Two 16-year-olds reported missing from their Juneau, Alaska, homes on the same August morning were found dead from gunshot wounds in a wooded area hours later, and officials still have not ruled on the cause or manner of death.
Leotis Phillips and Zoey Clark, both 16, were discovered just before 2:30 p.m. on August 31 in a wooded area near Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School, off Glacier Highway in Juneau. A gun lay near their bodies. Loved ones have described the deaths as a double suicide, but the Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office has made no official determination. The teens' remains were sent to Anchorage for autopsy.
The timeline that day was grim and fast. Phillips was reported missing from his home at 5:52 a.m. Clark was reported missing nearly three hours later, at 8:49 a.m. By early afternoon, both were dead. The Juneau Police Department said the couple was believed to have had a firearm with them but did not disclose where or how the minors obtained the weapon, the New York Post reported.
No arrests have been announced. No suspects have been named. The families are left with grief and a wall of unanswered questions.
A candlelight vigil held on the Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School campus drew family members who struggled openly with the loss. Zac Clark, Zoey's father, wept as he addressed mourners.
"My life is never going to be complete anymore. Parents just need to love their kids harder and stronger, that's all I can say."
Clark also pressed for more information about what happened in those woods, making clear the family does not consider the matter settled.
"There are still so many answers that a lot of us need, like what happened up there. If any forensics can say what happened, what truly happened."
That plea deserves weight. The loved ones' characterization of the deaths as a double suicide is not the same as an official finding. Until the medical examiner rules, the public account of what happened remains incomplete. Families in cases like these, much like grieving communities in Minneapolis left waiting after multiple bodies were found, are forced to sit with uncertainty while institutions work at their own pace.
Ariah Clark, Zoey's cousin, spoke at the vigil about the bond between the two teens. Her remarks, attributed to local outlet KTOO, painted a picture of two young people who leaned on each other.
"The happiest I saw him was with her. Through all the things she's been through, he's been there. I believe they both were hurting, and that their last moments were peaceful."
A GoFundMe campaign established for Zoey Clark described her as "smart, loving, and genuinely kind-hearted," noting she "had a rough upbringing, but still helped others and cared deeply for the people around her." The fundraiser said she loved art and drawing and called her "a beautiful artist whose life touched many people."
Phillips's grandmother, Bobbiebo Johnson, expressed her devastation in a Facebook post.
"In a million years I never thought id be writing my oldest handsome grandson Leo obituary....its wrong...someone else should be writing mine... me not writing my grandchildren."
The rawness of that post speaks for itself. A grandmother writing an obituary for a 16-year-old is an inversion of the natural order that no family should have to endure. Tragically, cases involving missing teens found dead have become disturbingly familiar across the country.
Several facts that would normally anchor a case like this are still missing. Police have not said who reported the teens missing, whether parents, guardians, or other relatives. The source of the firearm found near the bodies has not been disclosed. Whether Phillips and Clark attended the middle school near the site where they were found, or a different school entirely, is also unclear from available information.
The Alaska State Medical Examiner's Office has not announced whether the autopsy has been completed or when results might be released. Until that office rules on cause and manner of death, the characterization of these deaths as a double suicide, however strongly the families believe it, remains unofficial.
That distinction matters. When two minors are found dead with a firearm in a remote wooded area, the public has a right to expect a thorough and transparent accounting. How did two 16-year-olds get a gun? Were there warning signs that adults or institutions missed? Were mental health resources available and accessible to these kids? Those are not abstract policy questions. They are the specific, concrete failures, or gaps, that an investigation should address.
Investigations into deaths discovered in wooded or remote areas often take weeks or longer to produce definitive answers. Families in Juneau are now living in that limbo.
The vigil at the school campus reflected a community grappling with a tragedy it did not see coming, or perhaps one it saw too late. Phillips was described by his grandmother as her "oldest handsome grandson." Clark was remembered by family and friends as someone who gave to others despite her own struggles.
Both were 16. Both vanished from their homes on the same morning. Both were dead before the school day would have ended. The speed of the timeline, missing at dawn, found dead by mid-afternoon, suggests that whatever happened, it unfolded quickly and beyond the reach of anyone who might have intervened.
Youth mental health has become one of the most urgent and least honestly addressed crises in the country. When tragedies like this one occur, the instinct in official circles is often to issue boilerplate statements and move on. Families like the Clarks and Johnsons do not have that luxury. Cases involving youth and violence demand more than institutional silence and delayed reports.
Zac Clark asked the right question at that vigil: what truly happened? His daughter, and Leotis Phillips, deserve a complete answer. So do their families, and so does every parent in Juneau wondering whether the systems meant to protect children actually work.
Two kids are gone. The least the adults in charge can do is explain how, and whether anything could have stopped it.
