Personnel Action Taken Against Four Oaks Officer Amid SBI Investigation

FOUR OAKS, N.C. — A Four Oaks police officer who has been on administrative leave for nearly three months while the State Bureau of Investigation continues examining evidence in a decades-old homicide case has been demoted.

Town officials confirmed that Officer Megan Potter has been reduced in rank from detective to patrol officer. The Town also confirmed Potter remains on administrative leave, but that leave is no longer being paid.

The personnel action took place last week and comes as the SBI and Garner Police Department continue investigating the 2004 death of 16-year-old Joshua Matthew Davis, a homicide that has remained unsolved for more than two decades.

Potter has been on leave since late March after SBI agents executed a search warrant at her Benson-area residence.

Court records released in April showed investigators sought electronic devices, digital storage media, communications and internet records they believed could contain evidence related to the cold case.

According to the affidavit supporting the search warrant, investigators revisited information originally provided by Potter’s former spouse in 2010 and conducted additional witness interviews during 2025 as part of a renewed review of the case.

Potter is reportedly a person believed to have information relevant to the investigation into Davis’ death. No criminal charges have been filed, and authorities have not publicly identified Potter as a person of interest in the unsolved homicide.

Investigators also cited concerns that Potter allegedly accessed information about a witness in the case through a law enforcement computer database, an allegation included among the reasons for requesting the search warrant.

Joshua Davis died on Jan. 6, 2004, after suffering fatal injuries in a residential neighborhood off Hall Boulevard in Garner. Investigators said the teenager had been walking home with a relative when the two became separated. Minutes later, Davis was found seriously injured along the roadway. He was transported to Wake Medical Center, where he later died.

Despite numerous investigative efforts over the past 22 years, no arrests have been made in the case.

Potter joined the Four Oaks Police Department in October 2024 after previously working for other law enforcement agencies.

The SBI and Garner Police Department continue to investigate Davis’ death. Anyone with information is asked to contact Garner Police at (919) 773-6070 or the SBI at (800) 334-3000.