Katie Meyer's parents speak out about her death: 'We had no red flags'
Editor's note: If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255.
The parents of Katie Meyer, the Stanford goalkeeper who died by suicide Tuesday, are speaking out about her death, hoping to help other parents avoid the same situation.
Steve and Gina Meyer went on "The Today Show" on Friday and spoke candidly about their daughter's death and how they're coping with such an unimaginable tragedy.
"She died by suicide," Gina Meyer told "The Today Show" during the interview. "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. We’re still in shock. But we had no red flags."
The Meyers, who described themselves as a close-knit family, spoke to Katie often, but have no firm answers about why their daughter decided to take her own life. In their last conversation with Katie, a FaceTime call just hours before her death, Steve said she was "the usual jovial Katie."
"She was excited," Gina said about the FaceTime call. "She had a lot on her plate. She had a lot going on. But she was happy. She was in great spirits."
Meyer family wants more parent-school communication
Steve said they have one lead about why Katie took her own life: a disciplinary letter from the school.
"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 on TODAY.
"We have not seen that email yet," Gina said. "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."
It is not publicly known what the incident was or how Katie was involved, but the Meyers didn't find out about it until after Katie's death. That's one of the reasons they're speaking out. They want to encourage more communication between parents and university administrators — something that can be difficult because college students who are 18 or older are legal adults.
They had no idea their daughter, who was 22, was distressed about anything, and believe that if they'd been made aware, they could have had a chance to intervene and possibly prevent this from happening.
"We’re just struggling right now," Gina said. "We are struggling to know what happened, and why it happened. We’re just heartbroken, so heartbroken."
