire said they thought Ashley was joking when she made the posts and chose not to intervene.

            “I didn’t exactly pay attention to it because she would always play around,” Theresa Sosa said. “I never thought she was serious.”

            Duncan said he noticed a change in his sister when he last saw her on winter break.

            “She was acting differently,” Duncan said. “She wasn’t the same happy-go-lucky Ashley I knew. She was a little bit angry.”

‘Humble, loving and joyful’

            Anthony Duncan said his sister struggled with personal problems and was in therapy up until the day of her death.

            “Both my parents were aware of Ashley’s depression,” Duncan said. “They tried to get her help. See was seeing a psychiatrist and that was helping for a period of time but she constantly rebelled against us.”

            After leaving for Atlanta to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Anthony Duncan said he worried his sister would feel betrayed.

            “We were so close and I guess with me going away she felt like I was leaving her in a sense,” Duncan said. “But later on she accepted the fact that I wasn’t trying to leave her behind, I was trying to make a better life for myself by going to school.”

            Ashley had thousands of followers on her social media sites and was considered very popular by her classmates and close friends. When asked to describe his sister in three words Anthony answered humble, loving and joyful.

            “She had a bubbly personality,” Duncan said of his sister. “She was outgoing, she made people laugh and she made everyone feel comfortable.”

            Aside from playing volleyball Duncan said Ashley took pleasure in art and loved to draw.

            “She drew, she paint. She was very talented,” Duncan said. “When she was younger, her and my dad would enter different art competitions. She would draw. He would critique it and they would always win. That’s something they shared together.”

‘Don’t take things for granted’

            Ashley withdrew from Bellaire in October and transferred to Pershing to graduate early. Anthony Duncan said she wanted to grow up to be psychologist, lawyer or artist.

            “She wanted to help people,” he said.

            Unfortunately help came too late for Ashley, and her cries for help were left unanswered.

            Duncan said if he was offered the chance, he would have done everything he could to stop his sister.

            “Don’t take things for granted,” Duncan said on behalf of his sister. “Constantly check up on people that you love because you never know what they could be going through-a phone call could change their life.”