Note: This story has been updated as of 7/25/24.
Autumn Crittendon Oxley of 16 and Pregnant Season 5 passed away at the age of 27.
According to the local news out of Henrico County, Virginia (where Autumn lived), police responded to a call for a medical emergency on July 20 to Autumn’s home.
“Once on scene, officers and fire personnel located an adult female unresponsive within the residence,” Henrico Police said in a statement. “The woman, identified as Autumn Oxley, 27, of Henrico, was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Fans of the show may remember a then-16-year-old Autumn appearing on the show with her son Drake’s father, Dustin Franklin. (You can read The Ashley‘s recap of Autumn’s “16 and Pregnant” episode here.)
Autumn went on to welcome another son in 2019
In November 2022, Autumn welcomed a daughter. (According to a 2022 Instagram post made by Autumn, Dustin is also the father of that little girl.)
According to the outlet, the news of Autumn’s death was announced Sunday by her older sister, Misty Crittendon, on Facebook. Misty– who referred to Autumn as her “rock”– posted a tribute to her late sister on the social media platform, telling followers her sister was “robbed” of her life at “such a tender age.”
While the cause of Autumn’s death has not been revealed, Misty shared details on Facebook of how she found out her sister had tragically passed away.
“ … Pulling up seeing all the vehicles, an empty ambulance.. and jumping out of the truck as soon as I could begging the paramedics and cops to tell me you were okay and they were just working to keep you alive in there.. But my worst fear was confirmed and I collapsed in the road … ,” Autumn’s sister Misty wrote.
“I went down the hall to check the rooms to make sure you weren’t hiding back there, but they laid empty.. quiet.. I went where you were last and just stood there in disbelief.. how was my baby sister gone? I was just talking to her. No way is this real life. It’s not real. Begging God to give you back to us.. .
“I seen the shirt you were wearing and I held it so tight, I smelled it for so long as I just stood there empty, broken, finally allowing myself a moment to fall apart while I knew the kids were okay and I was alone,” she continued. “I’ll hold that shirt close to my heart forever. … We are gonna make sure these babies are okay. Your memory will not fade over time. It will live on every moment of every day.”
According to Starcasm, Misty also shared a post in which she blamed a man that Autumn had dated for causing Autumn’s death. That post— directed at a man Autumn was reportedly married to— has since been deleted.
“YOU robbed my babies of their mother,” Misty wrote. “YOU robbed my mother of her baby. YOU caused a mother and father to bury their youngest child. YOU robbed my child of his other mother. YOU robbed me of my only f**king friend.”
While both the individual– who reportedly has an extensive criminal record– and Autumn currently have “Single” as their relationship statuses on Facebook, the individual’s Facebook page states that he and Autumn wed in October 2020. Autumn had previously been married to Brad Oxley. They wed in 2017 and it’s unknown what their relationship status was at the time of Autumn’s death.
Autumn is the fifth person from the “16 and Pregnant” series to pass away. Farrah Abraham’s baby daddy, Derek Underwood, died in 2008 (during the filming of her episode) in a car crash; Season 2’s Valerie Fairman passed away in 2016 from a drug overdose at the age of 23; Season 5’s Jordan Cashmyer died in 2022 after a battle with drug addition; and in March of this year, Sean Grainger– the baby daddy of Season 6B’s Selena Gutierrez– died at the age of 20 in an ATV accident.
Starcasm was the first to report the news of Autumn’s death.
Update: Autumn’s death is currently under investigation.
“Henrico police are currently classifying this incident as a death investigation. Detectives are working with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on this case to determine the exact cause and manner of death,” police said in a statement issued to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
On Monday, TMZ reported that Autumn had some health issues including blood pressure problems, diabetes and issues with her kidneys; however, it’s currently unknown if any of those medical problems contributed to Autumn’s death.
On Tuesday, the official ‘Teen Mom’ account on X issued a statement on Autumn’s death.
We are deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Autumn Crittendon. Our hearts go out to her family and friends during this difficult time. ❤️
— Teen Mom (@TeenMom) July 23, 2024
“We are deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Autumn Crittendon. Our hearts go out to her family and friends during this difficult time,” the tweet read.
Also on Tuesday, Autumn’s sister Misty posted to social media again, urging people not to believe all of the misinformation being reported regarding Autumn’s death.
“I will ask that you do not speak on her name or what has happened as it is not fully clear and once it is I WILL make a statement and WILL fight for the justice she, our children, mother and father, and family deserve,” Misty wrote. “But until then, I ask you respect her, our children, and our family and do as I am asking everyone. This is excruciating enough as it is, so please I beg each and every one of you reading this, put yourself in our shoes and think of our children and remember one day they will see these things.. and think of how you’d want to be treated during these terrible times.. and how you would want your babies, your nieces, your nephews, ect.. to read about it one day.
