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Did teen plan her death?
Posted thoughts on social media just before being struck by train
Train-Tracks-LT
This is a photo of the railroad tracks rails last Wednesday that Ali Melanchola took shortly before her death and sent to her friends on her cell phone, saying she was just waiting for a train to come. - photo by Photo from Instagram

The Manteca teen that was struck and killed by a train last Wednesday may have plotted out her own death.

Social media provided a chilling account of Ali Melanchola’s state of mind moments before the Manteca High freshman reportedly took her own life on the Union Pacific railroad tracks directly south of the campus.

The 14-year-old teen posted a photo of the train tracks to her public Instagram account on Wednesday with an eerie message: “When you’re waiting for a train.”

The Bulletin discovered the photograph after Melanchola’s classmates and friends began a dialogue on the newspaper’s Instagram account.

Many of them expressed remorse and guilt, wishing they could have prevented Melanchola from making that ill-fated decision.

“See, only if I saw this just in time when you posted this, I could have stopped you and saved you, so I feel like it is all my fault,” one classmate wrote.

“I’m so sorry you thought this was your only choice,” another one commented. “If I could, I would have talked to you and tried to talk you out of it.”

“I wish I was near those tracks the same time the train was going by so I could tackle her off as the train was about to hit her and I could have saved her,” read another comment. “I know I would have done the right thing to do that — but what if I did take her away and everyone hates me. This is just sad and I miss her.”

Others recalled their favorite in-class memories of Melanchola, giving a glimpse into the spirit and life of the teenager.

“Hey, I don’t know how we’ll do without you in English,” one wrote. “I remember when someone read about gays not being holy and we looked at each other, like, I’m not clapping for the BS. I miss you.”

Melanchola’s funeral is today in San Jose, where most of her extended family still lives.