For 12 years the house on East Main Street was his home.
"You would say you want to hold on to those memories, but sometimes those memories are heartbreaking," Tammy Bleakney said.
For two weeks, Coby Bleakney's mother, Tammy, has been waiting.
"You keep waiting for him to walk in," she said. "You keep waiting to tell him to pick up his shoes. You keep waiting for him to be hollering on the XBox and telling him to settle down."
Tammy says her son was the sweetest, highly intelligent and most caring child. She and ex-husband, Chad, adopted him at 14-months-old.
But, the sixth grader at Maysville Middle School, try as he may, wasn't friends with everyone.
"We knew Coby was being picked on," Tammy said.
So much so, Tammy says Coby never wanted to go to school.
"He put up a fight every morning not to go to school," she said.
She says if he complained enough, she'd usually let him stay home.
Then came the morning of March 22.
"This was the first day I had ever stood my ground and told this child he had to go to school," she said.
Coby didn't want to go to school. Tammy was on the phone with Chad who was on the road for work. She gave Coby the phone to speak with his father.
"I just told him, I said you know what, you go to school, have a great day and I love you," Chad said. "And, he said 'I love you too, dad'."
Coby gave the phone back to his mom who then went to the kitchen for a moment before returning to Coby's room to find him lying on the floor.
"It was so bad, he already had his little backpack on for school," Tammy said. "[He] had his coat on and shoes, the whole nine yards ready to walk out the door. And, he took his life because he could not get on that bus to go to school anymore."
Law enforcement told Tammy that Coby had shot himself. He used her gun that she kept locked in a safe. Tammy says she never heard a gunshot and it's unclear when Coby got the gun out of her safe.
"Seeing my baby lay there that morning I can honestly say I'm living hell," Tammy said. "I'm living a parent's worst hell."
Tammy believes what made him do it was bullying. She says she tried to help him with that by calling the school several times.
"It was just kind of wiped under the rug," she said. "We were told 'Kids will be kids'."
Each time she called she says nothing happened.
She recalls one conversation with Coby and the school's principal after Coby had been heard talking about suicide. She thought Coby would get help through Allwell, which provides care for students.
"They sent the papers home that day," she said. "I signed them. I was under the impression counseling would start the very next day. That never happened."
That was three months before Coby's death.
"Do we have a bullying problem? Absolutely," Tammy said.
"Is there a bullying problem in Maysville Schools? I'm not sure what you mean by that question," Ruth Zitnik said.
Zitnik is the Maysville Local School District superintendent. She says bullying is not tolerated.
"There are so many positive things that are occurring here, but I do think sometimes kids can be mean no matter where we're at," Zitnik said. "That's just a part of growing up."
But she says the district is trying to help.
In the last six months, Zitnik says it has been working with the Muskingum County Health Center for school-based care, including mental health and looking at the school culture and climate.
Also, she says a $10,000 grant has been obtained called "No Bullying Schools," which will kick off in September to help empower students and families.
"I feel very confident that we are making good decisions and we are moving in a very positive direction for our students and our families and our communities," Zitnik said.
One family in the community, though, now has one less member.
A tattoo on Tammy's left forearm says "I love you, mom." It was something Coby had scribbled on paper.
"You know, that's what I have of my son to carry with me," she said.
It's what she now carries on her while she works to end bullying.
"And I will take the rest of my life to try to save at least one [person]," she said.
As far as bullying policies for Maysville Local School District, Zitnik says they align with the Ohio Revised Code. As for the death of Coby Bleakney, she says it was traumatic and the school provided support through its crisis team for students and staff.
The Muskingum County Sheriff's Office says the death of Bleakney is an open investigation.
Capt. Steve Welker says an investigation is typical when there's a death where bullying might have played a part. Welker also says there have been several teen suicides in the county in the last year.
The Bleakney family is fundraising on Coby’s behalf to help other victims of bullying. Donations can be made at Century National Bank under the name ‘Coby Alen Bleakney’. Tammy says 100 percent of the funds will go to families who have been victims of bullying.