19-year-old actress Funke commits suicide over cyber bully

Alyssa Funke

 Alyssa Funke, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Wisconsin’s River Falls shot herself to death after she was being cyber bullied by her former classmates for participating in an amateur porn movie.

Funke, a straight-A student, flew out to Las Vegas to film her first and only porn video for the 'Casting Couch' porn flick earlier this year. She used the name Stella Ann, and talked with the cameraman about the sports she played in high school, her biology major, and her goal of becoming an anesthesiologist. She was 18 at the time.

Just a few days after the video was posted online, Funke started receiving taunting and nasty messages on Facebook and Twitter, especially from her former peers at Stillwater High School in Minnesota.

Funke seemed to have brushed off the hateful messages as she took to twitter to say "Famous for dayzzzzzzz," and "Pornstar Status."

But it seems like the taunts from former classmates started getting to her and on April 16, she drove out to Big Carnelia Lake and took her own life with a shotgun she bought.

According to her family who said she had long suffered from depression, the online harassment contributed to her deciding to commit suicide.

On a fundraiser page they started to fight cyberbullying, they wrote, "Alyssa like so many other teens was a victim of bully and sadly the bullying lead to her death. Social media has revolutionized the way people bully each other now days. Now you can say whatever you want and not have to look the person in the face while doing it."

Meanwhile, the Washington County (Minn.) Sheriff's Office is investigating the circumstances of Funke's death.

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