Ellen Roome suspects her 14-year-old was taking part in a \u2018blackout challenge\u2019 when he died. But she can\u2019t access his online accounts \u2013 so she has given up everything to take on the social media giants<\/p>\n
The last day of Jools Sweeney\u2019s life, 13 April 2022, was sunny and fun-filled. It was the Easter holidays and Jools, who was 14, had spent the day with a bunch of friends in Cheltenham, where he lived. They played football. They walked through fields to a lake and tried to reach the middle in a small wooden boat. Back home, he and a friend had pizza for dinner, then got the fire pit going and toasted marshmallows. At 8.46pm, his friend left, leaving Jools, an only child, on his own. Their laughter as they said goodbye was recorded on the Ring doorbell.<\/p>\n
Jools\u2019s mum, Ellen Roome, had been out all day but she had been in constant contact with her son. At 9.56pm she rang him to say she would be back soon \u2013 she rang three times but there was no answer. When she arrived home, less than 20 minutes later, with her then-partner, she went straight to Jools\u2019s room, just to say hello, and for a moment, made no sense of what she saw. \u201cI said: \u2018What are you doing?\u2019\u201d says Roome. \u201cI remember thinking he was messing around. Then I screamed and screamed.\u201d Roome\u2019s partner, a pilot trained in first aid, rushed upstairs and delivered CPR. The house filled with firefighters, paramedics, police officers, Jools\u2019s dad who lived close by, and Roome\u2019s dad, too. Jools was defibrillated. Eventually, a detective took the family aside and said they needed to stop treatment. \u201cWe were told that even if they brought him back, he\u2019d be brain dead,\u201d says Roome.<\/p>\n