A Pennsylvania teen was arrested for allegedly killing a girl and then taking to Instagram seeking help from a friend to dispose of the body. Joshua Cooper, 16, of Bensalem, Pennsylvania admitted to killing a girl at his home during a video chat with his friend on Instagram and then asked him to help him bury her body.
Cooper has been charged as an adult for killing a 13-year-old girl whose body was found in his home. The girl, reportedly, was shot dead. The friend told police that Cooper even flipped the video camera and showed him the victim's body covered in blood during the video chat.
Horrifying Murder and Confession
According to Bensalem Police, officers received a 911 call from concerned parents saying that their daughter had received an Instagram video chat from a 16-year-old acquaintance who claimed to have recently killed someone. This 16-year-old acquaintance was later identified as Joshua Cooper.
Cooper reportedly claimed to have just killed someone during the conversation before turning the camera around to reveal the young girls' bloody legs and feet.
The teen girl he had contacted was then asked for help in disposing of the body.
Officers then rushed to the Top of the Ridge Trailer Park in Bensalem after they were told by the callers that Cooper lived there, according to the police. Police said that as they arrived, a young boy fled from the trailer's back.
The officers then went inside the mobile home and saw a girl lying dead on the floor of the bathroom with a gunshot wound to the chest.
According to the police, neither the victim nor Cooper are Bensalem residents. Police also noticed that "substantial steps" had been taken to clean up the bloody murder scene when they arrived.
Nabbed In Short Time
Although Cooper ran away from his home when police arrived., it didn't take long for officers to track and arrest him. He has been charged as an adult with criminal homicide, possessing instruments of crime, and tampering with evidence.
"I heard a gunshot and I know about gunshots," Charlie Petree said to CBS3. "And I come out and open the door and I see the boy run across there. I talked to the boy out here on the bench a couple of times and he seemed troubled."
Other residents too have been left shocked after the incident. "I've lived in Bensalem on and off my whole life and I think that's the first time I've ever really seen the crime scene unit truck out like that, so it's really rare," Katlynn said to CBS News.
According to the probable cause affidavit, obtained by the Courier Times, Cooper allegedly told police, "It was an accident." He admitted to police during his initial interrogation that he had taken the firearms from his father's safe while cleaning it out.
According to the affidavit, he claimed that he opened the safe by " replacing the batteries his father had removed, which had made the combination lock inoperable." He claimed to be organizing the ammunition.
Before the shooting, Cooper and the victim spent the afternoon together watching TV. The girl was not named by Bensalem police, who noted that she was a minor, but they claimed that she could be recognized by her jewelry.
