State and local agencies are investigating the apparent suicide of a 15-year-old boy found hanged in his cell at the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.
A county medical examiner’s report listed the death as a suicide, and stated that Austin Dakota Wallace hanged himself. Diagrams on the report show three-quarter-inch abrasions around Austin’s neck.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Jerri Powell said investigators are interviewing detention center staff and inmates and awaiting lab reports to either confirm or refute the cause of death and determine if there were any criminal violations.
The boy’s mother, Heather Stein, told the Associated Press that Austin had lived in New Jersey until last summer, when he moved to Knoxville after “developing behavior problems.”
Hamilton County Juvenile Courts Administrator Chris Albright could not comment on details about Austin, both because he was a minor and the open investigation by TBI, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.