A popular transgender game developer has killed herself just days after cruel internet trolls encouraged her to commit suicide.

Rachel Bryk, 23, took her own life on April 23 by jumping off the George Washington Bridge that connects New York City and New Jersey.

An eyewitness has reported seeing a young woman leave her purse on the bridge and jump into the Hudson River. Bryk's body has still not been recovered.


In the days leading up to her death Bryk had discussed killing herself in such a manner on the social media platform ask.fm.

Over the past two years Bryk had established herself as a most prominent game developer on the software project called Dolphin.

Despite her popularity, Bryk had also found herself a regular victim of internet trolls and online harassment due to being open about being transgender.


When she wrote on the popular 4chan forum that she was considering killing herself, others were quick to encourage her.

'DO IT, if you're such a weak willed thin skinned dips**t then f***ing do it,' one anonymous commenter told her.

Her suicidal comments were also mocked on ask.fm, where one commenter actively encouraged her: 'jumping off a bridge isn't rocket science.'

The last note from a commenter, simply said 'Good Riddance', to which she replied: 'Yeah pretty much.'
It isn't know how much this online bullying contributed to her decision, she was also plagued by chronic pain as a result of rheumatoid arthritis and suffered from depression.

'She was super smart, really good with computers,' her mom Lisa told Gay Star News. 'We'll miss her.'

When Bryk's illness prevented her from keeping a regular schedule she immersed herself in anime, nerd culture and computing.

She helped to develop an emulator that allowed users to play Gamecube and Wii games on a PC —her favorite was Pucca's Kisses.

While gaming forums have been flooded with tributes to her work, 4chan continues to be filled with hateful comments.

On news of her death, one person commented that she was the 'whiniest f**king f****t' and 'any tranny death is good riddance'.

Before her death Brky had changed her Twitter bio page to read: '[Trigger Warning]: suicide on everything i say.'

At midnight on Friday a scheduled tweet was posted which read: 'Guess I am dead. Killed myself. Sorry.'
A funeral will be planned when her body is found.