“Death Was His Only Friend”

By Editor | May 12, 2026 |

“Death Was His Only Friend”

Leaked Documents Shed New Light in Death of 14-Year-Old Austin Carpenter

By Shane Gilreath
SCN Contributing Editor
[email protected]

WARNING: SCN cautions readers that this article contains graphic and disturbing details which readers may

find troubling regarding the death of a child.

Austin Carpenter died in February, 2025 allegedly at the hands of Billie Bolin and Jeremy Ridner who have been charged with the murder of the 14-year-old autistic boy.

“There are some cases that stay with you,” the post read. “Some cases crawl into your mind and refuse to leave.” The post was speaking of the death of 14-year-old McCreary County youth, Austin Carpenter, a case which SCN has been following from the outset. “This is the story of a little boy who appears to have spent nearly his entire life being failed, discarded, neglected, abused, moved from home to home, and ultimately tortured to death.”
While the social media post, which has subsequently been removed, alleged incidents that have been unconfirm by investigators – allegations that were made to SCN by sources from the earliest stages of this case – many of them now are not only a part of public lore, but seemingly part of evidence now made public, including allegations of neglect, homelessness, drug exposure, sexual abuse allegations, medical neglect, educational neglect, physical abuse, and, ultimately, torture. What can be said with certainty, however, is that local law enforcement have seemingly confirmed while taking the post seriously, calling it the result of a leak, which is now under investigation, which included disturbing death bed images of Carpenter, which have reinforced the severity of the teenager’s alleged murder. A Facebook page calling itself the “KY Child Fatality Project: Buried in Silence” published those images, including photographs of the condition of the alleged home of Billie Bolin, 37, and Jeremy Ridner, 45, in which Carpenter was living. Ridner and Bolin, the boy’s appointed guardian, currently sit charged in his death.
Bolin, it should be noted, had lost custody of her own children in another state, a piece of evidence that has drawn outrage from the public. Systems set up to catch such anomalies, SCN is told, are often just fragmented files, inconsistent between states, and depend heavily on whether agencies fully document and share information.
Kentucky District Judge Fred White, who presided over Bolin and Ridner’s arraignment in early 2025, called the case “as heinous and despicable an act as I’ve seen in 40 years of practice.” White set a $1 Million cash only bond in the case, commenting that $1 Million was not enough before vehemently dismissing the defendants: “Get them out of my courtroom.”
In March 2025, McCreary County Chief Deputy Ridner testified that a 911 call from Jeremy Ridner initially alerted the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office to the Bolin home. The call, which came at 7:15pm on February 23rd, reported that a young boy, later identified as Carpenter, was unresponsive. His body was cold to the touch, the leaked report says. Chief Deputy Ridner told SCN that first responders helped EMS transport the boy to the Wayne County Hospital in Monticello, Kentucky, some 26 miles away, but when Chief Deputy Ridner arrived, Carpenter had died.
The deputy told the court that it was clear from observing Carpenter’s body that the boy had a head injury, that he never had clothes on, was malnourished and exhibited a multitude of injuries all over his body, which included a visible forehead wound, a laceration near the right eye socket, burns across his neck, torso, and sizable deep pressure sores on his posterior that appear to meet Stage 4 criteria (the worst), typically an indication that the child had been immobile for long periods. Reports indicate contusions on his upper chest, shoulders, and neck, where there are also chemical burns. Cuts on his body were made from a sharp object, reports say. The doctor who treated Carpenter reportedly informed police that the boy’s protein levels were half the normal level, signaling that he had not been fed or fed well. The attending physician likewise advised that Carpenter’s body contained both chemical and cigarette burns in varying stages of healing, indicating infliction over a period of time, and blunt force trauma to the minor’s head. The findings of the preliminary autopsy, performed by Dr. Patrick Greenwell from the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort, Kentucky, concurred with these findings, noting additional burn marks near the boy’s mouth and nose.
“Austin Carpenter had more injuries on his face and neck than he had skin,” Commonwealth Attorney Ronnie Bowling told the court.
Chief Deputy Ridner testified that Bolin attributed Carpenter’s injuries to responses of “I don’t know” to bee stings to ATV accidents to poison oak, for which she allegedly applied mixtures of Lysol and bleach. When confronted with photographs of the boy’s injuries, both suspects claimed the traumas were sustained in a four-wheeler accident. Deputy Ridner’s testimony, however, indicated that the four-wheeler in question had not been moved, had left indentions in the ground beneath it, did not have an attached seat, which sat separately on the ground near the vehicle, had dry rotted tires, and did not appear to have been involved in an accident.
Upon these insinuations, Jeremy Ridner told investigator that Carpenter – a minor in another’s care – refused medical treatment. This statement sat in some contrast to evidence provided by acquaintances of the couple, who informed investigators that they had seen and/or the defendants had visited their home in the company of Carpenter in the days before the minor’s death. Deputy Ridner reported that sources told police that they noticed right away that Carpenter wasn’t himself, appeared sick, could not stand on his own, and the teenager’s head was heavily bandaged. Despite investigators finding no medical records to support the claim, Billie Bolin reportedly informed one such acquaintance that they had just left the hospital where the 14-year-old was treated. According to testimony and sources close to the case, another allegedly told the couple, “that boy needs to go the hospital. He looks like he’s dying.” Bolin and Ridner did not heed that advice. According to police, Carpenter last visited a doctor in March 2024.
In efforts to exculpate Carpenter’s undernourishment, Bolin and Ridner told investigators that the boy ate often, though Bolin also claimed to believe the boy had worms. Investigators located an unopened parasitic medication in Bolin’s home, one of many medications, some of which were scattered across the floor, as shown in the alleged photographs of the crime scene. The preliminary autopsy, however, showed that Carpenter’s stomach was completely empty, despite Bolin and Ridner having purchased pizza at the Whitley City Little Caesars at 2:25pm, nearly five hours before the 911 call. Investigators also report that there was food in the home, and that among the evidence collected are writings – confirmed by Bolin to be Carpenter’s – stating, “I will not steal anymore. I will not break and enter” and “Please don’t ground me. I won’t steal food anymore.” Carpenter’s bedroom door allegedly locked from the outside.

