A Florida teenager died under mysterious circumstances after a night out with friends earlier this month — and now cops are investigating the case as a possible homicide.
Ava Hulett, 19, was hanging out at Pelican Larry’s Raw Bar and Grill in Fort Myers in the early morning hours of June 15 when something went wrong.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Department said an ambulance was called after Hulett suffered a “medical incident,” and she was taken to the hospital.
Details of what happened at Pelican Larry’s Raw Bar have not been released, but Hulett was not admitted to the hospital, authorities said.
She was released a few hours later and her mother picked her up and took her to the family home in Estero.
But, then Hulett soon took a turn for the worse.
Around 12:20 p.m., Hulett’s mother found the teen unresponsive, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
She called 911 while Hulett’s father performed CPR. When paramedics arrived, they pronounced her dead at the scene.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said that Hulett’s death is under investigation as a possible homicide — but authorities have declined to release a cause or manner of death.
Detectives also have not named any possible suspects, but stress that “at this time, there is no indication that the staff at the business or its operations caused harm to their patrons.”
It’s the second time that the Hulett family has dealt with the unimaginable loss of a child.
In 2019, Ava’s brother, Bradley, was accidentally shot and killed. According to a police report, Bradley and three friends were hanging out at one of the boys’ homes when they picked the lock to his parents’ bedroom.
The boys found a gun belonging to the boys’ father, a Tampa police detective, and started playing with it, according to the report.
Bradley, 15, was shot dead. The friend who pulled the trigger was later charged with manslaughter and directed to pretrial diversion so that his record would be expunged.
The police officer was disciplined for keeping the gun in an unsafe condition.
Anthony Rickman, a Tampa attorney representing the family, tells the Tampa Bay Times that the family is reeling from the loss of Ava — while still struggling with Bradley’s death.
“No parent should ever outlive their children,” Rickman says, “and these two parents are outliving two of their children. It’s just horrific that they’re going through this again,”
The investigation into Ava’s death is ongoing.