Mobile teenager’s death in Mississippi ruled ‘undetermined’ in autopsy

(WALA) - Months after a missing 14-year-old girl from Mobile turned up at a Mississippi motel and then died at a hospital, investigators still cannot determine how she died.

An autopsy report lists Keyanna Sylvester’s cause of death is “undetermined.” Harrison County Coroner Brian Sweitzer said that means forensic investigators also cannot say whether it was a homicide.

“There’s nothing more we can do with it. … It leaves it open just in case anything comes up,” he said.

D’Iberville police Maj. Marty Griffin said investigators have not given up on the case.

“Nothing’s been closed,” he said. “It’s still being investigated.”

Keyanna’s mother, Keshia Sylvester, told FOX10 News that she is disappointed there has not been more progress in the investigation.

“I was a little shocked when I found everything was undetermined. … It’s a little disheartening not to have any answers,” she said.

Keyanna’s grandfather, Mobile resident Cornelius Sylvester, said he has no doubt about the manner of death.

“Somebody killed my granddaughter,” he told FOX10 News. “OK, and it seems to me like nothing is being done about it.”

Keshia Sylvester said she reported to Mobile police that her daughter had run away on March 21. She said neighborhood children reported seeing her get into a white van. Over the next several days, she said she contacted police agencies along the Gulf Coast asking for help finding Keyanna.

Keshia Sylvester, who now lives in Oklahoma, said a police officer who saw her Facebook post called her from the hospital to report that her daughter might be there. She said she told the officer her daughter had a tattoo and that it matched the patient.

An ambulance had brought the girl to the hospital after someone called 911 from a motel where she was staying.

Cornelius Sylvester remembered his granddaughter as a smart kid who loved gaming and drawing anime figures.

“I used to call a weird, ‘cause she was so smart, and there was so many things that she liked,” he said. “And the way she would talk to me, we would talk like two grown people. You know? Because she was that intelligent and that mature for her age.”

So far, the girl’s death seems just as much a mystery as that terrible day in March when Sylvester got the news.

“I want the people to pay. OK?” he said. “And I think that if I was given the chance, we could find who done this. OK? And we could bring ‘em to justice.”

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