The report says the sophomore’s cause of death was a lethal combination of antidepressant and antihistamine, and notes “no lethal trauma” was seen despite listing several head injuries Nex suffered, including contusions, lacerations, abrasions and hemorrhages. A one-page summary listing the cause of death but not the head injuries was released March 13.
According to the report, Nex “was reported to have headaches and seizure-like activity before being found unresponsive.”
The 11-page autopsy report notes Nex, 16, who used they/them pronouns, suffered “bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, self-harm (cutting), chronic tobacco abuse and chronic marijuana abuse.”
“Handwritten notes that are suggestive of self-harm were found in the decedent’s room by family and provided to law enforcement,” the report said.
Nex collapsed at home Feb. 8, the day after a fight with students in a bathroom at their high school in Owasso, a Tulsa suburb. Last week, prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges in Nex’s death or the preceding fight, citing police findings and the medical examiner’s report.
Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler ® said that while Nex’s family reported that they had been bullied at school, “from all of the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat.”
Nex’s family has said the teen was bullied for being nonbinary and, after the summary was released, disputed authorities’ findings that the death was a suicide. They hired Tulsa lawyer Jacob Biby, who is conducting an investigation into Nex’s death. Biby released a statement from the family citing passages from the 11-page autopsy report, saying they “contradict allegations of the assault on Nex being insignificant.”
“The Medical Examiner found numerous areas of physical trauma over Nex’s body that evidence the severity of the assault,” the statement said, insisting those injuries should not be “overshadowed” by the medical examiner’s classification of Nex’s death as a suicide.
LGBTQ advocacy groups such as Freedom Oklahoma have called for outside investigations into Nex’s death.
“There is no report that absolves those in leadership from their failures,” said Nicole McAfee, the group’s executive director. “Nex Benedict should still be alive, and the least we can do in Nex’s memory is to take urgent action to address the continued hostile school environments.”
The Human Rights Campaign, a national group, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, which now is investigating alleged sex-based harassment and discrimination at Owasso schools. It has also called for the department to investigate Ryan Walters, state superintendent of schools and a national opponent of LGBTQ rights, as well as his department.
“The full report does little to fill in the gaps in information about that day or the more than a year of bullying and harassment that led up to it. It does not answer the questions of so many in Oklahoma and across the country,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, noting that the autopsy report “does not change the fact that LGTBQ+ students in Oklahoma are not safe at school.”
To me, the biggest thing is… Why isn’t the examiner giving the possibility that Nex might have overdosed due to having a concussion? Like if the fact are true and the Prozac was essentially the cause of death, it is not much of a logical leap that maybe they didn’t realize they took a triple or quadruple dose. The fact that they refuse to even try and punish the assaulters and just claiming “mutual combat” (how is 3 v 1 mutual?).
Again, I hope the feds get their shit together and start investigating all this hate crime in Oklahoma. Maybe teach these places if they don’t want to be under the microscope don’t be hateful bigots. I know it will never happen.
Can’t look at this shit anywhere else cause the CHUDs are parading about and celebrating that this was a suicide. Another win for the percentage against trans folks. It’s makes me literally sick.
I hope to someday wage an actual holy war against the state of Oklahoma
Balkanization may lead to a lot of suffering but the status quo is already this cruel and inhuman
The parents of the perpetrators should be charged for their children’s crime and child abuse for indoctrinating their kids into hate, not that any of that will happen here in
This country deserves to burn
It seems to me that every person involved in reporting on, documenting, and investigating this tragedy is doing everything in their power to say that it had absolutely zero to do with Nex being a victim of transphobic bullying.
NYT police reporting levels of passive voice and both-sides shit. for all of them.
Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler ® said that while Nex’s family reported that they had been bullied at school, “from all of the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat.”
You’re not allowed to defend yourself.
According to Oklahoma, someone spilling water on you is grounds for justified 3 versus 1 assault and battery.
burn all these monsters alive