Sedwicks

The Sedwicks are a family mired in Internet drama. This began on a Tuesday morning, 6:45am on 9 September 2013 when "Becca" Rebecca Anne Sedwick died in Polk County Florida at 12 years old. Her body was found at the foot of a high tower (a cement silo) in the lot of a private abandoned cement factory.

This happened while living with her 20-year-old sister Summer Sedwick and their mother Tricia Norman. While her female co-habitating relatives accepted the coroner's report labeling her death a suicide, her father Ken Sedwick and others remain skeptical of her being an hero, and want her case re-opened to explore cause of death in further detail.

Alleged bullying

The narrative put forth by Tricia (and seemingly accepted by police) is that Becca committed suicide as a result of bullying. Critics of this stand point out that the latest evidence of bullying as 7 months prior to her death. Out of 15 suspected girls, 2 were arrested. Sheriff Grady Judd was in charge of the case. Neither were convicted of any crime. One was a 12 year old who was Becca's former best friend and the other was a 14 year old girl who allegedly "turned her against her". Judd described the 14 year old "very cold, had no emotion".

One was Guadalupe Shaw, daughter of Vivian Vosburg. Guadalupe was charged with third degree felony aggravated stalking .

Mother's criminal past

Building a rap sheet since 1995, Tricia (who has at least 3 aliases) has reportedly been charged with:

writing bad checks
fraud
probation violation.

Social media response

mentions acquiring important info after Dr. Phil show
threatening to sue Dr. Phil

Rebecca Anne Talley heard about Becca's death and felt kinship with her over sharing the same forenames. She managed a private Facebook group calling for the case to be opened. She also engaged in dialogue with Tricia over Twitter. She not only wants to explore non-suicide causes of death, but in particular murder, thinking that Summer beat Becca to death with a metal baseball bat in a rage over being called a "fat bitch". Talley also believes that Tricia helped cover it up by planting the body at the base of the tower.

Talley has referred to a home movie shot by Becca she saw which exhibited a less than friendly relationship between her and her sister and mom. Talley claims that Tricia took this video down. Talley has stated a belief that Summer was jealous of Becca for being prettier, thinner and smarter.

This has been going on since at least as early as 9 April 2014 and at least as late as 11 March 2015.

Tricia filed a cease and desist order against Talley's group. Tricia has had at least 2 attorneys: Henry Shaw in 2013 and Matt Morgan in 2015.

Talley has also mentioned privately on her group (and aired on Dr. Phil) that she has vividly imagined the possible scenario of Summer beating Becca to death, and strongly believes in it.

Coroner reasoning

The female medical examiner made certain statements about the death and why she declared it a suicide. While they did contradict some non-suicide theories, did not contradict all of them.

	“	She was not killed by anyone because I looked at other body areas to see if she was sexually assaulted or strangled and thrown from whatever height.	„

This short-sighted statement does not explore the reality that people can die from causes other than sexual assault and strangulation.

	“	blunt impact to torso and extremities	„

Does not rule out that these could have come from pre-fall injuries whose cause was masked by the fall.

	“	Given information about what was going on in victim's life.	„

The probable source of this information was the mother and the sister. If Talley's theory is correct then this information would not be reliable.

	“	Did not accidenTalley fall off	„

	“	No injuries indicating she was grabbing	„

	“	If she was pushed, body would have landed further away	„

	“	She was not dead and thrown	„

What these statements, if accurate assessments, do not rule out, is the possibility that she was merely beaten into unconsciousness and dropped unconscious off the tower.

Search history

21 August 2013 police searched Becca's cell phone and found these search items:

How many over the counter sleeping pills does it take to die
Things not to say to a cutter
Magnolia center for eating disorders
What % is considered overweight at 13
How do I cheat on my boyfriend
How do I get the blade out of my razor
I need you to tell me you love me syndrome
How many Advil to die

Some interpret these searches as evidence that she was trying to kill herself. Talley correctly points out that Becca did not die from cutting or pills. Becca could have been a cutter (although evidence of this being a habit has not been released) for stress-relief purposes without being suicidal. She also might have been trying to overdose on sleeping/Advil pills without dying as a cry for attention so that she could be rescued, which is more common with females than males. Her inquiries into eating disorders and weight could have been for benefitting her own or her sister's health. Wanting to cheat on a boyfriend or being told you are loved is also not necessarily an indicator of suicidal tendencies.