New body camera video as family still waits for answers a year after scooter death
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Teneisha Plummer raised her voice, as she stood up in her mother’s living room, gesturing at the Austin police detectives who had just shown up at the northeast Austin apartment. What she heard them suggest was almost unbelievable.
“You have to give us a better explanation, because I'm getting agitated right now because you basically telling me you about to rule it out as an accident,” Teneisha demanded in newly released body-worn camera footage from Jan. 9, 2024.
It was three days after her youngest sister, Treysuhr Carter, was taken off life support at Dell Children’s Hospital. Doctors there noted her grave injuries in medical records — a broken neck, traumatic brain injury, organ damage in her midsection and a shattered shin bone. Treysuhr had somehow suffered those days earlier on Farmhaven Road in northeast Austin, where she was found by a passing motorist at dusk lying face up and unresponsive.
Now, the 14-year-old was dead.
“Like the questions that I was asking were not valid (to detectives),” Teneisha told KXAN in that same living room a year later. “Like they knew what they were doing, and, kind of, that they were offended with the questions.”
Her impression back then came with good reason. In the footage obtained by KXAN, she asked the lead detective what could have caused such injuries. She and her mother, Monica Plummer, sitting nearby in the video, refused to accept what he was suggesting – that Treysuhr simply fell off her push scooter just blocks from their home. An accidental death.
“So usually when someone is struck by a vehicle, there's a lot of physical evidence,” the lead detective told them. “People sustain a lot more injuries… this seems consistent to me was more of a scooter fall… I don't know that she was struck by a vehicle.”
He tried to assure Teneisha of his ability to make that determination.
“I’m an accident reconstructionist,” he said. “I’ve gone through a lot of training and lot of things, and when we respond to scenes… we kind of put together things and figure out the evidence of what happened.”
The family was baffled.
Treysuhr was athletic: a star on her Bohls Middle School basketball team, the lone girl on the football team. She could handle a gas-powered dirt bike and had no previous health issues, according to her family and hospital records. A simple fall causing so much damage seemed out of the question.
About seven weeks later, police effectively closed Treysuhr’s case and classified it as an accident.
Investigators based their decision largely on the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report, according to APD.
But, after KXAN investigated, the autopsy report changed.
‘Reopening the case’
The family, and others associated with the case, reached out to KXAN last year, convinced investigators came to the wrong conclusion – and Treysuhr was the victim of a hit and run.
They noted – and police later confirmed – evidence like Treysuhr’s scooter and signature durag were left at the scene by police. The scooter vanished within a day. Monica found the durag on the street and has kept it in a plastic bag at home.
KXAN obtained myriad records in the case, including hundreds of pages of hospital logs from the family. Through the Texas Public Information Act, KXAN also received body-worn camera footage of officers and other emergency responders at the scene and the police report detailing APD’s investigative efforts.
KXAN also sought feedback from three independent certified forensic pathologists. After reviewing case details, all three came to the same conclusion: Treysuhr was most likely hit by a motor vehicle. Some also said it would have been better for the medical examiner to conduct a full autopsy, rather than just an external examination with scans. KXAN provided that information and evidence to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s office last July. Soon after, it began a new review and then amended its autopsy report to also say “a motor vehicle was most likely involved” in Treysuhr’s death.
APD then reopened the case and initiated its own review, still underway. The case could potentially be reclassified, APD said.
But a year after Treysuhr died, police declined to update any details publicly, citing the “ongoing” status of the review. Her family also said in December that APD had not communicated with them for months.
“Reopening the case is fine. It's actually great,” Teneisha told KXAN. “But what are the next steps, being that you collected evidence for an accident and not a crime?"
"Someone took her life. She did not fall. You know, someone should be held accountable," she added.
‘To lose a child’
Teneisha and her mother shared that same thought with detectives a year ago in the video. They also questioned: if Treysuhr fell off a scooter, how close was the scooter to her body? How could she have sustained “road rash?” How could her shoes and scooter be spread so far apart? And why were her injuries so extensive?
The lead detective, in turn, explained road rash could happen in a scooter fall and items like shoes can fly off in different directions depending on how someone tumbles.
“I have a passion for this,” he said in the video. “If I had more indications that Trey was struck by a vehicle, we would find that person.”
He also stressed his biggest concern: lack of debris and few apparent injuries. Hit and runs almost always leave evidence at the scene, like vehicle parts, skid marks or blood from the victim. This scene had none of those markers, he said.
“I don't know what it's like to lose a child, but I know how much you love your kids and how much you want answers, and so I kind of wanted to come give you guys some of those answers,” he added. “I had assumed, as a parent, I thought it would be better for me to know that maybe my child was hurt in an accident, rather than assuming that someone ran over my child and just left them there… I think it's a tragic accident. That's what everything is indicating.”
Days after KXAN began asking questions last June regarding discrepancies in the case, the lead detective resigned from the department. APD said it was for unrelated reasons. KXAN has been unable to reach the now-former detective.
“If it was your child, you would not want someone to just satisfy you with an answer,” Teneisha said. “You would want them to full force go and find those answers.”
She now wonders whether police can overcome the hurdles of lost time and evidence. But her family is trying to move beyond its frustration. On Monday, with a frigid north wind blowing, they gathered at Treysuhr’s grave to release balloons, marking one year since her death.
“The grieving process, even a year later, hasn't started for my mom. It hasn't started for my family,” Teneisha said. “You know, you're still waiting for answers. We're still waiting, and we're not going to stop until we get them because that's what Treysuhr would want.”