News Flash: Medical Examiner Report on Nex Benedict Autopsy Report

When your own government turns against you, when harassment become too much, when others look away at the bullying we are driven in to despair.

Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict’s cause of death revealed in autopsy report

USA Today

By Molly Young

March 13, 2024

An Oklahoma teen whose death sparked widespread outrage and calls for change died of an overdose, authorities said Wednesday.  

Nex Benedict was pronounced dead Feb. 8, one day after being injured in an altercation inside an Owasso High School bathroom. A summary autopsy report concluded the 16-year-old died of toxicity from diphenhydramine, an antihistamine, and fluoxetine, an anti-depression medication. The medical examiner ruled the teen died by suicide, and that the full report would be released in about 10 business days.

The findings cap weeks of speculation over how the teen died, but many questions remain unanswered about the fight that preceded Nex’s death.  

Nex had been bullied in the past over their gender identity, which did not align with societal stereotypes. Nex, a descendant of the Choctaw Nation, used the pronouns he, him, they and them, friends and relatives have said.  

Jacob Biby, a lawyer for the teen’s family did not immediately return messages regarding the medical examiner’s conclusions.

There is no place to turn, the authorities turn a blind eye, there is no hope.

Federal civil rights investigators in the U.S. Department of Education have also said they will look into allegations that the school failed to adequately address past instances of sex-based bullying.  

More:What we know about death of Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict after beating in school bathroom

Nex told a school resource officer that the bathroom fight started because a group of girls they did not know were making fun of the way the teen and their friends dressed and laughed. Police released a recording of the conversation captured by the officer’s body camera.

There is no doubt in my mind, their death was caused the politicians creating an environment of fear, hatred, and indifference that cause Nex to be looking in a dark tunnel with no end and no way out.