“Thank you for your understanding, respect, kind words, and support,” Misty continued. “Hug your loved ones tight and remind them how much they mean to you. Life is so precious and we often forget we aren’t promised tomorrow or even the next hour.”
Autumn’s older sister Terri also took to social media on Tuesday.
“The Henrico Police Department is working to uncover the truth behind our beloved Autumn Oxley’s passing, and we have faith in God that they will do just that,” she wrote.
UPDATE #2: On Thursday, Autumn’s sister Misty posted a GoFundMe she created to help raise money to pay for Autumn’s final expenses, as well as fund for the three young kids she left behind.
“[Autumn] was a beloved mother, daughter and sister who will never be forgotten,” Misty wrote on the fundraiser’s page. “To say [her death] was unexpected is an understatement. It is and has been excruciatingly painful to say the least. We aren’t ones to ask for help but we truly need it. As the cost of living is ridiculous, the cost of a funeral and services and such, we are asking for donations.
“…and money left over from the cost of laying our sweet baby to rest, will go to helping with the children she left with us, such as school supplies, clothing, etc.”
As of press time, the fundraiser has raised $860 of its $15,000 goal. Click here to donate to the fundraiser.
The Ashley will continue to update this post.
(Photos: MTV; X; Facebook)
45 Responses
My prediction… natural causes or at most unaliving herself. I really don’t think sister Misty is helping matters publicly. I understand her personal life is in turmoil, but someone should remove her ability to post online. It’s not going to work in her favor. GFM is fine, but the unhinged remarks. Eeeks. If someone is responsible, she’s muddying the case
Thank you for donating, Theashley, that’s very kind of you <3
Feel bad for her kids. So little missing their mommy
I live about an hour 1/2 away from Henrico County, I went and looked up all the news reports and it just says a medical emergency and police are looking into it and if anyone has information etc etc.
No matter how she passed I feel MTV (not saying they are not) should be willing to help with the expenses that made them a heck of a lot of money.
I don’t think 1 episode a decade ago made MTV that much money.
There are moms who have made them A LOT more!!!
Drugs- especially if they’re blaming some boyfriend
What about dv at the hands of a bf…doesn’t have to be drugs
If that had been the case, I’m sure The Ashley would have had an arrest report or copy of a warrant (if he ran) posted and would have made mention of it. She’s usually very thorough with her reporting and a murder investigation wouldn’t have slipped by her.
Given the issues that she had with bd #1 n her 16 and Pregnant episode I don’t see drugs as the cause?
TMZ talked to investigators so if it was an OD then what’s to investigate?
That leaves two options IMO
1) DV
2) IF drugs were involved it could have been a case of drug deal gone horribly terribly wrong where Autumn was an unfortunate victim
They usually still investigate accidental overdoses to ensure that was the cause, to determine if it was accidental or suicide, etc.
Also, her episode was a decade or so ago and she was sixteen, so her being against her boyfriend smoking weed has little to no bearing on her possible later drug use.
Not saying she for sure died of drug use, just saying that the odds are slim she was murdered without there being anything in her local news or police reports that The Ashley hasn’t been able to dig up. She’s not really “high profile,” as she was on one episode of a show years ago and we all pretty much forgot about her until now.
Magan, if she can have such strong convictions about Dustin’s drug use at 16 or 17 with one kid then I doubt they had weakened at 27 with THREE. I could be wrong but the saying is “wiser with age” so chances are stood firm.
And as far as the report…maybe the fam isn’t ready to make that public?
Again, not saying she was on drugs (as I know exactly zero about her life during this past decade), but her being vehemently against her boyfriend smoking marijuana as a teenager when she needed him to man up and work to suppirt them is no indication of what she’d do later on in life. I know plenty of people that were against drugs until life got hard and they didn’t want to cope sober, so they turned to drugs and became addicts. Happens all the time, unfortunately.
This entire thing is very much a wait-and-see. A death investigation is pretty standard when any young person that wasn’t terminally ill or in a car accident dies. Could have been drugs, suicide, murder, some sort of accident in her home, an unknown health issue, basically anything at this point. Her sister’s accusations can also be taken multiple ways (i.e. he physically killed her, he drove her to suicide, he introduced her to drugs, he stressed her to the point that it affected her health, etc, etc). I’m sure we’ll all have a better idea of what direction this is going in within the next few days.
Out of respect for Autumn and her family, I’m not going to speculate. This is only to remind people of the realities of drug use.
Many become addicted to opioids after having them prescribed and turn to heroin or fentanyl because it can be cheaper and easier to obtain.
And it is true that people who have been against drugs their entire lives can and do make the choice to experiment for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes ( especially in “high profile” cases) their is no report until the perpetrator or perpetratorS have been caught?
