A British man has been charged with murdering a teenage girl who flew more than 4,500 miles from Canada to meet him after falling for him online.
Jack Sepple, 23, was arrested from his apartment complex in Chelmsford on Tuesday, Feb. 1, after Ashley Wadsworth, 19, was found stabbed to death, according to Essex police.
Wadsworth from Vernon, British Columbia, had never left the country before she decided to fly to the U.K. to be with Sepple in November after meeting him on an online dating app. She flew to England on a six-month tourist visa.
The teen even announced the move on Facebook and earlier this year, she posted photos online of her "amazing trip to London", where she had been sightseeing. In the days leading up to her death, Wadsworth shared several photos of herself with Sepple, whom she referred to as her "bestie" on the social media platform.
Wadsworth Decided to Fly Back to Canada Two Days After Her Death
Wadsworth's lifeless body was found Sepple's bed in Essex, England, on Tuesday. Sepple was arrested after police responded to neighbors' complaint of a disturbing skirmish around 4 p.m. When the cops arrived, he was lying in bed beside her bloody body.
Wadsworth had planned to stay until April but suddenly changed plans and booked a flight back home for Thursday, two days after she was killed, a friend, Ana-Marie Taylor, told DailyMail.com.
"She cut it short because things were not going too great," Taylor told the outlet.
"She really did love him," she said of her friend and Sepple. "Things were amazing at first."
She Used Secret Social Media Account to Send Cryptic Messages to Friends
She started using secret social media accounts to contact her friends, because "her boyfriend didn't want her to talk with us a lot of the time," Wadsworth's friend Daniel Seaman told a local newspaper. "She just said that she needed help."
Seaman said Wadsworth's cryptic messages now make more sense. She had reportedly reached out to a variety of friends asking them for help to "work with the authorities," though Seaman said he had no idea what the circumstances were.
Sepple, 23, is now facing murder charges. He appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday via video link. He had a blank expression and spoke only to confirm his name, the BBC said, noting he was remanded in custody until next month.
