Past hoax · Filed Oct 16, 2026
Libs of TikTok Murdered Non-Binary Teen Hoax
A non-binary teenager was murdered, and Libs of TikTok had a hand in the climate that did it.
The claim
A non-binary teenager was murdered, and Libs of TikTok had a hand in the climate that did it.
What it was
The killing that was framed as an anti-trans murder did not hold as that crime. The page was blamed before the facts.
Timeline
Feb 7, 2024
Nex Benedict is in a fight in a bathroom at Owasso High School in Oklahoma.
Feb 8, 2024
Benedict dies. Coverage calls it a killing and ties it to Libs of TikTok.
Feb 21, 2024
Police say a preliminary autopsy found the death was not the result of trauma from the fight.
Mar 2024
The medical examiner rules the death a suicide, an overdose of fluoxetine and diphenhydramine.
What aired
In February 2024 Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old in Owasso, Oklahoma, who identified as non-binary, died the day after a fight in a school bathroom. The death was framed as a killing. Libs of TikTok, and the woman who runs it, were blamed for the climate, including because she had been appointed to a state library committee and because a post years earlier had involved a teacher at a nearby school.
The record
The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, from the combined toxicity of fluoxetine and diphenhydramine. It was not the result of trauma from the fight. The fight was real. Benedict was injured. The injury was not the homicide the first wave of coverage reported, and a social-media account did not kill the student.
Left out
Left out, while the accusation was hottest, was the autopsy. Also left out was the distance between a 2022 post about a teacher and a 2024 overdose. Those facts were available. They were less useful than a chain that ran from a law, to an influencer, to a dead teenager. The chain required a murder. The examiner did not provide one.
Why it stuck
It stuck because a dead child and a named enemy are the most powerful segment in the culture war. Waiting for a cause of death felt like indifference. So the cause was assigned early, and the assignment was the story. The ruling came later, into a quieter room.