Some people are very hush hush about such things until absolutely necessary
This is so heartbreaking. 3 little kids left without their mother…
Close your legs. I am sorry she died but jeepers cmon.
someone’s big mad cc nobody wants to be in between yours
That’s what you got out of this story?? Wow!
You have the IQ of mold
Darcy, you don’t sound sorry!!!!
You’re a prick.
Did we read the same article that all the kids were Dustin’s?
No, I didn’t see the article. But I have a hard time believing Drake is Dustin’slet alone all 3 kids…I mean Drake is a little darker than either parent.
Drake looks multiracial to me (white mom and biracial father)
I feel the same about Kail’s son Creed…he doesn’t look as dark as Lux so how could they have the same father?
@hannah ~ not sure how you “didn’t see the article” seeing as it’s this very article (that you’ve commented on several times). 🙄🥴
or maybe you just didn’t read it? 🤔
@kristy ~ at least we (and most others that commented) read the same article. 😂😹
Gary, still not sure why you think I care about ANYTHING you have to say?
FYI, that means STFU
@hannah ~ ooh, what a cutting burn! 🔥 you really got me with that one. 🤣😹
perhaps you should take your own advice and stop spamming comments until you’ve at least read the article you’re commenting on…
🤓🤔
Not only is this a misogynistic comment but deeply, deeply disrespectful and void of any humanity or empathy for a life lost. Her family is in unimaginable pain. I hope none of them come across disgusting comments like yours.
So…its okay for people think drugs killed her but I can’t think the boyfriend had something to do with her death (which is the same opinion that the family has)?
How is agreeing with the fam misogynistic or disrespectful?
I’m so sad for her babies. It’s bad enough to lose someone naturally but to lose someone in what I can only assume is domestic violence or drugs (that maybe her ex introduced her to) has to add another layer to her family’s grief.
RIP 😢 i pray her babies and family well get through this, reading misty’s caption really made me emotional. as funny as her episode was for me i for sure won’t be able to watch it the same anymore. i hope autumn’s ex gets the worst of the worst treatment for taking a mother’s life
He didnt take her life. I read a few other articles that said she had diabetes and kidney issues (likely due to prolonged drug use). Her sister is very upset (rightfully so) and I’m sure this dude didn’t help the situation, but he didn’t take her life.
Thank you, the amount of people on social media calling this guy a murderer is outrageous. If it was any sort of domestic violence or homicide situation, the sister would not have access to the shirt Autumn was wearing at the time and the crime scene would’ve been closed off. The guy probably introduced Autumn to drugs and that contributed to her death but it wasn’t a “murder”.
Most times when paramedics are administering life saving procedure aka CPR…the shirt is cut off the person and therefore can’t be salvaged…plus if it was dv or homicide then the shirt would be evidence so that DNA could be collected and therefore codnt be released until the investigation was complete.
Also, IF drugs were involved and the bf did introduce them to her then it WAS murder…indirectly yes…but still murder.
Yall wanna put this all on Autumn it seems…but it more than likely wasn’t all her.
The ONLY way this bf isn’t in some way shape or form involved would be if this was a suicide
The only way it would be considered murder is if aforementioned boyfriend forced her to ingest or injected her with the drugs himself, this exact time.
Otherwise, no it’s not murder. He may have introduced her to drugs but no one told her to do them. That’s a personal choice.
AP, it’s called peer PRESSURE for a reason!! When we like/love someone or we want them to like/love us we will make stupid choices.
IF the cause was drugs and HE was the one introduced them to her then HE is responsible for what they did to her because without his influence she would have never experimented.
But I’m not convinced it was the ingesting of drugs that killed her…I still think that the boyfriend physically did something, it was a drug deal gone bad and she was just a victim of his stupidity or maybe it was one of the many health issues she had.
Time will tell.
And you know this how?
TMZ actually talked to the investigators.
Diabetes in and of itself can cause kidney issues…not everything is caused by drugs.
Plus, I have a hard time believing she fall victim to drugs given the hard time that she had with Dustin
There are more from the cast for example Kristina Robinsons boyfriend John “Todd” Hight Jr.
Didn’t one of the Beaver’s baby daddii die as well? Not sure of he was ever actually on the show or not.
Rachel’s daughter Hazlee’s daddy is in jail last i heard but i dont think hes dead.
Not sure about Mallorie’s bds though?
I think it was Malorie’s daughter’s father.
I was curious so I researched Malorie Beaver and found out that her daughter’s father is very much alive…he even has primary custody of the 3 year old and Malorie’s mom Stephanie has Emerson 4 days a week which is where Malorie gets to see her.
He’s fighting for full custody.
Idk about Malorie’s son’s father. I couldn’t find anything on him