Tacoma police await cause of death finding in 12-year-old’s suspicious death
Tacoma police remain tight lipped about the circumstances of a suspicious death of a 12-year-old boy while they await the medical examiner’s determination on his cause of death to aid their investigation.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the boy as Preston Hemingway-Lux of Tacoma. He was pronounced dead Sept. 19 after Tacoma Police Department officers and Fire Department personnel responded to the 4000 block of South Lawrence Street in South Tacoma for a report of an unresponsive boy.
The Police Department initially shared on social media that detectives and crime-scene technicians were investigating the incident as a suspicious death. Officer Shelbie Boyd on Wednesday declined to share any details of what the boy’s condition was when officers arrived at the scene over concerns it could affect the investigation.
“If let’s say the medical examiner comes back and says it was a cause and manner of death that leads us to believe it’s homicide, then there are details out there of the crime scene, and those are the things that are going to lead to an arrest and conviction if that were the case,” Boyd said.
“But until we hear from the medical examiner, we don’t know,” Boyd added.
Boyd said news reports that said Hemingway-Lux had no obvious signs of external trauma were inaccurate. Boyd confirmed that he was not found outside, but she declined to share where he was found. The news stations KING-5 and KOMO News reported that tenants of a nearby 55+ living community said Hemingway-Lux was found inside their housing complex.
A GoFundMe set up to raise money to cover Hemingway-Lux’s funeral costs described the boy as an exceptional student and athlete who excelled in basketball. Donations amounted to $4,295 on Wednesday morning.
“Words cannot capture the depth of our grief, and we are struggling to come to terms with this unimaginable loss,” the GoFundMe page reads.
The author of the fundraising post said Hemingway-Lux’s cause of death was unknown, and Hemingway-Lux’s family was questioning what led to it.
