The circumstances surrounding the death of Dagny “Nex” Benedict have been under dispute since the day she died. Now, despite the complete autopsy report now being released, confirming that the teen’s death was indeed a suicide, activists who didn’t care about her in life are using her in death for their own narrative purposes.

Remember that initially, when Benedict died on February 8th of this year, the narrative that was rushed out before a police investigation or an autopsy was that Nex Benedict was beaten to death in a school bathroom for being transgender, and her death was all the fault of Oklahoma’s bathroom policy that requires students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their biological sex. Oh, and it was also Chaya “Libs of TikTok” Raichik’s fault for *checks notes* being named to the Oklahoma state library advisory board. Within days of Nex Benedict dying, the narrative was set in concrete, and everyone ran with their priors.

That story has been altered, shifted, and debunked ever since. We now know that Benedict identified as “nonbinary” at the time of her death, not as transgender. We also learned that she didn’t die in a school bathroom, but collapsed in her own home. The circumstances of the fight that was supposed to have caused her death turned out have been instigated by Nex Benedict, as she informed police when interviewed after said fight in the emergency room.

And then the cause of death was released on March 13th, revealing that Nex Benedict had died of a drug overdose, and had left notes behind that talked about “self-harm.” Between the police bodycam video of Benedict detailing the fight, and the toxicology report, the district attorney announced that no charges would be filed. We also learned that everyone involved in said fight was a biological female, so any “bathroom law” debate was moot. And we also learned that all the students involved in said fight were also attending an “in-school suspension.”

The fight in the high school bathroom appeared to be an “instance of mutual combat,” Stephen Kunzweiler, Tulsa County’s district attorney, said in a statement announcing his decision not to charge anyone.

Kunzweiler also noted that Owasso police officers discovered “some brief notes” that were written by Nex and “appeared to be related to the suicide.”

“Although the notes do not make any reference to the earlier fight or difficulties at school, the parents indicated that Benedict reported being picked upon for various reasons while at school,” Kunzweiler wrote in the release, adding that the contents of the notes would not be released.

The medical examiner’s report also noted that Nex had visible “superficial injuries” consistent with the fight the day before, according to the DA’s statement. None of the injuries were determined to have caused Nex’s death, though.

Kunzweiler said his office reviewed law enforcement reports from two incidents related to Nex’s case — the fight and the police visit in the hospital.

According to Kunzweiler, the fight occurred in an Owasso High School bathroom and involved two groups of students who did not know each other before they met during in-school suspension.

In the days leading up to the fight, the groups “were antagonizing each other,” Kunzweiler said, and none of the students reported the behavior to school administrators or teachers.

Well, now two incredibly relevant and crucial pieces of evidence are coming to light, casting the short and tragic life of Nex Benedict in a whole different light. To say that these change the entire narrative is an understatement. These utterly crush the narrative into tiny bits and scatter them to the wind.

First, the complete autopsy has been released, confirming that Nex Benedict died of a massive Benadryl overdose.

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, Benedict “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.

The law firm that was retained by the family wanted to keep highlighting the assault as a potential cause of death, even after the initial summary was released. “Contusions, lacerations, abrasions, and hemorrhages” are medical terms for bruises, cuts, scrapes, and bleeds. As can be seen in the police video, none of those injuries kept Benedict from talking with police. If it could be proved that a head injury was responsible for her death, then the hospital would be in deep malpractice trouble for having missed signs of serious injury. But the autopsy isn’t showing that. What it is showing is the overdose.

The summary report concluded the combined toxicity of two different medications, Diphenhydramine, an allergy medication, and Fluoxetine, an anti-depressant, was the probable cause of death.

There were “massive” amounts of Diphenhydramine, more commonly known over the counter as Benadryl, found in Nex’s blood, according to an expert who reviewed the medical examiner’s report.

Dr. Paul Wax, the Executive Director of the American College of Toxicology, who reviewed the toxicology report at NewsChannel 8’s request said Nex would have to have “taken a lot of pills” to get to the level of concentration found in the blood.

“You can’t say for sure if it was 50 pills or 100 pills” Dr. Wax said. “They found trace amounts of other drugs but it’s a very tiny concentration so that didn’t contribute to the death.”

Tests to check for illicit drugs, like Fentanyl, were conducted, however, according to Dr. Wax, were not found.

