At only 16, Gabby Joseph was already looking at a promising career as a model.
But that bright future was snuffed out on Easter Monday when the teenager was hit by a train and killed in a suspected suicide.
Hours earlier she had posted a heartbreaking message on the Facebook website saying that she ‘loved everyone’.
Irreplaceable: Gabby Joseph dreamed of a career as a fashion model
Friends desperately tried to reach Miss Joseph, who had recently split from a boyfriend, but she failed to respond.
They later discovered she had been struck by a 75mph train as it passed through the station just yards from her home.
Miss Joseph, who was studying for her A-levels and lived with hairdresser mother Julie, 43, and father Kerry, 40, had posed for photoshoots for an online clothing company and a local listings magazine.
But the 5ft 4in teenager longed to travel the world as a fashion model and was in the process of building a portfolio. Earlier this month, her portrait had been chosen as an image of the week by Digital Photographer magazine. Fellow model Nyane Lebajoa, 17, told the Daily Mail that her friend’s final Facebook message ‘said that she loved everyone’.
‘Gabs said she was going to miss everyone and had written “I need to do this for myself”,’ she said. ‘She had never written anything like this before and no one was expecting it. As soon as she posted the message everyone was trying to call her to see if she was all right.
Friends of Gabby Joseph gather to lay flowers and tributes to the teenager who was found dead on the railway tracks
Dozens of flowers have been left at Briton Ferry railway station near to the spot where Gabby was killed on Monday night
‘I began texting her, saying “Gabs, what’s going on?” She usually texted back straight away, but I didn’t hear anything.
‘I phoned her best friend and she was in floods of tears. She couldn’t get hold of Gabby either and I didn’t know what was going on.
‘People were writing, “Don’t do anything stupid” on her Facebook page. The next morning I got a phone call from a photographer we had both worked with. When she told me Gabs was dead I just fell to the floor in tears.’
Miss Lebajoa, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, met Miss Joseph in her home town of Swansea, where the pair had modelled.
Miss Joseph lived in the nearby village of Briton Ferry. She was hit by a Milford Haven to Cardiff train at about 9.20pm on Monday.
Tributes: Friends have left numerous tributes at Briton Ferry railway station
Her mother said: ‘She was the most beautiful girl in the world, both inside and out. Nothing will take away the pain and devastation this has brought to us as a family.
Social media: Detectives are looking at Gabby's Facebook messages in a bid to piece together her final hours
We wouldn’t want anyone to go through this.’ On April 12, her daughter had written on her Twitter account: ‘So much to look forward to this summer.’
But Miss Lebajoa said that four days later, Miss Joseph announced on Facebook that she had split from her boyfriend of a year.
‘She didn’t say much else about it so I don’t know if it had anything to do with what’s happened.
‘Gabs was such a lovely girl. She cared so much about her friends and family. She was very kind.
‘None of us can figure out why this happened. She had a new job in a clothes shop and her modelling career was going really well.’
But another friend said the teenager had refused offers to shoot nude pictures and said there had been ‘talk’ about a grudge against her.
Last night Miss Joseph’s aunt, Carolyn Gammon, 38, said: ‘Gabby showed no signs of depression. We would urge any youngsters not to bottle things up and talk to people instead of going on websites.’
British Transport Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment