A US Teen Allegedly Confessed To Murder On Instagram & Asked For Help With The Body
A 16-year-old in Pennsylvania is facing several charges after allegedly admitting in an Instagram video that he shot and killed a younger girl.
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The suspect sent a video and messages to an acquaintance in which he confessed to killing someone and then asked for help with "disposal of the body," Bensalem Police said in a news release. They added that the suspect flipped the camera around and showed the legs and feet of someone "covered in blood" in the video.
The acquaintance told police and authorities say they showed up at the suspect's trailer park home to find a girl, 13, dead inside "with an apparent gunshot wound."
They added that someone had taken "substantial steps" to clean up the scene before they arrived.
Officers say the suspect fled the scene but they caught up with him and arrested him.
"It was an accident," he said after the arrest, according to the police affidavit obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Joshua Cooper, 16, of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, now faces charges of criminal homicide, possessing instruments of crime and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, according to the news release. He has been charged as an adult despite his age.
He has been denied bail and was moved to a juvenile detention center, police said.
Police believe the suspect got into his dad's safe and got the gun from a holster inside.
He and the victim had been watching a series on Netflix before her death, according to the affidavit.
The victim's identity was not immediately released, although her family has been informed, the Inquirer reports.
Juveniles accused of murder are automatically charged as adults under Pennsylvania law.
Cooper is due in court on December 7.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
