An autopsy shows that Nex Benedict died of suicide

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student in Oklahoma who died a day after a physical altercation in a high school girls’ bathroom, died as a result of suicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday.

A medical examiner’s report said the teen had “combined toxicity” from diphenhydramine, an antihistimine often used for allergies, and fluoxetine, a drug often used to treat depression.

Reports of the altercation at Owasso High School on Feb. 7, a day before Nex’s death at home, sparked outrage from gay and transgender rights groups who cited reports from the family that Nex had been bullied at school.

The cause of death remained unclear in the weeks that followed. In a police interview conducted at the hospital in the hours after the fight, Nex reported that he “blacked out” while being knocked onto the bathroom floor.

Initially the Owasso Police Department said in a statement on February 20 that a police report was only made about the toilet incident after Nex was taken to a hospital by family members later that same day.

Nex was sent home, but the family called emergency medical technicians to their home the next day, and Nex was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Until the release of the autopsy report on Wednesday, police officials had said only that preliminary autopsy results showed that Nex “did not die as a result of trauma.”

An attorney representing Nex’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the Owasso Police Department said investigators had suspected from the beginning that Nex’s death was the result of suicide, but the department would not comment until a medical examiner conducted a full forensic examination.

“From the beginning of this investigation, the Owasso Police Department observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide,” Lt. Nick Boatman said in the statement. “However, investigators would not confirm that information without final results presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office.”