"We actually thought things were turning around," Jenny Stefanoff said.

But late in the summer, Katherine was told she had fallen too far behind to return for her senior year. The news devastated her. She lost interest in making up credits and had an "I-don't-care attitude," Stefanoff said.

Things got worse in late September when the state released Katherine's 18-year-old foster sister from custody. After the sister moved out of the Stefanoff home, Katherine went on a cleaning binge, using bleach on everything and discarding clothes.

The next day, Sept. 24, Katherine had what Stefanoff called her best day ever. She helped make and serve dinner to parents and teachers at her alternative high school and laughed and giggled all evening.

At home that night, Katherine colored with the Stefanoffs' two young children. She and her foster mother talked about pulling her grades up.

Katherine was unusually loud when she went downstairs that night, slamming doors and making a ruckus, so Stefanoff went to check on her. Katherine would open the bedroom door only a crack. Stefanoff noticed papers on the bed that she thought was homework. She found Katherine dead the next morning. She'd hanged herself on her bunk bed.

For the funeral, a family member dressed Katherine in sophisticated clothes — black pants, a cream cardigan and a silky shirt with a red collar. Katherine's neck was swollen from the trauma of her death, so the funeral directors pulled her soft ponytail across the front to hide the injuries.

At the service, passers-by moved the girl's hair to see her bruises.

Now the Stefanoff family lives with the same loss and grief of any biological relative. The family doesn't do foster care any more. They moved from the home where the suicide occurred because it became a "dungeon" for the young mother.

"We were just there to love her and to help her," Stefanoff said. "Would have adopted that kid in a heartbeat. We loved her."

 · · · 

Today Moab officials are left to examine how the suicidal behavior started and how to prevent it from happening again.

"Really, every kid has been touched now," said Peggy Nissen, guidance counselor at Grand County High School. "Every student in every class grew up with one of those kids."

The school and community continue to educate themselves about mental health, depression and suicide. They participate in lectures and workshops. Teachers talk to students more, and kids talk to each other. They believe they have a system that seems to be working now. Suicide is no longer a taboo subject in Moab.