North Carolina detective investigated in connection with cold case homicide of 16-year-old boy

A detective with a small North Carolina police department is being investigated for possible ties to a 2004 cold case involving the homicide death of a 16-year-old boy, according to authorities.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) issued a search warrant for the home of Megan Potter in late March after investigators said they discovered she had accessed information on a law enforcement database related to a tip about the case her ex-husband gave to investigators.

Potter is a detective in Four Oaks, a town in Johnston County with a population of just over 2,000 people.

No charges have been filed, and Potter has not been arrested. Her photo remains on the website of the Four Oaks Police Department website.

The search is the latest step in an investigation that started more than 20 years ago when Josh Davis, 16, was killed in January 2004 while walking home along the side of a road in Garner, a city of about 30,000 people located about 30 miles from Four Oaks. An investigation years later concluded that Davis died from head injuries after being hit by an object emanating from a moving vehicle.

NCSBI spokesperson Chad Flowers said the case is being investigated as a homicide.

A cold case review by the NCSBI last year resulted in Potter being named a person of interest, according to the search warrant. The warrant states that among the evidence implicating Potter was a tip from 2010 from her former husband. She was interviewed last September and, according to the warrant, investigators said numerous statements in that interview were inconsistent with those she made in 2004.

Potter was uncooperative following a request for a follow-up interview this year, according to the search warrant application.

The warrant states that investigators said they then discovered Potter ran her former husband's name through a government database less than an hour after NCSBI attempted to contact her.

"Potter had no reason to search her former husband and did so knowing that he is a witness against her in a homicide investigation," investigators wrote in the search warrant.

The search warrant shows that police seized Potter's iPhone and laptop. Flowers said as a result of the search that investigators are now "following up on additional leads."

Phone calls to Potter at work and on her cellphone were not returned. Police in Four Oaks referred questions about the case to the NCSBI.

Judy Creech, Davis' mother, told ABC News that she was initially "frustrated" with how the Garner Police Department handled the investigation. "They didn't see it as a homicide" but only as a hit-and-run, she said.

However, she said she is "extremely happy with the way they are handling it now."

NCSBI and the Garner Police Department are jointly leading the investigation.

"We are encouraged by the new developments in the case and are hopeful that we will be able to give Josh's family a bit of closer and peace by bringing forward charges in this case," Garner Police Chief Chris Adams said in a statement.

Creech said that Potter was in her son's "friendship circle" at the time of his death.

Davis was a typical 16-year-old, Creech said, who "was one of those kids who didn't have to study but could still ace his tests."

He doted on his 2-year-old sister, loved to draw and raced motorcycles with his father. By the time of his death, he had just passed his driver's exam to get his license, she said.

"The first thing he wanted to do was to take his baby sister to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal," she said.

"He was a good kid but a typical teenager," she said. "He was not perfect, but he was my perfect kid."