Police: Teenager Charged After Showing Homicide Victim Online

16-year-old suspect texted for help disposing of girl's body, court documents say
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 28, 2022 4:51 PM CST
Instagram Confession Gets Teen Charged in Death: Police
   (Getty/vmargineanu)

A Pennsylvania teenager has been charged with homicide after police say he revealed in an Instagram video chat that he'd killed someone and showed the victim's legs covered in blood. A woman who said her daughter had received the video call reported it to Bensalem Township police on Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The teenager later texted the woman's daughter, an acquaintance, asking her to help him clean up the scene and dispose of the body, court filings say. Police said they found the body of a 13-year-old girl who'd been shot on the bathroom floor of the mobile home where the teenage boy lived, per WCAU.

"Substantial steps were taken to clean up the crime scene," an affidavit says. The 16-year-old told officers the death was an accident, according to the filing. In an interview later, officials said, the boy said he took the gun out of his father's safe while cleaning and reorganizing it. Documents say the batteries had been taken out of the safe for replacement, making its combination lock inoperable. The boy said the two were watching TV in the afternoon until the girl got up to go to the bathroom. At that point, he and his mother ended the police interview. He's charged as an adult with criminal homicide and other counts and being held without bail in a juvenile detention center. The teenager told officers his father "is going to kill" him. (More homicide stories.)

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