Who was Megan Younger-Watson? Intoxicated college student hangs herself after telling friends she was raped
A 17-year-old British college ‘drama’ student was found hanged the next morning after she told her friends that she had been raped just hours earlier.
Megan Younger-Watson told friends she was distraught after being sexually assaulted at a party on February 15, 2019. The night before she was found dead, Watson went out with friends for a night of partying at the Grinning Rat pub, and later joined her friends at a party at a local apartment when the bar closed at midnight. The teen rarely went out and told a friend that she "didn’t know what she was doing".
RELATED ARTICLES
After informing her friends of the assault, Watson was twice carried upstairs by the night manager at the hostel but was ultimately left alone. At 10 am the next morning, her friends called the police because she was not answering her door. Police busted the door down and found her unresponsive, the reports said. Suffolk senior coroner Nigel Parsley recorded a conclusion of death misadventure. He said that the teenager would have been "too distraught from the events of the previous evening to make any rational decision to end her own life."
Megan’s medical cause of death was given as compression of the neck, which happened after she hanged to death. The teen’s death, the subject of an inquest at the Suffolk County Coroner’s Court determined that Watson had cocaine, Ecstasy, and Xanax in her body when she died but relatively low levels of alcohol. Police later identified her alleged attacker but declined to press charges, although Suffolk Police Det Inspector Daniel Connick acknowledged it was ‘apparent’ that Younger-Watson had been ‘too intoxicated’ to consent to sex, The Sun said in a report Wednesday.
Det Connick also revealed that Watson was in a same-sex relationship at the time. Investigators later declined to bring charges against the individual thought to have sexually assaulted her. "Megan was one of the most wonderful, bubbliest, happiest people you’d ever meet. She put everyone before herself. That’s why there’s been such a big tribute to her. She was absolutely amazing," her mother, Natashia Younger-Watson, told The Sun.
The teen, a drama student at Suffolk New College in Ipswich, had a history of anxiety and depression and was facing eviction from the Christchurch House hostel. She had moved to the hostel for more independence while seeking help for anxiety and depression, which had led to her self-harming and attempting overdoses in the past. She was warned that she'll be asked to leave the residence due to concerns about her mental well-being, engagement with GPs and medication.
Phyl Chigome, the service manager at Christchurch House, said he decided against removing her from the hostel after being satisfied with her future plans following a meeting with her mother and key worker, the DailyMail reported.