Teenage model 'hanged herself after shopping trip' for no apparent reason

Chelsea Smith's distraught mother found her body when she returned home from a shopping trip.

The teenager's family have no idea why she apparently took her life and are still trying to understand what happened to their "beautiful, bossy" girl.

Chelsea, a keen dancer, had her own page on the social networking website Bebo.

Her death comes in the wake of a series of 14 recent suicides involving young people in Bridgend, South Wales, and fears that they may have been linked by websites such as Bebo and Facebook.

However, there is no suggestion that Chelsea's death has any connection to these.

The teenager is believed to have killed herself in an upstairs room at the family home in Stratton, near Swindon, on Tuesday, February 5.

She lived there with her mother, Trudy Young, her sister Kristy, 21, and her 23-year-old brother Ben.

Her mother said Chelsea had been turning into an independent young woman who was growing up fast.

"We don't know why she did what she did but it's not how we will remember her," she said.

"Chelsea was beautiful, always made up, always perfect. I remember how I used to do her make-up for her.

"The next time I do it will be the last. When someone dies, people talk about them in the past tense - we don't want that because Chelsea will always be here in our eyes.

"She'll always be the bossy, cheeky Chelsea we've always loved."

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Her family have set up a memorial book on Chelsea's Bebo website, which has been flooded with tributes from her friends.

One wrote: "The question on everyone's lips is why?"

Her sister Kristy said: "She's left a huge void in our lives, but she will never be forgotten.

"She may not be here in body, but she is in spirit and she'll be with us forever.

"We would tell each other everything. She was a madam sometimes and we'd row - but five minutes later we were best friends again."

Chelsea's 46-year-old father Simon Jeremias, who lives in Birmingham, said: "I feel like a piece of my heart has been stolen."

Her family are inviting Chelsea's friends to their home to sit quietly in her bedroom, and reflect on her life.

A spokesman for Wiltshire police said: "There are no suspicious circumstances.

"We are treating this as a suspected suicide."

The Swindon coroner's office said the matter was still in the hands of the police.