The suspected suicide death of Dacia Reynolds has jolted family members and the community of Old Road in Runaway Bay, St Ann, where the jovial teen lived with her mother.

Reynolds, 17, was found hanging from a tree in her yard in the popular resort town last about 1:30 pm on Tuesday last. Police say that the teen is suspected to have committed suicide.

“She showed no signs of depression,” one family member said, as a group sat comforting her bereaved mother.

Reynolds’ mother Verona Ferguson was at a loss for words when the Jamaica Observer North East visited.

Ferguson later recalled that when she left Reynolds on Tuesday morning for work, she was not anticipating a call that would inform her of her death.

The distraught mother, who lived alone with her daughter, struggled to hold back the tears, evidence of the pain she was feeling.

“Monday we were playing inside,” Ferguson recalled.

“She was always happy, friendly, and always with a smile. This shake up the entire district, everybody,” she added.

“She had an incredibly bubbly personality. She was passionate about life. Whenever she committed to doing something she always followed through,” Pastor Delroy Johnson, who visited with the family on Wednesday last, said.

Pastor Johnson said he saw Reynolds in church on Sunday and she was her usual happy self.

“She was enjoying church on Sunday; she was smiling,” he said.

“She was a very good girl; she never had a frown on her face,” another family member added.

Community members agreed that Reynolds, who was studying cosmetology, was always smiling.

“If she had any problem, we don’t know because she never showed it,” one woman said.

Reynolds, a past student of Ferncourt High in the parish, had only been attending her new school for two weeks. She reportedly stayed home on Tuesday because of the weather associated with Hurricane Matthew.