But why would Nex Benedict commit suicide by overdose? The activists are insisting, along with the family, that bullying had to be the cause. Which leads us to the other crucial evidence that has been extensively researched by Chad Felix Greene, writing for RedState. Court records show that Nex Benedict had been sexually abused and raped by her biological father, who went to prison for his crimes.
https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/1773128900077408738
The sad details show a young girl who was failed in the worst possible way by the people who were supposed to protect her and care for her.

As is usual in these cases, there is much more to the story. A hint was provided by the Washington Post on February 21st, 2024, that never made it beyond that report. Describing Dagney’s funeral, the article states that Dagney’s cousin spoke “along with her mother and Benedict. Nex’s biological mother was among the mourners; their father, who is in prison for abuse, was not.” That last detail may have been more impactful than realized.

On July 17th, 2019, when Dagney was 11 years old, an arrest warrant was issued for James Everette Hughes, Dagney’s father. He was arrested on July 31st, 2019, in Sebastian County, AR. The charge was for rape of a minor under the age of 14, during the time period between May 2017 and August 2017, when Dagney was nine years old. Among many witnesses was Sue Benedict, the grandmother who would adopt Dagney in 2019.

Hughes would accept a plea deal to sexual assault in the second degree on November 27th, 2019. He was sentenced to five years in prison with ten years suspended. He would be placed on the sex offender list and have no contact with his daughter. He was arrested again on January 25th, 2024, by the Little Rock Police Department for failing to comply with reporting as a sex offender, two weeks before Dagney would take her own life.

Case details are difficult to read, and the following information is graphic. In the report, Dagney, age 11, would tell investigators her father anally raped her when she was nine years old. She reported he had molested her for years prior.

The case details and documents can be found here, 66FCR-19-560: State v. James Everette Hughes, and the Sebastian County AR Inmate Inquiry. Jeremy L. Quinn, a reporter, broke the details of her father in a series of tweets and TikTok videos, which launched this investigation into official records. He provides additional details of family members sharing their experience, including the recent arrest of her father.

Dagney, referred to as D.H. in the files, along with her birth name and the name of a younger sibling, would be adopted by Sue Benedict and relocated to Oklahoma to rebuild her life. She was a survivor who endured extreme trauma from someone she was supposed to be able to trust. Her life was upended, and she understandably struggled greatly. Bullying from other students may have impacted her more deeply than she let on, but from the evidence she provided, her pain was much, much more profound.

Dagney, who went by Nex, Roach and Roachie, according to her friends and social media accounts, again provided by the research of Quinn above, identified as gender fluid, nonbinary, two-spirited and trans. She used they/them and he/him pronouns off and on, and her preferred identity changed depending on her social environment — something common with many teenagers.

Dagney was fighting an internal battle, suffering with serious mental health issues, depression, and anxiety. She engaged in self-harm, experienced mood swings, and, per her grandmother’s 911 call, had to be carefully monitored for potential overdose concerns. We don’t know if she was aware of her father’s release or his arrest in January. Her suicide notes only tell us, from vague reporting by the police, that her family and her personal experience influenced her decision.

What we do know is she did not deserve to become an icon for a social justice movement determined to use her name and her face to push political outrage and policy demands. The girls she started a fight with did not deserve to be targeted with online hatred and vile accusations from the media, with even the President releasing a statement implicating them indirectly in a hate crime.

That White House statement is particularly gross, especially considering the “Lincoln Riley” incident. But does any of this matter to the activist groups that decided to make Nex Benedict their cause du jour? Of course not! They have their narrative, details be damned!

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.”

It doesn’t matter that the school fight did not cause Nex Benedict’s death. To the activist groups, she isn’t a suffering, emotionally damaged teenager, who likely was seeking some kind of positive attention with her “gender fluidity.” Nex Benedict is now their mascot. Her family, who has already been bullied by those same groups by not using the correct pronouns (and forced to issue an apology), would obviously prefer that the answer to Nex’s suicide be found in bullying at school. The alternative – that her own personal demons just became too much for an emotionally hurting teenager to deal with – is probably too much for the family to bear.

Nex Benedict deserved protection, help, counseling, and support. We have no idea if she got any of that. But in death, she is still being used for other people’s gain.

Featured image via frolicsomepl on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license