A 17-year-old British college student who told friends she had been raped at a house party was found hanged in her room the next morning.
Megan Younger-Watson told friends she was “distraught” after being sexually assaulted at the party after a night of drinking on Feb. 15, 2019, in Ipswich — just hours before she was found dead in her hostel, the Ipswich Star reported.
The teen’s death, the subject of an inquest at the Suffolk County Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, determined that Younger-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.
“Megan was one of the most wonderful, bubbliest, happiest people you’d ever meet,” her mother, Natashia Younger-Watson, told The Sun. “She put everyone before herself. That’s why there’s been such a big tribute to her. She was absolutely amazing.”
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.
The night before her death, Younger-Watson was out with friends for a night of partying at the Grinning Rat pub, and joined the group at a party at a local apartment when the bar closed at midnight, the Ipswich Star said.
The teen rarely went out and told a friend she “didn’t know what she was doing.”
After telling her friends of the assault, Younger-Watson was twice carried upstairs by the night manager at the hostel, but was ultimately left alone. At 10 a.m. the next morning, her friends called the police because she was not answering her door.
Police broke the door down and found her unresponsive, the reports said.
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