This story explores suicide, including a mother and father’s struggle after their 13-year-old son took his life. If you are at risk, please stop here and contact 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for support.
COVINGTON, Ind. — On the afternoon of the worst day of Terry Badger II’s life, the text message from his son never came. “Hey dad, I’m home. Going to do my homework. I’ll see you here in a little bit.”
Thirteen-year-old Terry Badger III sent those words, or some variation of them, every single afternoon to his dad at work, just like the morning messages Terry sent without fail that said, “I’m up. Getting ready for school. Love you.”
His dad got the morning message from Terry on March 6. But not the afternoon one.
That was odd. Terry was home from school. His mom, Robyn, had dropped him off just after 3 p.m. then left for a quick run to the gas station. She had no reason to think she shouldn’t leave Terry alone. There were no signs.
On the car ride home, Terry had acted like he always acted, smiling, happy, nothing out of the ordinary, Robyn said. He talked like he always talked, about his plans to get his homework done so he could go to the baseball field at 4:30 p.m. to practice batting with his dad and some friends.
But Terry wasn’t really thinking about batting practice or homework on that car ride home, his parents later found out. He wasn’t thinking about texting his dad after school. His parents found that out when they watched the video Terry recorded just after 3 p.m. on March 6. Their son was in a very dark place.
Terry believed, in those moments, his life wasn’t worth living.
There were kids at Covington Middle School, the family alleges, who bullied Terry every day, asking if he shopped at Goodwill, calling him a “fatass,” making fun of his shoes, laughing at his haircut, telling him he was worthless.
“I get picked on every (single) day and I hate my life,” Terry said in the video. “You can thank (Terry listed his bullies’ names) for this.” Then Terry turned off the video and put his phone down.
Minutes later, Robyn got home from the gas station and walked into Terry’s room. “I pray that no parent ever has to see …,” Robyn said, unable to say the words, “what I saw.”
She knew there was “absolutely, not a chance” that the call to 911 would save her son’s life. But Robyn called 911 anyway, hysterical and screaming. Then she called Terry’s dad at work.
All Badger heard was Robyn shrieking and screaming words he couldn’t understand. “The only way I knew what happened,” he said, ”was the city cop got on the phone and he told me.”
Badger ran out of work and sped toward his house. He pulled into the driveway of his Covington home and he saw the police officer standing on the porch with tears streaming down his face.
Terry Alan Badger III was dead by suicide, five months short of his fourteenth birthday.
“And there was nothing I could do,” Badger said. “I’m still trying to wake up from a nightmare.”
‘It just overtook him’
Terry and Robyn Badger are sitting on a couch holding hands, wearing red T-shirts with the words “Hittin Dingers TB3 44,” the nickname and number for Terry. They are sitting, talking about their son with blankets draped over them. They can’t sleep at night, their loss is still so raw and the tears are hard to stop.
Badger’s quilt is crafted from jerseys that Terry wore, from the time he stepped onto a baseball field at the age of 2. Robyn’s blanket is covered with a massive photo of her and Terry at a baseball tournament last season. He was starting to look like a young man.
Terry was a baseball phenom. There had been talk in Covington about moving Terry up to the varsity team this spring as a…
Read More: Baseball phenom, 13, dies by suicide. He came home from school, left video: ‘I hate my life’