New Search Warrant Seeks Contents Of Four Oaks Police Officer’s Seized Phone In Cold Case

GARNER, N.C. — Newly released court documents show investigators have obtained a second search warrant in the decades-old homicide investigation into the 2004 death of Joshua Davis, this time seeking to examine a forensic download from a cell phone seized from a Four Oaks police officer earlier this year.

The July 6 search warrant, obtained by Garner Police Detective M.N. Hammerstein, authorizes investigators to search data extracted from the phone of Officer Megan Potter, who remains on administrative leave from the Four Oaks Police Department while the investigation continues.

Unlike the March warrant that authorized the seizure of Potter’s phone, the latest warrant permits investigators to examine the contents of the digital forensic download created after the device was taken into evidence.

According to the affidavit, investigators are seeking communications, internet searches, contact information and location data created between Sept. 22, 2025, and April 1, 2026, the period authorities say Potter was aware the cold case investigation had been renewed. The warrant specifically authorizes a review of live and deleted call logs, text messages, emails, photographs, videos, internet history, downloaded files and other digital information that could be relevant to the homicide investigation.

Detective Hammerstein wrote that investigators hope to identify communications or searches related to the case, including contact with involved parties, locations connected to the investigation or other witnesses who may have knowledge about Potter’s alleged involvement in Joshua Davis’ death.

The affidavit also summarizes evidence previously developed during the investigation.

Investigators state Joshua Davis died from blunt force trauma after being found along Hall Boulevard in Garner on Jan. 6, 2004. During the original investigation, detectives developed two suspects. Three days after the homicide, a stolen vehicle was found at the home of Megan Nesbitt, now Megan Potter, approximately one mile from where Davis was fatally injured. According to investigators, Potter acknowledged using the stolen vehicle on the day of the homicide but said another person had possession of it when Davis was killed.

The affidavit also recounts statements from a witness interviewed in January 2004 who claimed a woman told him she had been with two men in a stolen vehicle the night before and later learned the men had killed Davis. The witness identified the woman by name, and investigators wrote that later follow-up determined the conversation occurred at Potter’s residence. Potter denied details of the reported conversation but confirmed she had been with the witness at her home.

According to the affidavit, investigators later received tips in 2008 and 2010 alleging Potter and one of the originally developed suspects were responsible for Davis’ death while traveling in a stolen vehicle. Detectives wrote that those tipsters were reinterviewed in 2025 and provided statements consistent with their earlier information.

The new filing also states that investigators made several unsuccessful attempts over recent months to interview Potter regarding newly developed information and that she declined to speak with investigators again. It further notes Potter allegedly used a law enforcement database to search for one of the tipsters before the SBI executed the March 31 search warrant that resulted in the seizure of her phone.

In the affidavit’s concluding paragraph, investigators write that during a 2025 case review, “Megan Potter was identified as a suspect,” and that additional investigation followed. The document states investigators are seeking evidence likely to have been created after Potter became aware of the renewed investigation.

The latest warrant does not charge Potter with a crime.

Potter, who joined the Four Oaks Police Department in October 2024, was demoted from detective to patrol officer in June 2026 and remains on unpaid administrative leave.

Joshua Davis was 16 years old when he was killed. The case remains under investigation by the Garner Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Garner Police at (919) 773-6070 or the SBI at (800) 334-3000.