South Carolina 5th grader involved in fight died of natural causes: Officials

WALTERBORO, South Carolina -- A South Carolina prosecutor says the investigation into the death of a 5th grader last month was due to natural causes and not a fight with another student.

Solicitor Duffie Stone said at a press conference Friday that 10-year-old Raniya Wright died of a congenital condition called an arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of abnormal blood vessels in the brain. The child had repeatedly complained of headaches in the days and weeks before her death.

Stone said that pathology and other scientific reports showed no evidence of trauma to the body that would have indicated the child died of injuries sustained in a fight on March 25.

As a result, Stone will not bring charges in the case.

"According to the pathologist, these hemorrhages can take place at just about any time... (the fight) did not have anything to do with the rupture," Stone said. "It was a matter of time unfortunately, that this would rupture," Stone said.

He added that this condition can be in any part of an individual's body, but "in this case it was in her brain."

The child's family had maintained that another fifth grader at Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro had hit or pushed the girl.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.