GEORGE TOWN: The 14-year-old girl who was found sprawled on the ground floor of her flat on Thursday had sent her father a text message saying "I love you", before jumping to her death.

Amy Shahira Chin, a Form Two student who was alone at home, had sent the SMS to her father Firdaus Chin half an hour before the incident.

According to her neighbours, she was spotted walking down from her 17th floor apartment but no one saw her jump.

"I felt that something wasn't right when I got her SMS so I rushed home but it was too late," said Firdaus, a single parent of three children, at his flat in Bukit Jambul yesterday.

He said his daughter was often very quiet and depressed after her mother died in 2003.

"She doesn't really get along with her elder brother and sister and would usually keep to herself. I believe she was suffering from depression.

"She often complained about school and was under pressure because her teacher used to scold her," he added.

Amy Shahira was found lying motionless by flat dwellers at about 5.30pm that day.

State Education Director Ibrahim Mohamad was quoted in a Chinese daily as saying that the teenager had been absent from school for 75 days.

"I do not think that Form Two school homework would cause her stress (for her to jump)," he said, adding that police had recorded her teacher's statement.