The family of a Silsbee teen thought she was still asleep when they first checked on her but later made a horrible discovery when she was found fatally shot in bed Sunday evening.
Silsbee High School student Tristan Dilley, 14, was discovered face-down in her bed with a gun shot wound to her head according to her step-father, Joe Scott.
Dilley had come to stay at the home Scott and her mother share off CR 784 in the Buna area to celebrate her birthday. She would have turned 15 on Tuesday.
Scott first checked on her in the darkened room but thought she was still asleep as Dilley was known to be a heavy sleeper.
Later her younger brother discovered her dead when he came into the room, turned on the lights and could see all the blood he told 12News
One of Dilley’s best friends, Madi Martin told 12News that Dilley was very bubbly, outgoing and athletic.
She was involved in volleyball and track when she went to Buna High School where there will be a prayer vigil for her Tuesday morning.
"I love her and I thank her for being there for me and being a great friend and I will miss her so much,” Martin said.
Dilley joined the JV cheerleading squad when she transferred to Silsbee High School a year ago where today her empty desk became a memorial.
Local clergy and counselors were made available on the Silsbee campus to comfort her classmates according to a statement from the Silsbee school district.
A 19-year-old Vidor man who authorities were looking at as a "person of interest" in Dilley's death fatally shot himself in the head as he was approached by Jasper County deputies Monday afternoon.
He shot himself in front of the deputies on the banks of a canal off of FM 1135 according to Jasper County Sheriff Mitchell Newman.
The Jasper County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of the teen.
The man, whose identity has not been released yet, was pronounced dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound by Orange County Precinct Two Justice of the Peace Derry Dunn.