Joshua Davis

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Garner Police Department North Carolina State Bureau Of Investigation (NC)

Offense Location:

Garner, North Carolina

Summary:

Joshua Matthew Davis was a 16-year-old student at Garner High School who was fatally struck in the head on January 6, 2004, in Garner, North Carolina. Initially ruled a hit-and-run, the case was reclassified as a homicide in 2026. A Four Oaks police officer named Megan Potter has been identified as a person of interest based on a 2010 tip from her former spouse.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Davis and a friend had just left his mother's house and were walking along Hall Boulevard at about 7 p.m. to get to his father's home in the same neighborhood. Davis' friend said he ran back to his mother's house to get a CD and a shirt. When he came back moments later, Joshua was found lying on the roadside with a severe head injury. Police found Joshua Davis, 16, lying along the side of the 1400 block of Hall Boulevard just after 7 p.m. Tuesday. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died. His only injury was a wound to the head. There were no bruises or scratches on him. The call initially came in to police as a traffic accident, but when officers arrived, they quickly determined Davis had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.

Additional Details:

In 2007, investigators concluded that Davis was hit by a car and died from his injuries. Twenty-two years later, officials consider the case a homicide and are continuing to investigate all possible angles. The medical examiner reported that the fracture to Joshua's skull did not align with a typical traffic accident. A witness described seeing a young white male in a white hoodie and Carolina blue athletic pants near the area, and a composite sketch was released, but no arrest ever followed. A cold case review by the NCSBI last year resulted in Potter being named a person of interest, according to the search warrant. The warrant states that among the evidence implicating Potter was a tip from 2010 from her former husband. On Jan. 9, 2004, three days after Davis died, a stolen car was found in the driveway of Potter's home, just one mile from where Davis was found. Potter was in her son's friendship circle at the time of his death. The officer was friends with her son at the time of his death and attended his funeral, with their name being listed in the funeral registry. She was interviewed last September and, according to the warrant, investigators said numerous statements in that interview were inconsistent with those she made in 2004. The Garner Police Department announced that additional information had emerged and it would be partnering with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) on the case. No arrests have been made in connection with his death.

Case Last Updated:

Aug 08, 2026