Artist's daughter sent text before hanging herself

The teenage daughter of a well-known artist hanged herself minutes after sending a text to her best friend saying "I love you, goodbye", an inquest heard.

The message from 15-year-old Cameron Krokatsis was passed to her father, Henry, who rushed home. Despite getting there in minutes, he found his daughter's body hanging in her bedroom.

Sculptor Krokatsis, who has exhibited in galleries in the UK, New York, Brazil and Germany, said the family had been at the park near their home in Brondesbury Park with friends on May 2 but Cameron had stayed behind to do her art homework.

He told North London coroner's court: "It was a bank holiday Monday and we went to the park with some friends.

"Cameron had some homework to do so her plan was to stay behind to do her artwork. She had been anxious and agitated the night before and the next morning she was incredibly down.

"Then I got a phone call from her best friend Kitty's mother saying Kitty had received a text saying something along the lines of 'I love you, goodbye'.

"I rang Cameron but there was no answer so I started to run home. It couldn't have taken me more than seven minutes. When I got in the front door I shouted her name but there was no reply. I went up the stairs to her bedroom, looked to my left and found her."

Mr Krokatsis said he cut her down and called the emergency services who guided him through CPR until the ambulance arrived. Cameron was airlifted to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington but was pronounced dead at 4.36pm.

The court heard Cameron, a pupil at Queen's Park Community School, had been clinically depressed and was prescribed Prozac. But a toxicology report revealed she had no traces of the drug in her body when she died. Coroner Andrew Walker said it was not possible to record a verdict of suicide as he could not be sure if Cameron intended to kill herself.

Recording a narrative verdict he concluded she died while suffering from a depressive illness.