A died after a Halloween prank went wrong and he accidentally hanged himself with a noose in his front garden.
Mum Ginger Rodriquez said she believed her 16-year-old son Jordan Morlan had put his head in the noose to scare his sister, who he loved to play pranks on.
The sister found him hanging in the garden at their home in Louisville, Kentucky, US and alerted her mum, who tried in vain to save him.
Ginger told local TV news that at first she didn't believe her daughter when she said she had found Jordan hanging from a tree.
"I told her, 'Well, he's probably playing a prank on you', because he was pranking us on other things that day putting up Halloween decorations," she said.
"She said, 'No, he's not moving and he's got drool hanging from his mouth'."
Paramedics removed Jordan from the noose and took him to the hospital.He spent 12 hours on life support, but his organs quickly failed.
A coroner believes the teenager quickly became disoriented and then passed out.