A small-town female cop has been named a person of interest in a decades-old cold case involving a classmate’s hit-and-run death — years after she showed up at his funeral and hugged grieving relatives.
Megan Potter, a detective with the Four Oaks Police Department in North Carolina, was recently questioned by investigators as part of the long-running probe into 16-year-old Josh Davis’s death in Garner in 2004, the Daily Mail reported.
Davis’s mom, Judy Creech, said the news left her rattled — given that Potter was among the mourners at her son’s funeral.
“When I found that out, that was a big catch of my breath. I really could not get over that,” Creech told WRAL.
Davis was killed while walking in his neighborhood with a friend the night of Jan. 6, 2004.
His pal had left him alone briefly to run and retrieve something from a nearby home in the moments before the teen ended up with a catastrophic head injury, cops said.
Police later ruled that Davis had been struck by a car and spent years trying to determine who was involved in his death.
After years of no leads, cops suddenly turned their attention to the local cop and started quizzing her about the teen’s death.
They were apparently working off a tip that was initially provided back in 2010 by Potter’s ex-husband in which he’d claimed she had confessed to somehow being involved.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the tip was looked into seriously at the time. Authorities haven’t disclosed why there is renewed interest in the tip now.
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Investigators carried out a search warrant at Potter’s home in late March in connection with what they described as a homicide probe — seizing her laptop and other electronics.
It isn’t clear if police believe Potter may have been in the car at the time or if she just knows who was behind the wheel.
Potter has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but she was placed on leave by her own police department pending the outcome of the State Bureau of Investigation and the Garner Police Department probe.
The late teen’s relatives said they are hopeful the development involving Potter would see the case finally solved.
“I just hope she talks. I hope she comes forward. I hope she just puts the people who need to be behind bars there,” said Davis’s younger sister, Alyssa Hatcher.
“To keep my sanity and my happiness, I have peace thinking that she became an officer to apologize to my brother,” Hatcher said.”That she didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t know how to come forward, so maybe she can help bad people.”
