Rachel “Rage” Domingos struggled with trauma, mental illness, addiction and bullying before she died by suicide in 2015. She was 23.
Her mom, Ginger Domingos, now sees a clear link between her daughter’s sexual assault when she was 12 and her later trials. However, at the time, it was not clear how severely the trauma had affected her daughter, she said.
“She hid it well,” said Ginger, who lives in Bayfield.
The Domingos family reported the assault, and the district attorney filed charges against Rachel’s assailant. He was found guilty. But Rachel faced repercussions from her peers in middle school, Ginger said.
“She kept coming home crying and telling me they were calling her names and it was her fault because she hurt this other family by filing charges,” she said.
Ginger told her daughter to stand up for herself because the assault was not her fault, she said.
Rachel was later suspended from Bayfield Middle School three times for fighting. Her attitude eventually earned her the nickname “Rage.”
In high school, she was a flyer on the high school cheerleading squad. But she continued to be bullied and publicly heckled during games.
Ginger tried to enroll her daughter in Durango High School to give her a fresh start, and when that was unsuccessful, she enrolled her in an online school, she said.
Rachel graduated from high school a year early and landed an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor in Phoenix, her mom said.
But her struggles continued. She had bipolar disorder and she self-medicated with various drugs, leading to a heroin addiction.
At one point, Rachel moved home to Bayfield, and her mom tried to help her get sober.
“I couldn’t get her any help. There were no clinics. Psychiatrists were all full,” she said.
Rachel fought her addiction hard and attended group sobriety meetings, Ginger said.
But looking back after Rachel’s death in Phoenix, Ginger thinks her daughter’s vision of herself was broken when she was 12 years old.
“She had the hope. She had compassion. She had all those key things, but she didn’t think much of herself,” she said.
Ginger wants others to know how much harm that kind of trauma can cause, she said.
After her daughter’s death, Ginger sought grief care through Heart Beat, a support group for those whose loved ones have died by suicide, and through a online group called Parents of Suicide.
“You just have this great need to be with people that have that same experience,” she said.
She also started a business in Rachel’s honor called Lady Dingo Embroidery because Rachel used to suggest ideas for crafts that Ginger would make, she said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
