No one to prosecute in teen suicide
♦ Despite allegations of abuse, the DA says investigators did not find evidence to support charges.
Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jack Browning said there is no one to prosecute in the case of a Polk County teen who livestreamed video of her own suicide in late December 2016, based on information he received from investigators late last week.
On Thursday, Browning met with two Polk County police investigators to discuss their findings in the events leading up to 12-year-old Katelyn Davis’ death. Her death was officially ruled a suicide but prompted additional inquiry when allegations of abuse were discovered in an extensive video diary she left behind.
During that discussion, Browning said police asked if anyone could be prosecuted for her death “and the answer is no.”
The video of Davis’ suicide went viral on the internet. But viewers did not just share the video itself, but portions of her online journal as well. Police then started digging into records on her cellphone, social media accounts and other online records.
Polk Police Chief Kenny Dodd said some of the online content was on the dark web, which investigators had to figure out how to find.
The investigation hit a snag when Polk County police detective Kristen Hearne — the investigator assigned to the case — was gunned down in September. Her progress in combing through hundreds of hours of videos was lost with her death, and another detective had to go back and review what Hearne documented.
Included in the allegations of abuse from Davis were those of a sexual nature, but Dodd said there was no evidence of sexual assault found by their investigation.
Dodd said Davis had been in counseling for months — access to her medical records and notes from a psychologist were denied — and her struggle with suicide was not new. She had a previous suicide attempt in 2016 while at Cedartown Middle School, he continued, and it has been an issue for her going back four years.
Her death became a force in the community for the implementation of initiatives to respond to the causes of suicide, especially amongst youth. Take Back Polk, a middleschool-age one-on-one mentoring program, was created, with its first sessions starting in September 2017, to partner community leaders with at-risk students as motivators and mentors.