Family mourns teen found shot on Hilton Head

As law enforcement agencies and forensic teams continue to investigate last week’s shooting death of a 17-year-old on Hilton Head Island, her family is grieving and searching for answers.

“We just want to have some closure,” Rae Prock’s sister Trish Keota said Monday.

Prock, who was found with a single gunshot wound to the head early Wednesday at a home on Wild Horse Road, died Thursday afternoon.

She moved from Oregon to Hilton Head last month “to get a fresh start and to be closer to family,” Keota said.

“She was just starting to settle in,” Keota said. “I just can’t believe this happened to my baby sister.”

What exactly happened to the teenager Keota calls “Rae-Rae” remains unknown.

“Numerous witnesses and persons associated with (Prock) were interviewed … and more interviews are expected,” according to a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office release.

At least one other person, a male, “was present during the incident,” Capt. Bob Bromage said Monday.

No criminal charges have been filed, and the county coroner’s officer has yet to determine a manner of death, Bromage said.

“It could take several weeks for everything to be evaluated and for the coroner to make a determination,” he said.

Investigators have collected multiple pieces of evidence from the shooting scene.

“There are a variety of different forensic aspects involved in this case,” Bromage said.

Some evidence will be examined at the county’s Forensic Services Laboratory, he said, and some will be examined by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division forensic investigators.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact Staff Sgt. Eric Calendine at 843-255-3427 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC.

Keota said she saw Prock early last week, “and she was just really happy.”

Prock will be remembered as “so free-spirited and so artistic — she loved to sing and paint,” Keota said.

Friends and relatives from across the country have taken to the Internet and social media to express their grief and raise money for Prock’s funeral.

A GoFundMe.com page has raised more than $3,300 in four days.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Family mourns teen found shot on Hilton Head."