Among other alleged writings from Carpenter, which were a part of the alleged leak, include references to violence, school buses, injury, punishment, and various fragmented thoughts, seemingly scribbled on the walls of the room in which he lived his life. “Destroying their property or they harm you,” one reads. “I don’t want to be a one handed man,” another. As the “KY Child Fatality Project: Buried in Silence” suggests, given the child’s injuries, it is difficult not to read fear and desperation into the scribbles. “You are looking at the mental footprints of a child apparently trying to psychologically survive inside prolonged abuse, isolation, confusion, and suffering,” the Fatality Project says.
“For the evidence we have,” Bowling told SCN in March, “it appears starvation to be the leading factor in causing his death. All of it is relevant and contributed in some way, but we’ll defer to our medical experts for the inevitable call.” For comparison, according to data produced by the BBC, the human body can meet the majority of caloric requirements from stored fat, but total starvation is fatal in 8-12 weeks, regardless of initial body weight.
Carpenter at fourteen weighed approximately 75 pounds. The size of an average 8 or 9 year old. Toxicology equally showed that there was methamphetamine in his system, according to leaked documents.
As for the response to the alleged leak, McCreary County Sheriff David Sampson was quick to respond. “Let me be absolutely clear: none of the documents or information currently being circulated online came from the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office,” he said in a statement. “Not a single page.”
“The condition of this poor child was beyond inexcusable,” Commonwealth Attorney Ronnie Bowling told SCN in April. “No one deserves to live in such a state, let alone a child that trusted the adults in his life to care for him. At the end of the day, the system failed Austin; we don’t intend to do the same.“
Bolin and Ridner are set to stand trial later this year. They face charges of murder, possession of a controlled substance first degree, assault first degree, criminal abuse first degree, and tampering with physical evidence. As promised to the victim’s family, SCN will continue to follow the case.