DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cops are investigating whether cyberbullies contributed to the suicide of a Long Island teen with nasty messages posted online after her death.
Alexis Pilkington, 17, a West Islip soccer star, took her own life Sunday following
vicious taunts on social networking sites - which persisted postmortem on Internet
tribute pages, worsening the grief of her family and friends.
"Investigators are monitoring the postings and will take action if any communication is determined to be of a criminal nature,"Suffolk County Deputy Chief of Detectives
Frank Stallone said yesterday.
Alexis' parents downplayed the Internet role, saying their daughter was in
counseling before she ever signed up with formspring.me, a new social site, where
many of the attacks appeared.
"I believe in my heart that cyberbullying wasn't the cause of Lexi's death," said her mother, Paula Pilkington. "This is a mistake."
Alexis' father, Tom Pilkington, who serves in the NYPD, has said they will cooperate
with the police probe.
Despite the negativity online, Paula Pilkington said the family is getting plenty of support in the real world.
"The outpouring of children coming to my house is amazing," she said. "There has to be some positive coming out of this."
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